Lobbyists spent $12.8 million courting Texas lawmakers

According to a report in the Houston Chronicle, lobbyists spent more than $12 million in the last four years wining and dining Texas lawmakers and other state workers, including trips to pricey resorts across the country. Using lobby disclosure data, reporter Matt Stiles found that state senators and representatives had accepted at least $3.5 million in meals, travel, gifts and entertainment. Lobbyists spent another $3.8 million on the members' staffs. The story also reported that lawmakers have structured the rules so that most of their contacts with lobbyists are not reported.

Supporters from Barack Obama's home state held a celebration this week that was paid for, in part, by the same lobbying firms the president-elect banned from donating to his campaign and inaugural committee, Bloomberg's Jonathan D. Salant and Kate Andersen report. Seven firms that earned a total of at least $30 million in lobbying fees last year gave as much as $50,000 apiece for the Illinois gala.  At least 28 state societies -- nonprofit groups that sponsor the balls -- have held pre-inaugural balls and events in Washington. Many relied on money from corporations and lobbyists to help make up for a drop in donations from society members because of the weak economy.

Oklahoma voters gave Republican Sen. John McCain one of his largest margins of victory over Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential election earlier this month. But an analysis of precinct results from across the state by The Oklahoman shows Obama claiming heavily populated urban areas and pockets of support in eastern Oklahoma. McCain outpolled Obama almost everywhere else.

"Though they worked behind the scenes in Barack Obama's campaign for president, bundlers who raised millions of dollars for his White House bid are starting to land significant posts on his transition team," according to a report by Washington Post reporter Matthew Mosk. While critics claim fundraising skills have trumped qualifications for top advisory positions, Obama's top aides have defended the qualifications of those acting as transition advisers.

In October, Dutchess County went from having a Republican majority among registered voters to a Democratic one for the first time in the county's history. On Nov. 2, the Poughkeepsie Journal published an analysis that not only showed which municipalities were responsible for that growth, but drilled down to see which individual districts had the biggest jump.

The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind. found that 2,172 voters in Indiana's Allen County had names and birthdates identical to those in Florida. The newspaper performed its analysis cross-referencing the voter registration databases in Allen County with the Florida secretary of state's election division.  Duplicates were examined by hand.  Middle names or initials that did not match were automatically thrown out.  "Of the 2,172 matching names and birth dates, seven voted in both the Florida primary in January and the May primary in Indiana, according to voter history records."

An analysis by TexasWatchdog.com matched information from Harris County, Tex. voter rolls to Social Security death data and found ballots had been cast in the names of dead people more than 40 times since 2004. They also found more than 4,000 people currently on the voter rolls who, according to the Social Security death data, are deceased.

Data for this story was obtained from NICAR.

West Palm Beach Congressman Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) has agreed to pay his mistress, Patricia Allen, $121,000 according to an investigative report by ABC News' Emma Schwartz, Rhonda Schwartz and Vic Walter. In addition to the payment, Mahoney also offered Allen a job at the agency that handles his campaign advertising.  Mahoney was elected following the resignation of Mark Foley.  In his campaign, Mahoney promised "a world that is safer, more moral."

Ian Urbina of The New York Times reports that elections officials removed or blocked tens of thousands of eligible voters from voter registration rolls in at least six swing states and that elections workers misused Social Security databases. The actions, revealed in a Times review of state and Social Security records, appear to violate federal law. Although no one believes elections officials and workers intentionally barred voters or acted in connection with any political party, the discrepancy has already led to legal action in Michigan, Florida and Ohio.

Ames Alexander and David Ingram of The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported that North Carolina Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry has collected at least half of her campaign contributions from executives and managers of companies that have been inspected by her department. The newspaper's analysis also found that while the Labor Department routinely reduces fines for workplace safety violations, Berry's contributors have usually gotten bigger-than-average breaks.