Free Republic

The first time we read the recent analysis by the Sunlight Foundation in which it combed through 14 million corporate records, including data on campaign contributions, lobbying expenditures, federal budget allocations and spending, in order to determine the "rate of return" on lobbying and spending to buy political goodwill, we were left speechless. To be sure, we had previously shown that when it comes to the rate of return on lobbying, the rates were simply staggering, and ranged anywhere between 5,900% for oil subsidies, to 22,000% for multinational tax breaks and even higher for America's legal drug dealers.  But...

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton defended his foundation's acceptance of donations from foreign governments on Saturday, pointing to the track record of his global philanthropy as Hillary Rodham Clinton nears an announcement on 2016 presidential campaign. In an interview at the Clinton Global Initiative University, the ex-president sought to address critics who have questioned the receipt of donations from foreign governments while the former first lady served in the State Department and after she departed in early 2013. "My theory about all of this is disclose everything and then let people make their judgments," Clinton told...

This morning, Hillary Clinton sent an email to supporters with the subject line, "Announcement." But the contents of the message did not explain the former secretary of state's future political ambitions. Instead, the message asked for money from supporters of what is now the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. "This is a season to give thanks for our many blessings and to remember our responsibilities to each other – that we're all in this together," Clinton wrote. "In my family, we're celebrating our first holidays with a beautiful new granddaughter. We're also celebrating the generosity and commitment of our...

Conservatives have long believed American culture is entrenched with a liberal bias, only to be scoffed at and called paranoid. However, three new charts dealing with political donations from academia, media, and Hollywood prove this to be the case. Business Insider was provided a data set of federal campaign contributions dating all the way back to 1980, making the sample size considerable. The data set confirms that media, academia, and the entertainment industry are some of the most liberal professions in America. The findings were provided by CROWDPAC, a non-partisan analytics firm based out of California. “In compiling all this...

Contributions from Celebrities to Obama, Barack (D) [Return to summary] Contributor Description Total Kauffman, Marta Producer $7,500 Landau, Jon Producer/Manager $7,500 Forman, Milos Director $5,800 Crowe, Cameron Director/Writer $5,750 Haysbert, Dennis Actor $5,500 Hathaway, Anne Actor $5,000 Henley, Donald H Singer/Songwriter $5,000 Howard, Cheryl Actor/Celebrity Spouse $5,000 Howard, Ronald Director/Actor/Producer $5,000 Jones, Quincy Record Producer $5,000 Kanal, Tony Member of 'No Doubt' $5,000 Johansson, Scarlett Actor $5,000 Johnson, Don Actor $5,000 Johnson, Earvin "Magic" Former NBA Player $5,000 Ferrell, Will Actor $5,000 Gregory, Tom Producer/Writer $5,000 Grenier, Adrian Actor $5,000 Griffith, Melanie Actor $5,000 Hall, Deidre Actor $5,000 Handler, Daniel...

Last month, the United Nations announced it would need nearly $1 billion to effectively fight the virus, which has killed more than 3,400 people across West Africa since March. If it is not contained, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there could be hundreds of thousands of Ebola cases in coming months. "Every day we delay, the cost and the suffering will grow exponentially," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said at the time. The United States and other governments have pledged tens of millions of dollars to pay for everything from medicine and protective clothing for aid workers to...

AMAZING We asked our supporters to step up in September to help us catch up to the Democrats and tens of thousands of them did. It truly is amazing. We noticed though, that you did not take advantage of our September triple-match offer: EMAIL: SUGGESTED DONATION: $5.00 QUICK LINK: Click Here Will you stand with us today by making a $5 contribution to help us over the final 5 weeks of the election? We are on the verge of winning a Republican Senate majority and firing Harry Reid. This would put a final end to the Obama agenda, but we...

We have been seeing America go to the "dogs" for 6 years now and still some "brain dead" fools cling to the idea that they will stay home rather than vote for a "Pubbie" that they deem a RINO.

President Obama is scheduled to address the nation this evening to discuss destroying the terrorist army of ISIS. But before hitting the airwaves, he´s asking Democratic donors to "chip in $10 or more right now to help elect Democrats." He made the ask in an email to supporters of the Democratic party. "There are just 55 days left in this election, Daniel," writes Obama in the email. "That´s 55 days left for Democrats in tight races across the country to build the organization they need to win -- and if we don´t step up right now, it´s going to be...

The amount of money political candidates in the state of California can collect for campaigns is tightly governed, but for legal defense funds, donors are permitted to donate much more, according to KPCC. In March, the state senate, voted to suspend three members who were charged or who were convicted of felonies. The legal bills for senators Ron Calderon and Rod Wright are being paid for by a mix of politicians, political action committees and even corporations. Senator Leland Yee has a committee to college legal defense donations working for him as well. None of the legal defense funds setup...

We're SO close... Let's put this baby to bed!

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee would like you to donate. Right now. The campaign organization, hoping to lead Democrats to control of the House come November, has spent the past week sending out a series of strongly-worded, seemingly desperate, fundraising e-mails trying to get supporters to donate. "All hope is lost," reads the subject of one such e-mail. "We're in serious trouble," it continues. "Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers are massively outspending us...If we get blown out right now, we might as well give up hope until 2016." Another e-mail says Democratic campaigners weren't ready for Republican attack ads....

SHEBOYGAN – Late Thursday evening, the pre-primary campaign finance reports for Republican candidates in the 6th Congressional District were released. It ended up with Duey Stroebel loaning himself $350,000, and Glenn Grothman holding the lead on total cash raised from July 1st to the 23rd. During the reporting period, Grothman raised $94,931.36 compared to the $76,595.35 raised by Joe Leibham. Duey Stroebel only raised $12,800 during the reporting period but loaned himself $350,000. The Stroebel Campaign currently has $691,939.99 of outstanding loans and debts reported during the campaign cycle so far. When looking at cash on hand, Stroebel has $262,720.05...

The Federal Election Commission on Thursday voted to allow political committees to accept Bitcoin donations and outlined the ways that the virtual currency can be used by federally regulated campaigns. Responding to a request from a political action committee, the commissioners unanimously approved an advisory opinion that defined Bitcoins, which allows for online transactions without going through a bank or other third party, as “money or anything of value” — in essence, cash or an in-kind contribution. They also imposed some restrictions, ruling that Bitcoin donations will be capped at a cash equivalent of $100 per person per cycle, with...

Six years ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid celebrated what he called a "love fest" of government support for the construction of a proposed 150,000-home community in the Nevada desert and the lobbyist-turned-developer behind it, Harvey Whittemore. Last week, a federal grand jury charged Mr. Whittemore with making illegal political contributions to Mr. Reid, a Democrat. Even before the indictment, Mr. Reid and other politicians had begun to distance themselves from Mr. Whittemore—long one of Nevada's most powerful lobbyists—by pledging to charity money to offset donations they had gotten from him. ~~snip~~ The allegations against Mr. Whittemore stem from a...

As state Sen. Leland Yee aggressively campaigned in the 2011 San Francisco mayor's race, he blasted interim Mayor Ed Lee as beholden to City Hall power brokers with "selfish interests" and vowed to "throw them out" if elected. At the same time, Yee was allegedly soliciting $10,000 from an undercover FBI agent posing as a real estate developer who had already illegally funneled $11,000 to Yee's campaign, telling the agent to "cover your tracks," and boasting that "there's tremendous opportunity in local levels ... because whoever's gonna be the mayor controls everything." **SNIP** Instead, it's of a man driven by...

Democrat voters are generally reflexive in their politics. They often choose to remain ignorant of what their party is doing to them because “at least they’re not [the current conservative boogeymen]; and we don’t want to vote for them.” Remember when the mere mention of the words “Halliburton,” “Gingrich” and “Palin” got Democrat rank and file as well as big donors’ tail’s wagging? Apparently,“That was then, this is now,” because even Barack Obama is sizing up his party’s fund raising problems saying, “I guess we don’t think it’s sexy enough.” This stereotypical Obama quote sums up the distinct lack of...

Organizing for Action is revamping its fundraising practices and fired a fundraiser amid questions about whether the group was promising access to Obama administration officials in exchange for donations. Samantha Maltzman, a top fundraiser for the Democratic group with strong ties to President Obama, resigned from the organization after NBC News obtained emails between her and Dr. Munr Kazmir, a New Jersey businessman, explicitly listing prices to attend a summit last week with the president. The emails conflicted with a pledge by former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, who wrote in an op-ed last year that “we can't and we...

Buoyed by increased contributions and a strengthened economy, the Archdiocese of Baltimore ended Fiscal Year 2012-2013 in a stronger position than the previous fiscal year. According to an annual report released at the beginning of February, the archdiocese had a consolidated operating surplus of $44.3 million. In Fiscal Year 2011-2012, the archdiocese had a consolidated operating deficit of $12.6 million. The new report shows that last fiscal year, $12 million of the surplus was gained prior to factoring in investment income, which amounted to $10.8 million. It was the second consecutive year in which the archdiocese had a surplus prior...

Sometimes, if you listen to some Democrats, they're running against the "Evil" Koch brothers rather than a specific Republican candidate. The brothers that liberals like to hate are often trotted out as prime examples of why campaign finance reform is necessary. They are often portrayed as one of the biggest contributors to political candidates, their evil money financing evil Republicans. The group OpenSecrets.com has compiled a list of top donors to candidates and, to the left's surprise, the Koch brothers are far down the list. Washington Examiner: Charles and David Koch are the two most evil people in American...