In the furious fallout from the revelation that the IRS flagged applications from conservative nonprofits for extra review because of their political activity, some points about the big picture — and big donors — have fallen through the cracks. Consider this our Top 6 list of need-to-know facts on social [...] Read more »
Four reasons it’s hard to campaign your way to the presidency
The narrative after the 2012 campaign was that President Obama’s victory was due to his superior campaign — better messaging, better technology, better organizing, better everything. But this narrative had a circular logic to it: Obama won because of his superior campaign, and we know that his campaign was superior [...] Read more »
Why don’t Americans care more about campaign finance reform?
As campaign finance reform groups complain that President Obama hasn’t done enough to limit the flow of big money into politics, it’s worth asking, are Americans riled up about the issue? The answer: not really, even though they back strict limits on campaign contributions in overwhelming numbers. Here’s a look [...] Read more »
In Political Campaigns, Do You Get What You Pay For?
Mark Hanna, the Republican Party political boss, famously declared at the outset of the McKinley-Bryan campaign of 1896: “There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can’t remember the second.” In the wake of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act and the [...] Read more »
Big Corporations Put Up Seed Funding for Republican Dark Money Group
Some of the nation’s biggest corporations donated more than a million dollars to launch a Republican nonprofit that went on to play a key role in recent political fights. Like the nonprofit groups that poured money into last year’s elections, the decade-old State Government Leadership Foundation has been able to [...] Read more »
New Rove Group Could Backfire on G.O.P.
The strategist Karl Rove and his allies last week announced the formation of Conservative Victory Project, a new “super PAC” designed to lend support to what they see as more electable candidates in Republican Senate primaries. … But conservative groups and activists have reacted very harshly to the announcement, while [...] Read more »
Election 2012: The Money. The Truth. The Story.
Marty Kaplan, of the USC Annenberg School, discusses the ramifications of the 2012 presidential election. Read more »
The Science Behind Those Obama Campaign E-Mails
One fascination in a presidential race mostly bereft of intrigue was the strange, incessant, and weirdly overfamiliar e-mails that emanated from the Obama campaign. … But they worked. Most of the $690 million Obama raised online came from fundraising e-mails. … The appeals were the product of rigorous experimentation by [...] Read more »
Inside the Secret World of the Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win
… On Nov. 4, a group of senior campaign advisers agreed to describe their cutting-edge efforts with TIME on the condition that they not be named and that the information not be published until after the winner was declared. What they revealed as they pulled back the curtain was a [...] Read more »
A Campaign Map, Morphed By Money
Campaign reporters spend a lot of time pointing at color-coded electoral maps like the one below, showing which states voted for Republican John McCain (in red) and Democrat Barack Obama (in blue) in 2008. But these maps lie — visually speaking. [cont.] Adam Cole, NPR Read more »