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Inside the Corporatocracy: The 2013 Money-In-Politics Index

Inside the Corporatocracy: The 2013 Money-In-Politics Index
Tue, 12/31/2013 - by Michael Beckel
This article originally appeared on The Center for Public Integrity

Number of bills passed by Congress this year that have been signed into law: 58

Number of bills passed in 1948, the year President Harry Truman* assailed the “Do-Nothing Congress”: 511

Number of minutes Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spent reading Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham" during a 21-hour talk-a-thon in September: 5 ½

Number of hours per day the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recommends embattled freshmen spend fundraising: 4

Amount of campaign cash all members of Congress have reported raising so far in 2013: $403,952,012

Number of seats Republicans need to pick up next year to win control of the U.S. Senate: 6

Number of currently Democratic-controlled Senate seats up in states carried in 2012 by Mitt Romney: 7

Minimum number of super PACs and hybrid super PACs that registered with the Federal Election Commission since January: 210

Number that explicitly mention Hillary Clinton in their own names: 8

Rank of New Yorkers and Californians, respectively, among donors who gave at least $200 to the main pro-Clinton super PAC between January and June: 1, 2

Amount a previously little-known California vintner poured into a pro-GOP super PAC ahead of the special Massachusetts U.S. Senate race in June: $1,700,000

Number of federal candidates to whom you may currently donate the per-cycle legal maximum of $5,200 without violating the law: 9

Number of U.S. Supreme Court justices it would take to throw out this aggregate contribution limit in a case before them: 5

Amount by which Democratic mega-donor Fred Eychaner exceeded the aggregate giving limit in 2012 after an “inadvertent error”: $1,000

Number of Fortune 100 companies that list on their websites a politician’s leadership role or committee assignments as reason to provide them financial support: 34

Number that mention a candidate's "integrity," “ethics” or “character”: 10

Estimated cost of the special U.S. Senate race in New Jersey conducted three weeks before the scheduled general election: $24,000,000

New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie's margin of victory in November over his Democratic challenger: 22 percentage points

Number of days the federal government was partially shutdown in October: 16

Number of seats Democrats need to pick up next year to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives: 17

Ratio by which Democratic-aligned super PACs out-raised their Republican counterparts from January through June: 2:1

Amount of money donated by hamburger chain White Castle to a super PAC aligned with Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio: $25,000

Amount of money doled out to conservative groups by the Koch brothers-connected Center to Protect Patient Rights in 2012: $112,158,149

Date on which California campaign finance regulators announced an unusually large $1 million fine against two conservative groups in the state that failed to fully reveal their funders: Oct. 24

Date on which Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner resigned amid allegations that the agency had improperly targeted conservative nonprofits for scrutiny: Sept. 23

Date on which President Barack Obama’s two new nominees for the Federal Election Commission were confirmed: Sept. 23

Number of FEC commissioners who are still serving on the six-member commission despite their terms having expired: 4

Number of campaign bundlers Obama has nominated to serve as ambassadors since January: 23

Chance the U.S. ambassador to Ireland since 1960 has been a political appointee and not a career diplomat: 100 percent

Minimum number of incumbent GOP senators facing primary challenges next year: 7

Number of Senate and House candidates the anti-tax Club for Growth has already endorsed: 5

Number of votes Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., received to be House Speaker in January: 1

Percentage of House Republicans who voted for Amash’s amendment to limit the National Security Agency's surveillance ability: 40

Percentage of House Democrats who did the same: 56

Ratio of senators that voluntarily e-file their campaign finance reports: 1/6

Number of Twitter followers of Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.: 1,445,268

Number of campaign finance reports Booker has e-filed this year: 0

 

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Trump’s brand of hyper-nationalism combined with the intense consolidation of executive power follows the same playbook as fascistic leaders in other countries like India,Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and Argentina, among others.

The Florida governor’s humiliating loss has a dark undertone: Most Republicans, and many independents, apparently have a craving for the unchecked lawless vengeance that Trump has promised if he wins a second term.

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Posted 1 week 2 days ago

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