Via The Center for Responsive Politics With just a few days remaining in the first quarter of 2014, Mary Landrieu did something generous: The embattled Democratic senator from Louisiana, herself in the midst of an exceedingly tough re-election race, used…
Read MoreVia The New York Times Beyond its durable imprint on American civic life, the Watergate scandal of four decades ago left its mark on political language. For one thing, that suffix will not go away. Commit a major folly, and…
Read MoreVia Baltimore Sun Like most candidates running for re-election, Rep. John Sarbanes has spent much of his time recently at fundraisers, pressing the flesh in pursuit of campaign cash. But donors who show up to meet the Baltimore County Democrat…
Read MoreVia The Chicago Tribune In 2011, Tinley Park concluded its residents were paying more for garbage collection than people in neighboring towns. But instead of trying to find a less expensive alternative, the village rehired the same garbage collection company,…
Read MoreVia the New York Times A stealthy coterie of difficult-to-trace outside groups is slipping tens of millions of dollars of attacks ads and negative automated telephone calls into the final days of the midterm campaign, helping fuel an unprecedented surge…
Read MoreVia The Pekin Times Tuesday’s election will end one of the least substantive campaigns in terms of explaining specific ideas for governing, but one of the most expensive — one dominated by large contributors. The race for governor of Illinois…
Read MoreVia The Chicago Tribune There are 118 Illinois House seats on the ballot Tuesday, but for Republicans, the magic number is one. The GOP knows it’s highly unlikely they’ll catch a tidal wave and sweep Speaker Michael Madigan out of…
Read MoreVia The Campaign Finance Institute Much of the politically attuned public’s attention during the 2014 election season has focused on the battle for majority control of the U.S. Senate. But there are also important elections this year in the states….
Read MoreVia Chicago Tribune Republican Bruce Rauner and Democrat Pat Quinn are on pace to spend more than $100 million on the Illinois governor’s race, doubling the state’s previous record in a closely watched contest featuring heavy investment by business and…
Read MoreVia Bloomberg Politics A leading money-tracking group revises its estimate downward, but campaign spending is still likely to set a record. Elections are getting more expensive–but don’t think that more people are giving money to political groups. Instead, a smaller universe…
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