Washington Post: 527 Group Supportive of Edwards Backed by Mellon Money

Caucusgoers in Iowa and New Hampshire have already seen signs of the heavy hand of independent groups trying to influence the outcome of the 2008 presidential contest.For the most part, the activity has been financed by labor unions, which have long been a potent force in Democratic electoral politics. But newly public documents filed [...]

ABC News: Obama Ad Omits Lobbyist Reference

A new television ad released Friday by the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., uses excerpts from a well-received November speech by the candidate in which he attacked corporate lobbyists.
But the campaign notably excised from the excerpt one mid-sentence clause in which Obama promised to ban lobbyists from working in his White House [...]

ABC News: Edwards Pushes Spending Limits

Former senator John Edwards and his supporters are exploiting legal loopholes in campaign-finance regulations to remain competitive in Iowa’s ad wars, as he seeks to hold his ground against better-financed opponents in the closing days before the caucuses.
In exchange for taking federal matching funds for his primary campaign, Edwards must comply with spending [...]

Houston Chronicle: Flying billboard takes Paul campaign to the sky

ABOARD THE RON PAUL BLIMP — The big white airship heralding the “Ron Paul Revolution” dips and glides over downtown Baltimore, providing sky-high advertising for the maverick presidential contender from Texas.
Paul’s name is bannered on both sides of the 190-foot-long flying billboard. Inside the blimp’s unheated cabin, the two young men most responsible for making [...]

Washington Post: McCain’s Unlikely Ties to K Street

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took a break from the presidential campaign trail in March to fly to a posh Utah ski resort, where he mingled with hundreds of top corporate executives assembled by J.P. Morgan Chase for its annual leadership conference.

Boston Globe: Edwards vows tough stance on lobbying

As John Edwards and Barack Obama tangle over who would be more successful in ridding the capital of lobbyist influence, Edwards yesterday made a new promise about how he would govern – and challenged his rivals to do the same.

WSJ: Lender Lobbying Blitz Abetted Mortgage Mess

During the housing boom, the subprime industry succeeded at more than just writing mortgages. It also shot down efforts by some states to curtail risky lending to borrowers with spotty credit.
Ameriquest Mortgage Co., until recently one of the nation’s largest subprime lenders, was at the center of those battles. Working with a husband-and-wife team of [...]

Washington Post: An Office for Ethics

STRONG ETHICS rules are worthwhile only if coupled with strong ethics enforcement. That is something that has been lacking in the congressional ethics process, whose cozy structure too often combines a glacial pace with a see-no-evil mentality. The setup of lawmakers as ethical arbiters of their colleagues isn’t foxes guarding the henhouse — it’s foxes [...]

Atlantic Monthly: Is Edwards A Campaign Finance Hypocrite?

In a blistering memorandum sent to reporters on Saturday, Barack Obama’s campaign manager accused John Edwards of sanctioning an effort by his former campaign manager to surreptitiously spend millions worth of unregulated contributions on Edwards’s behalf.
“John Edwards, who is running in large part on a recently adopted campaign platform of taking on the big [...]

Palm Beach Post: As consultant, senator had no formal contract

Florida’s most powerful state senator collected nearly $400,000 for behind-the-scenes assistance to a real estate company that included a central figure in Palm Beach County’s unfolding political corruption scandal.
The payments to Senate President Ken Pruitt of Port St. Lucie accounted for nearly three-quarters of the Republican lawmaker’s private income in 2004 and 2005. The company’s [...]