McCain Feingold

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Dems Fight High Court's Campaign Finance Ruling

New law would seek to limit flood of corporate cash

(Newser) - Democratic legislators introduced a bill yesterday designed to mitigate the impact of the landmark Supreme Court ruling that gutted decades of campaign finance reform efforts. They’re hoping to get the bill passed ASAP, so corporate money can’t dominate the 2010 election—something that many fear would favor Republicans,...

High Court May Lift Restrictions on Corporate Cash in Politics

Firms could be allowed to spend freely on ads

(Newser) - September 9 could mark a watershed in campaign finance, as the Supreme Court hears a special argument for overturning long-standing rules that restrict corporations from buying political advertisements, the Los Angeles Times reports. The court has used the case of Hillary: The Movie, a documentary that a lower courts decided...

GOP Lawsuits Aim to Undo McCain-Feingold Reforms

Party challenges limits on 'soft money' donations, coordination with candidate

(Newser) - The Republican Party, smarting over its defeat at the hands of Barack Obama’s fundraising machine, is suing to defang the campaign-finance bill John McCain sponsored, the Washington Times reports. Two suits to be filed today will challenge the legislation’s limits on so-called “soft money” and the parties’...

Obama Ad Blitz Stifles McCain
 Obama Ad Blitz 
 Stifles McCain 
ANALYSIS
Oct 15, 2008 1:51 PM CDT

Obama Ad Blitz Stifles McCain

Dem using massive fundraising edge to outspend GOP by as much 8-1

(Newser) - Over the past three weeks, Northern Virginia TV viewers have seen 1,342 commercials from Barack Obama … and eight from John McCain. Obama is dominating the airwaves, Politico reports, outspending McCain and the Republican National Committee as much as 8-1 in some markets, blunting GOP attacks with a sustained...

Time Travel: Google Shows You the Web in 2001

Site boasted of indexing 1.3B pages (it's 8B now) ... and YouTube wasn't yet one

(Newser) - To honor its 10th birthday, Google put up a search engine that reflects the web in 2001, TechCrunch reports. Other than the Yahoo-esque exclamation point in Google’s logo, the search engine has not changed that much since—but searches show the web, and the world, have:
  • "iPod" brings
...

McCain Camp Strives to Skirt McCain-Feingold

Expert on campaign finance reform laws helps McCain test the limits

(Newser) - John McCain is making a concerted effort to get around the campaign finance laws he championed, the New York Times reports. A lawyer who played a key role in defending the reform act known as McCain-Feingold from challenges is now on the McCain team, expertly advising on the loopholes through...

McCain Biographer: He's Lost His Principles

McCain's best accomplishments might have been cynical maneuvering

(Newser) - Elizabeth Drew liked McCain—she even wrote a fawning biography, Citizen McCain, in 2002. She respected the centrist who emerged after McCain’s failed 2000 primary bid, who broke from Bush on tax cuts and campaign finance reform. But watching McCain’s current campaign maneuver back to the right, she...

McCain Backers Finding Ways Around Law He Sponsored

GOP governors fund is major finance loophole

(Newser) - Desperate to keep up with Barack Obama's powerful fundraising apparatus, John McCain’s allies have found ways of skirting the very campaign finance laws the Arizona senator helped write, the Wall Street Journal reports. Republican strategists are pushing donations toward a fund used to elect governors—not subject to dollar...

Death Knell Tolls for Campaign Finance
Death Knell Tolls for Campaign Finance
ANALYSIS
Jun 20, 2008 7:48 AM CDT

Death Knell Tolls for Campaign Finance

Obama snub of public cash highlights weakness of system

(Newser) - Barack Obama's decision to forgo public financing for his presidential campaign represents the biggest challenge yet to the troubled, loophole-filled system. But while the Illinois senator is now poised to spend a record amount to win the presidency, the explosion of  Internet donations that have propelled his campaign might actually...

How the GOP Went Broke
How the GOP Went Broke
ANALYSIS
May 15, 2008 4:30 PM CDT

How the GOP Went Broke

Legislation, bad governance cost Republicans their financial advantage

(Newser) - The Republican Party has known crises before, but it's always held its own against the Democrats with fundraising prowess. But the GOP finds itself demoralized and impoverished, and seemingly without the funds needed to avoid more losses like the one suffered Tuesday in Mississippi. Politico looks at how the party...

Saint John Still Tainted by Senate Murk
Saint John Still Tainted by Senate Murk
ANALYSIS
Mar 27, 2008 12:12 PM CDT

Saint John Still Tainted by Senate Murk

Ethics crusader is still no stranger to lobbying culture

(Newser) - With John McCain the presumptive Republican nominee, Democrats are rushing to expose chinks in the Arizona senator's saintly armor, Michael Scherer reports in Time. Though McCain talks tough about special interests, he has often appeared to have done their bidding. He once, for example, wrote a letter on behalf of...

Feds Taking Closer Look at McCain Loan

Could lock him into matching funds— and $54M limit

(Newser) - Today just isn’t John McCain’s day. The Federal Elections Commission says it may not allow the presumptive Republican nominee to drop out of the federal matching funds program, because he used it as collateral for a $4 million loan he took out to fund his cash-strapped primary campaign...

Supremes Let Up on Political Ad Limits

in 5-4 reversal, court rules 'issue ads' don't count as endorsements

(Newser) - Conservatives on the Supreme Court weakened one of the major strictures of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Law today, relaxing the definition of prohibited ads in the run-up to federal elections. An increasingly familiar 5-4 majority declared that "issue ads," which stump for political platforms without explicitly endorsing a...

Corporate Donors Snub McCain
Corporate Donors Snub McCain
Jun 18, 2007 5:49 AM CDT

Corporate Donors Snub McCain

It's payback time for a career as Senate ethics reformer

(Newser) - John McCain is lagging far behind his GOP primary rivals in fundraising, in part because he's alienated so many big corporate donors in his Senate career. All that straight talk about minimizing the influence of money on politics has taken its toll, the New York Times notes. One defense industry...

High Court Eyes McCain- Feingold
High Court
Eyes McCain-
Feingold 
Apr 26, 2007 7:37 AM CDT

High Court Eyes McCain- Feingold

Alito, Roberts may reverse ban on "issue ads" during campaign

(Newser) - The Supreme Court looks poised to pull an about face on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law by striking down its strictures on "issue ads"—pre-election commentary that mentions candidates by name. Sandra Day O'Connor joined a majority in upholding the ban in 2003; Alito and Roberts may provide...

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