money in politics
June 10, 2016 -
MapLight has compiled a database of all politically active "social welfare" nonprofits, many of which formed after a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling loosening rules for political spending. It documents 650 such groups in the South, with some of the top-grossing ones part of the billionaire Koch brothers' formidable political spending machine.
June 3, 2016 -
After North Carolina lawmakers' attempt to help the reelection of a conservative state Supreme Court justice failed, a business group has spent nearly half a million dollars backing his campaign in hopes of preserving the court's conservative majority.
May 27, 2016 -
Bernie Sanders has picked five progressive members for the Democrats' platform drafting committee while Hillary Clinton has turned to party insiders — and one pick from the party chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, is a glaring example of pay-to-play politics.
May 26, 2016 -
In recent weeks, the company got the N.C. Utilities Commission to require an unprecedented $10 million bond from grassroots groups seeking to block construction of a fracked gas plant and lobbied N.C. lawmakers to get a coal ash bill that watchdogs have blasted as a "bailout" and a "sweetheart deal."
May 19, 2016 -
In a recent National Public Radio interview, the businessman and conservative mega-donor denied funding anti-LGBT rights groups that support North Carolina's "bathroom bill." But the record clearly shows he has.
May 13, 2016 -
Despite a public financing program and an election recently changed to be nonpartisan, West Virginia's recent state Supreme Court race was flooded with outside money. Independent groups spent over $3.5 million, and the biggest beneficiary won by a landslide.
May 6, 2016 -
Where does North Carolina's leading conservative donor stand on the state's so-called "bathroom bill"? Art Pope hasn't publicly stated his position on HB2, but he has a long history of funding groups and politicians that support the law, which the Justice Department says illegally discriminates against transgender people.
