A Campaign Finance Reading Guide
This looks like a good resource for understanding more about campaign finance. I’ve provided the intro paragraph and list of all the articles linked to in order to give you a taste of what it contains. The source article over at ProPublica also provides brief descriptions for each item listed.
With the political conventions and the November election around the corner, we are taking a time-out to assess the state of campaign finance. As we reported last week, dark money nonprofits are outspending all super PACs combined in the presidential campaign thus far. How did we get here? A look at the landmark Citizens United decision and its impact on the 2012 campaign follows.
CITIZENS UNITED
The Citizens United Decision
SCOTUSblog, January 2010Money Unlimited
New Yorker, May 2012In Defense of Citizens United
U.S. News Op-Ed, February 2012How much has Citizens United changed the game?
New York Times, July 2012SUPER RICH, SUPER PACS
Covert Operations
The New Yorker, August 2010How Super PACs are overpowering candidate campaigns
Campaigns & Elections, Sept. 2011Texas billionaire doles out election’s biggest checks
Wall Street Journal ($), March 2012The Attack Dog
The New Yorker, February 2012SUPER PACS, RIGHT AND LEFT
Can the Democrats Catch Up in the Super PAC Game?
New York Times Magazine, July 2012Obama Campaign and Super PAC Create Very Similar Ads
CBS News, August 2012Liberal Fat Cats Wimp Out
The New Republic, July 2012Fine Line Between ‘Super PACs’ and Campaigns
New York Times, February 2012In Republican Race, A New Breed of Superdonor
New York Times, February 2012The myth of the small donor
Politico, August 2012RISE OF DARK MONEY
When the GOP tried to ban dark money
ProPublica, March 2012How dark money groups spend millions on elections and call it public welfare
ProPublica, August 2012Dark Money groups target voters based on their Internet habits
ProPublica, July 2012RESOURCES
Where to find ongoing coverage on campaign finance:
Center for Public Integrity’s Daily Disclosure: A daily report on super PACs and nonprofits.
Great Moments in Campaign Finance Disclosure: A Tumblr of dubious FEC filings maintained by Derek Willisof the New York Times.
ProPublica PAC Track: Chart of the biggest super PAC donors for 2012 campaign.
Mother Jones Dark Money: Breaking news, weekly roundups and longreads.