The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Campaign Finance Board" ...
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Buying the Election
“Never Mind the Super PACs: How Big Business Is Buying the Election” investigates previously unreported ways that businesses have taken advantage of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which overturned a century of campaign finance law and allowed corporations to spend directly on behalf of candidates. The piece debunks a common misperception that businesses have taken advantage of their new political spending powers primarily through so-called Super PACs. In fact, most Super PAC donations have come from extremely wealthy individuals, not corporations. The investigation shows how corporations have instead used a variety of 501(c) nonprofits, primarily 501(c)(6) “trade associations,” to direct substantial corporate money on federal elections. As one prominent advisor to GOP candidates as well as corporations points out, "many corporations will not risk running ads on their own," for fear of the reputational damage, but the trade groups make these ad buys nearly anonymous. In 2010, 501(c)(6) trade associations and 501(c)(4) issue-advocacy groups outspent Super PACs $141 million to $65 million. The investigation shows that the growth of trade association political spending has had a number of significant ramifications, such as increased leverage during beltway lobbying campaigns. Most troublingly, legal loopholes allow foreign interests to use trade associations to directly influence American elections. One of the most significant revelations in the piece was that the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association for the oil and gas industry, had funneled corporate cash to groups that had run hard-hitting campaign ads while being led in part by a lobbyist for the Saudi Arabian government, Tofiq Al-Gabsani. As an API board member, Al-Gabsani was part of the team that directed these efforts, which helped defeat candidates who supported legislation that would move American energy policy away from its focus on fossil fuels. Federal law prevents Al-Gabsani, as a foreign national, from leading a political action committee, or PAC. But nothing in the law stopped him from leading a trade group that made campaign expenditures just as a PAC would.
Tags: Elections; campaign finance; corporations; Super PACs
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Getting Change
Murphy take a comprehensive review of 20 years of campaign finance reform in New York City and its impact on elections in the city. While aiding in avoiding campaign finance scandals, its done little to level the playing field for those running.
Tags: campaign finance reform; New York City; Campaign Finance Board; incumbent; candidates
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Prisoners Best Friend
Reporters Todd Bensman and Robert Riggs from CBS-11 News, Dallas, investigated tips that State Representative Terri Hodge solicited campaign contributions from inmates families in return for intervening in their loved ones' cases. Not all those campaign contributions were reported. Bensman and Riggs found over 60 instances where Rep. Hodge obtained confidential prison files under a legislative privilege designed to assist in law-making. "As a legislator, Hodge served on the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and frequently sat in on hearings before the COrrections COmmittee, which oversees the Texas Prison system. In her role, Hodge had power over budgets and prison jobs."
Tags: Terri Hodge; campaign contributions; parole board; disciplinary refractions; influence; victims rights groups; Texas Public Information Act; Texas Inmate Families Association; TIFA; legislative privilege; campaign finance reports; Texas Criminal Jurisprudence Committee; Texas Department of Criminal Justice; TDCJ; Texas Corrections Committee; Justice for All; Texas Ethics Commission
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HCCS' Gift Basket Bonanza
As revealed by this piece, the Houston Community College System is rank with nepotism as family and friends of board members enjoy unearned job offers and promotions. Trustees also used influence to get tuition waived for family members.
Tags: FOIA; Houston Community College; community college; tuition; scholarship; trustee; financial aid; nepotism; family; relatives; campaign finance
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Banking on your money
Commerce Bancorp- one of the nation's fastest growing financial services companies-has also become the biggest private political benefactor New Jersey has seen in a century. The bank's far-reaching political clout and regular campaign contributions-more than $1.6 million in the last five years-have helped Commerce obtain more no-bid government banking, bond and insurance contracts in the state than any of its competitors, including much larger banks such as Wachovia and Fleet.
Tags: Commerce Bancorp; Wachovia Bank; Fleet Bank; FDIC; Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; Securities and Exchange Commission; SEC; Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB); campaign contributions; taxpayer money; Morgan Stanley Dean Witter trust; government banking; underwriting; financial advising; New Jersey State League of Municipalities'; Commerce Insurance Services; Gloucester County Democratic Committee; Gloucester County Board of Freeholders; Ocean County Republican Finance Committee
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Killed By Parolees; Did Cornejo & Sons Contribute Illegally?; BOE settlement hidden
City Hall: Mayoral candidate's hidden history of domestic violence complaints; fraud and abuse in publicly funded job training program; misuse of travel funds by city officials; City Hall contract tampering; improper donations by a major city contractor. Parollees: More than two dozen Kansans had died at the hands of parolles in the past four years. Nearly, two-thirds who were killed were on at least their second chance at parole; more than a third of the parollees had broken contact with their parole officers before their arrest; and the state made little effort to find parollees who disappeared. School District: the Wichita school district kept a teach on the payroll eight years after the first complaints about is conduct with young teenage girls, they cloaked its settlement of his rape victim's lawsuit in secrecy.
Tags: City Hall; Parolees; Board Of Education; Kansas Legislature; Department of Corrections; Ethics Commission; Sexual Harassment; Bill Warren; Campaign Finance
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No title (id: 13514)
The Washington Post magazine investigates Dwayne Andreas, the head of Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM). Andreas is friends with the leaders of most powerful nations of the world and has donated millions to hundreds of different causes. Some consider him to be indestructible; however, the government is now investigating Andreas for fixing prices on commodities. (July 14, 1996)
Tags: Carlson Chairman across the board Politics Campaign finance Bipartisan 11 pgs.
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No title (id: 12764)
The story examined why Florida's second largest public school system, and the nation's fifth-largest district, has so little public confidence and generates such poor results on standardized tests. As the district has grown to 210,000 students, it is increasingly remote from the day-to-day concerns of parents. As the cost of running for a seat on the school board has increased to $80,000 or more, the board itself has become more dependent on a small group of political insiders, including teachers' union leaders, local real estate developers, lobbyists and large vendors to the district, who finance campaigns.
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No title (id: 12586)
The watchdog agency in Indiana charged with enforcing the state's campaign finance laws does an inadequate job. THe AP uncovered dozens of violations-all of which state regulators never noticed-during their own computer-assisted analysis of more than 14,000 campaign contributions. The problem is made worse by obvious loopholes in Indiana's campaign laws, and by low funding for the State Election Board, whose purse strings are controlled by the same lawmakers it is supposed to regulate. (Aug. 4 - 6, 1995)
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No title (id: 1119)
San Francisco Bay Guardian reports that a well-financed, not-for-profit state group called Quality Education Project was headed by the wife of the state superintendent; the group had earmarked $100,000 for a campaign to recall from office the board members who had ousted the local superintendent, July 31, 1985.
Tags: None