Topic: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
Top galleries, list articles, quizzes
-
Briefing
IRS 101: Seven questions about the tea party scandal
How the tables have turned: The Internal Revenue Service is the one under the microscope now, as revelations emerged Friday that the agency wrongly targeted conservative groups seeking nonprofit status. Here’s an accounting of what has happened, along with the ramifications.
-
Election 2012: 12 reasons Obama won and Romney lost
President Obama went into his reelection fight facing significant head winds – most important, high unemployment and slow economic growth. But for a multitude of reasons, including Obama’s positives and Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s negatives, Obama succeeded. Here’s our list.
-
Eight reasons to ‘mute’ super PAC ads
First Iowa, now Florida, have seen the first wave of political TV ads from super PACs – mostly negative – that will smother the 2012 presidential elections. Voters have an easy way to avoid such ads: the mute button. Here are eight reasons to use it:
-
Election 101: Five basics about 'super PACs' and 2012 campaign money
All Content
-
The Monitor's View: Montana's challenge to 'super PACs'
Montana's high court challenges the moral basis for the US Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling that spawned super PACs. The high court needs to rebalance free speech vs. democracy.
-
How super PACs are changing the GOP presidential race
The $41 million that 'super PACs' have spent so far leaves 2008 in the dust and is changing campaign dynamics. Notable effects: many more negative ads and an ability to keep faltering campaigns alive.
-
What gambling industry money has done on Newt Gingrich's behalf
No single person, outside the candidates themselves, has had more raw impact on the presidential election than casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, via his donations to a pro-Gingrich 'super PAC.'
-
Mario Monti is working through Italy's debt crisis. Is the US watching?
Italy may find Prime Minister Mario Monti's dose of discipline hard to swallow, but his depoliticized democracy is the only form of government that can move Italy forward. Monti's experiment may also serve as an antidote to the political dysfunction in the West – especially the US.
-
Opinion: A look back: In spite of super PACs, this isn't the most negative campaign in history
Negative campaigning is actually an American tradition. In fact, attack campaigning has been around since the beginning without derailing the electoral process. Mudslinging can hardly be called a positive campaign feature, but it is a sign of democracy in action.
-
Super PACs: FEC report sheds light on powerful influence of a few big donors (+video)
A strikingly few wealthy donors were the main 2011 contributors to super PACs, which analysts see as the main force behind a flood of negative campaign ads.
-
Super PACs: how a company that opposes them came to create one
CREDO Mobile, a cellphone company that describes itself as 'America’s only progressive phone company,' announced this week that it is mobilizing a super PAC to target tea party candidates.
-
Eight reasons to ‘mute’ super PAC ads
First Iowa, now Florida, have seen the first wave of political TV ads from super PACs – mostly negative – that will smother the 2012 presidential elections. Voters have an easy way to avoid such ads: the mute button. Here are eight reasons to use it:
-
The Vote Jan Brewer vs. Obama: Can you respect the presidency but insult the president?
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer wagged her finger at President Obama. NHL player Tim Thomas boycotted a White House ceremony. Is the country 'losing basic courtesy and grace'?
-
The Monitor's View: Eight reasons to hit 'mute' during TV ads by super PACs
First Iowa, now South Carolina, have seen the first wave of political TV ads from super PACs – mostly negative – that will smother the 2012 elections. Voters have an easy way to avoid such ads.
-
In South Carolina, Romney, Gingrich brace for Super PAC attacks
The Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision opening up campaign ads to unlimited donations has launched Super Pac attacks against some Republicans in South Carolina.
-
Vox News Stephen Colbert for president? What's his point? (+video)
Stephen Colbert handed over control of his super PAC cash pile to Jon Stewart Thursday, paving the way for a run at the presidency of 'the United States of South Carolina.'
-
Decoder Wire Super PAC windfalls: How deep pockets are funding the 2012 election
A 'super PAC' endorsing Newt Gingrich recently received $5 million to help boost his 2012 election campaign. But the former House speaker isn't the only candidate to benefit from super PAC money.
-
Is new Supreme Court ruling a retreat from Citizens United?
The Supreme Court upheld Monday a long-established provision of campaign finance law that seeks to prevent foreign interests from influencing domestic politics.
-
Election 101: Five basics about 'super PACs' and 2012 campaign money
The 'super PAC' promises to shake up the 2012 election. This new fundraising heavyweight – which Stephen Colbert famously brought attention to with his own Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow – heralds a new era of 'superspending' in politics. Here are the basics about super PACs and how their emergence may influence elections.
-
Supreme Court: Matching funds in Arizona election law violate free speech
The Supreme Court rejected by 5 to 4 a portion of Arizona's campaign finance law that provides state matching funds to candidates who are outspent by privately funded opponents.
-
Top GOP fundraiser: 'There's not too much money in politics'
Mike Duncan of the conservative PAC American Crossroads said Friday $120 million is his group's fundraising goal for Election 2012. That's short of what Big Labor spent for Obama in 2008, he notes.
-
Rein in government contractors who use taxpayer money for political advantage
President Obama is considering an executive order to force contractors to disclose their political spending.
-
Supreme Court to decide Arizona’s unique campaign financing law
Arizona seeks to level the political playing field by helping finance some political candidates in a match of funds raised privately by opposing candidates. Does that chill free speech?
-
Why did Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker take a call from 'David Koch'?
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker thought he was having a friendly chat with David Koch, a billionaire industrialist and major funder of conservative causes. It turned out to be a liberal prankster.
-
Scalia addresses Tea Party Caucus – but should he?
Critics question the propriety of a sitting justice attending a closed-door partisan session, but the event organizer insists all members of Congress are welcome at the 'Conservative Constitutional Seminar.'
-
Opinion: 30 seconds of trash: If we can't regulate political ads, we should ban them entirely
We've tried (and failed) to regulate political ad money. It's time we ban short political ads altogether – getting us back to the First Amendment's free marketplace of ideas, not bumper-sticker slander.
-
Advocacy groups won't get Supreme Court's ear on campaign finance
US Supreme Court declined Monday to examine whether nonprofit political advocacy groups can enjoy less stringent campaign finance rules that corporations and labor unions now do.
-
Outside groups dominate 2010 campaign spending
Colorado’s Seventh Congressional District – a bellwether district in a swing state – leads the nation in spending on political ads by outside groups not required to disclose their donors.
-
The rising revolution: a perfect storm is brewing
The perfect storm: wealth concentrates at the top, record contributions flood our democracy, and the populace fumes over a government that raises taxes, reduces services, and can't get it back to work.
Previous
Become part of the Monitor community