Free Republic

An individual or a political committee other than an authorized committee or a qualified multi-candidate committee may not make a contribution(s) to a candidate for federal office in excess of $2,700 per election. An authorized committee may not make a contribution(s) to a candidate for federal office in excess of $2,000 per election. A qualified multi-candidate committee and all affiliated committees may not make a contribution(s) to a candidate for federal office in excess of $5,000 per election. The term "contribution" includes any gift, subscription, loan, advance, or deposit of money or anything of value made by any person for...

As everyone is getting passionate, I suppose contributions to candidates is about to rocket through your wallets (remember, however, the Obama recession is about to get ugly and some/lots of you will be losing your jobs shortly, and there will be a vast migration of Africans, North Africans and such as oil continues to slide as well and they may be other costs coming soon) ... but just a reminder if/when you pull out the credit card to donate to your favorite Promiser (and beggars): How Much May Be Contributed Your contributions1 to Federal candidates and committees are limited under...

REPUBLICAN frontrunner Donald Trump is spending a fraction of his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton as he continues to dominate political debate in the United States. While Mrs Clinton wrote off £19million in the past quarter to bolster her bid for the White House, the billionaire property tycoon is estimated to have invested just £3million. Since Trump's controversial demand for Muslims to be temporarily banned from entering the US following an Islamic State inspired mass shooting in San Bernardino, donations have been pouring in to his campaign coffers. Experts estimate more than 100,000 supporters have given donations averaging £40 to his...

The Clinton Foundation will “amend” its tax returns for the last four years, to correct “errors in the report of donations from foreign governments,” as reported by Fox News. Foundation President Donna Shalala said in a statement that the returns were revised after a voluntary review of the charity’s past tax returns. She added that the corrections were not required by law. “There is no change in our bottom line numbers: assets, liabilities, and net assets,” Shalala wrote in a statement to the foundation’s supporters that was obtained by Reuters. “There is nothing to suggest that the Foundation intended to...

While most of the media attention after last week’s GOP presidential debate has been focused on Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz has seen a huge jump in his poll numbers, and apparently an explosion in campaign contributions since he took the stage. Check it out! I’d say 225,000 contributions with an average contribution of $68 is quite impressive. It’s important to note that a lot of these contributions are coming from ordinary Americans, making this a true grassroots effort, rather than bowing to the will of corporations in order to get funding. One of the reasons people seem to be...

Sarah Palin‘s PAC is extremely stingy when it comes to donating money to her fellow Republicans: a report from Open Secrets reveals that since the 2014 two-year election cycle began, her PAC has raised a total of $2.7 million dollars, but only donated $150,000 of that money to actual candidates, a donation rate of 5.5%.This year was even worse: according to SarahPAC’s third quarter filings this year, they had $1.4 million cash in hand, but only donated $45,000 to nine Congressional candidates — about 3% — between July 1st and September 30th. What did they spend the rest on? Many of the...

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...

The Senate on Monday advanced a constitutional amendment meant to reverse two recent Supreme Court decisions on campaign spending. Republicans are likely to vote against the amendment when it comes up for a final vote, but by allowing it to proceed, ensured that it will tie up the Senate for most of the week. More than 20 Republicans joined Democrats in the 79-18 vote advancing the amendment, well over the 60 votes that were needed. The amendment is almost certain to fail, as it would need to win two-thirds support to pass the Senate, and then would still need to...

Now when you hear babbling on about the Koch Brothers, you can see the hypocrisy and look at who he is bankrolled by. From Engadget: The murky world of lobby groups bankrolling politicians is garnering more attention, but is there a way to find out which representatives are in the pocket without a lot of tedious research? A 16-year-old programmer has developed a browser plugin that, when you mouse-over the name of a US lawmaker, will serve up a list of which parties have donated to their campaign funds, and the quantities. Greenhouse (geddit?) is currently available for Chrome, Firefox...

If you listen carefully, you can hear the stampede of politicians distancing themselves from their once best-friend - Hotel magnate Sant Singh Chatwal - as AP reports, he plead guilty Thursday to charges he secretly funneled more than $180,000 in illegal campaign contributions to three unnamed candidates and coached someone to lie about it. Without the contributions "nobody will even talk to you," Chatwal said. "That's the only way to buy them, get into the system." Welcome to the ugly truth of American politik.  The FT details that Sant Singh Chatwal, chairman of Hampshire Hotels Management, pleaded guilty on Thursday...

The Supreme Court’s decision last week in McCutcheon v Federal Election Commission, eliminating the total limit that an individual can contribute in an election cycle to candidates and party committees, amounts to a shot of adrenalin to American democracy. The court ruled that such limits violate First Amendment free speech protection. Limits remain on the total funds that an individual can contribute to a given candidate in an election cycle. But the limit on the total contributions that an individual can make are now gone. The principle involved - that participation in elections and supporting candidates of one’s choice is...

When you have a problem, you look for a solution. Whether you’re an engineer, a teacher, a scientist, or a cook, the goal is to solve an identified problem. The field of politics works the same way; the main challenge is that different sides have such different views of not only what the right solution is, but also of what the problems are. Campaign Finance laws – which have always existed, but were turbocharged in the mid-1970s through the Federal Election Campaign Act and its successors – are written to deal with one simple problem: there’s too much money in...

Until this morning, the federal government could limit the amount of money you contribute for political speech. Today in McCutcheon vs. FEC, the Supreme Court invalidated overall contribution limits. The federal government limited individual campaign contributions to $48,000 overall and $123,200 to everything (PACs, candidates, national parties) each cycle. The Supreme Court struck down the limits, holding that the government’s justification for limiting free speech rights – to keep money out of politics and the avoid the appearance of impropriety – failed. This decision cuts at the heart of the leftist narrative on free speech attacks. The heart of the...

Breaking: scotus strikes down aggregate campaign contribution limits 5-4 per Chief Justice Roberts in McCutcheon case.

For many Americans, Fox News is their “alternative” choice for news. They’ve made it the No. 1 cable news network, largely because they believe its “fair and balanced” promotional slogan? Many even believe Fox leans to the right and provides news they can’t get anywhere else. But is Fox really different from the rest of the media? Or has it been successful merely at positioning itself as different? Would it surprise you to know that individuals at News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, gave nearly six times as much money to Barack Obama than Mitt Romney in the...

While Sandy pummeled the East Coast Monday night, Michelle Obama was soliciting campaign contributions from folks affected by the storm. The following was sent at 7:44 PM via email to voters in North Carolina and Virginia just around the time Sandy made landfall: From: Michelle Obama > Subject: I know we've asked a lot of you, but we're almost there To: Date: Monday, October 29, 2012, 7:44 PM Friend -- There's still time to meet Barack and get two of the best seats in the house on Election Night. If you make a donation today, you'll be automatically entered to...

A soon to be released report from the conservative Government Accountability Institute shows that President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has increasingly collected more electronic donations from non-existent ZIP codes throughout the 2012 campaign cycle. From February through June this year the GAI findings reported that the Obama campaign collected $175,816.26 in electronic donations from non-existent ZIP codes. One month later, the campaign raised $411,369.55 through such donations and $197,464.59 in August. By the end of September, the Obama campaign raked in $2,199,204.38 – thanks to donations from non-existent ZIP codes. The upcoming GAI report suggests the Obama campaign is allowing...

I first wrote about Barack Obama’s “Dubious donations” for the New York Post just before the 2008 election. We returned to the subject earlier this month in a series of posts upon the publication of the Government Accountability Institute report documenting this fact: Same as it ever was. Today the New York Post arrives on the scene at just about the same point in the campaign that I did four years ago with an exclusive report that provides a case study:

Politicians use their e-mail lists to continually hit their base with requests for donations. Everyone who puts their name on a political list expects to see those e-mails on a constant basis, usually tied to the news cycle. Michele Bachmann's campaign is particularly adept at this, with missives that start by saying something like this completely hypothetical opening sentence: "Senate Democrats passed a tax increase on job creators last week, so it's more important than ever to have me in the House fighting for our economic health." That kind of moment-to-moment marketing approach both uses potential flash points to encourage...

No officials offer to return bank's blood moneyThe fallout from the HSBC money laundering scandal continues to reverberate around the globe, but U.S. Congress members apparently are in no hurry to return millions of dollars they have received from the scandal-plagued bank. WND, which originally broke the story on the HSBC debacle, conducted an analysis of Federal Election Commission records specific to the company political action committee’s generosity toward Congress. The investigation centered upon two congressional panels with primary oversight of the industry: The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs, and the House Committee on Financial Services. Since...