Free Republic

AGENCY LOBBYING HARD FOR MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE South Carolina’s corrupt transportation “leaders” still desperately want to foist Interstate 73 on dirt poor Palmetto State taxpayers … even as government’s embarrassing inability to do basic maintenance continues to be on display all over the state.How desperate are our powerful “roads czars” to get this Interstate built? Let’s recap …First, they’ve spent more than $100 million on an interchange for the highway (even though it’s not clear if it will ever be built).Next they’ve proposed spending millions more on wetlands mitigation related to the road (again, even though it’s not clear if...

Nearly one in 10 superdelegates who voted in the Democratic presidential primaries were registered lobbyists, according to a new report, adding some support to Bernie Sanders's claim that "the system is rigged." At least 63 of 712 superdelegates were registered at some point as lobbyists on the state or federal level, according to an analysis conducted this year by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Sunlight Foundation.

The AP review of Clinton's calendar — her after-the-fact, official chronology of the events of her four-year term — identified at least 75 meetings with longtime political donors and loyalists, Clinton Foundation contributors and corporate and other outside interests that were either not recorded or listed with identifying details scrubbed. The AP found the omissions by comparing the 1,500-page document with separate planning schedules supplied to Clinton by aides in advance of each day's events. The names of at least 114 outsiders who met with Clinton were missing from her calendar, the records show...

Republican lobbyists in Washington are struggling to come to grips with the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency. “A lot of people woke up [on Wednesday] and went, 'Oh gosh. This is not a dream,’ ” said Jeff MacKinnon, a principal at Farragut Partners. “I don't think downtown was really prepared for it happening so quickly. It did catch people off guard.”

Tea Party Patriots President Jenny Beth Martin blasted Donald Trump on Thursday, following reports that the Republican presidential front-runner is being advised by several Washington lobbyists. According to Politico, Trump's recently hired top campaign strategist, Paul Manafort, has introduced several of his lobbyist friends to the campaign to help guide Trump to the general election with a better organization and delegate operation. "Among the influence industry veterans who have been helping the campaign in recent weeks, according to sources close to the Trump campaign, are Laurance Gay, who had worked with Manafort on an effort to obtain a federal grant...

Joe Green, the president of Facebook co-founder’s Mark Zuckerberg’s pro-amnesty FWD.us lobbying group who suggested that foreign workers were better than Americans, was reportedly “forced” out for failing to pass amnesty legislation despite the millions of dollars the group has spent on both sides of the aisle. On Friday, Zuckerberg announced in a “confidential” email Re/Code obtained that Green, who was also his college roommate, had “resigned as President of FWD.us, effective immediately.” Todd Schulte, the former official for the pro-President Barack Obama Priorities USA Super PAC, will become the new president.

There is new evidence senior Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials routinely use private email accounts to conduct government business, this time to pass along information from an energy lobbyist. Michael J. Bradley, president and founder of an energy consulting firm that represents numerous green advocacy groups, described his preference for using a private email to communicate with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy regarding an agency regulation, according to documents obtained by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) through a Freedom of Information Act request. “Joe, Would you please send this email to Gina for me? I would have sent...

Donald Trump would make "a terrible nominee and a terrible president" — and The Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol said Wednesday that he would rather have Hillary Clinton in the White House than the Republican front-runner.

Florida's Republican legislators wasted no time getting into fundraising mode Monday after the session adjourned on time last week. At 9:23 a.m. they sent out a blast email to lobbyists and donors inviting them to join them on a two-day "Mardi Gras Celebration" at Universal Orlando. . . Checks must be made out to the Republican Party of Florida (aka House majority) and the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. This is no charity. The invite notes contributions are not tax deductible.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sarcastically thanked “the special interests and the lobbyists” for driving his numbers up at a press conference in Jupiter, FL on Tuesday. Trump began by saying, “One of the things I’m most happy about is that the turnout has been just massive, for every week. … No matter where you go, it’s records. I think it’s actually the single biggest story in politics today. It’s what’s happening at the booth. The tremendous number of people that are coming out to vote. Some of the states are getting — in fact, one has 102% increase over...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sarcastically thanked “the special interests and the lobbyists” for driving his numbers up at a press conference in Jupiter, FL on Tuesday. Trump began by saying, “One of the things I’m most happy about is that the turnout has been just massive, for every week. … No matter where you go, it’s records. I think it’s actually the single biggest story in politics today. It’s what’s happening at the booth. The tremendous number of people that are coming out to vote. Some of the states are getting — in fact, one has 102% increase over four...

It looks like Rubio carried the state’s wealthy northern suburbs, and Trump took the rest. (SNIP) Rubio’s strongholds overlapped heavily with those that lifted Barack Obama to his second straight win in the state in his 2012 reelection race.

As he campaigns for the Democratic nomination for president, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) often sounds like he's running as much against me as he is the other candidates. I have never met the senator, but I know from listening to him that we disagree on plenty when it comes to public policy. Even so, I see benefits in searching for common ground and greater civility during this overly negative campaign season. That's why, in spite of the fact that he often misrepresents where I stand on issues, the senator should know that we do agree on at least one...

The Democratic National Committee has rolled back restrictions introduced by presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008 that banned donations from federal lobbyists and political action committees. The decision, which may provide an advantage to Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, was viewed with disappointment Friday morning by good government activists who saw it as a step backward in the effort to limit special interest influence in Washington.

"He's got the right personality," Bob Dole said of billionaire Donald Trump, "and he's kind of a deal-maker." Dole was the Republicans' Senate leader in the 1990s, and was the party's presidential candidate in 1996. Dole today is a corporate lobbyist. Dole's view - that Trump is fine, but conservative Sen. Ted Cruz is unacceptable - is the standard view in the Republican parts of K Street. Lobbyists prefer Trump to Cruz for many reasons, but the core of the issue is this: Trump will preserve the lobbyists' incomes and power, while Ted Cruz might crimp K Street's style. "We...

A bi-partisan attempt to reform a little-known immigration program that offers wealthy foreigners access to visas and U.S. Green Cards but has been beset by allegations of fraud and abuse. The EB-5 program, called so due to its visa designation, allows rich foreign nationals a shortcut to a Green Card as long as they invest $500,000 in a designated job-creating project in the U.S. Designed to spur the American economy, the program is also feared to have been exploited by spies, money launderers and other criminals, as revealed in an ABC News investigation earlier this year. "There are well-documented national...

Ex-Im Bank board still lacks a quorum to approve multimillion dollar, taxpayer-backed loan guarantees for big business WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) yesterday voted against the $281 billion, five-year highway bill that reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank, a quintessential example of cronyism and corporate welfare. Using various budget gimmicks and one-time revenue raisers, this bill guarantees an even larger shortfall in 2020 when the next highway bill comes up. Sen. Cruz issued the following statement upon the bill’s passage in the Senate:“Last night, sadly, the Washington Cartel reversed one of the few fiscal conservative victories achieved with this...

"I want to go home," Arkansas State Senator Jon Woods whimpered last weekend.The poor, pitiful politician announcing he would not seek election to another legislative term cried that he had not "been fishing with [his] brother in a year.""I have friends in my district who I miss," he further lamented.Before reaching for a tissue, however, consider: the legislator lives roughly three hours from the capitol in Little Rock and the legislature has only been in session for about 100 days in the last two years.Certainly, that Senator Woods has any friends left is news at least, non-lobbyist, non-legislator friends. Mr....

The Hillary Clinton confidant who was caught running a clandestine intelligence service for her may have also illegally lobbied for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ally in the nation of Georgia. According to a Gawker report, Sidney Blumenthal, the top Clinton confidant, and “another former official from Bill Clinton’s administration were secretly lobbying the secretary of state on behalf of a billionaire in the former Soviet state of Georgia who was seeking closer ties with Putin’s Russia—seemingly in violation of a federal law designed to prevent foreign powers from covertly wielding influence within the United States.” Blumenthal “passed along a note...

After telling an NBC reporter unambiguously that he supported ending birthright citizenship, Scott Walker on Friday changed his mind, saying his new position is that he has no position, that he is now undecided again. He's saying that this isn't a reversal, merely that he misspoke because he was tired. How do you misspeak support for ending birthright citizenship? Look at this video where he is clearly asked whether he would end it, and Walker says, "Yeah, absolutely." No ambiguity there. This is not a minor, technical issue. This is not a slip of the tongue. Scott Walker was clearly...