Just like on Elm Street, Freddie killed bills in Congress. The Ted Stevens trial is set to wrap up today amidst cross examination of the Alaska senator. Lawmakers pressure AIG to stop lobbying. A look inside lawmaker insider trading. All of that in today’s news:

In 2005, when Republicans still ruled Washington, Freddie Mac deployed a stealth lobbying effort targeting 17 Republican senators in an effort to beat back a reform effort pushed by Sen. Chuck Hagel. The lobbying firm employed, DCI, never filed a lobbying disclosure form as they avoided direct contacts with lawmakers and staff. Instead, the firm, whose lobbying effort Freddie Mac chief Hollis McLoughlin wanted to stay on the down-low, deployed high-profile constituents - businessmen, trade associations, etc… - to push back against the regulation effort to their senators. Freddie Mac was very happy with DCI’s efforts as they kept 9 of the 17 targeted senators from signing a letter to then-Majority Leader Bill Frist asking that the bill be brought to the floor for a vote.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Mel Martinez responded to the appalling revelation that AIG is using taxpayer money to lobby against already enacted regulations by calling for the partially privatized insurer to stop its lobbying activities. AIG exists solely because of a $120 billion loan from the federal government, making the United States taxpayer the majority shareholder of the insurance giant.

Final fireworks are expected to fly as the fast moving ethics trial of Sen. Ted Stevens comes to a close today. Stevens is expected to face further cross examination today. The cross has already brought out the Incredible Hulk in Sen. Stevens as he showed his temper in court the other day. The defense attorneys are likely hoping that Stevens can better control himself. They don’t want to see him when he’s mad.

Open Secrets points to ProCon.org and their look into the issue of insider stock trading in Congress. Earlier this year, Rep. Brian Baird proposed the STOCK Act, which would make it illegal for lawmakers, staff, and executive branch officials to trade stocks with the benefit of nonpublic information obtained through the status of their official position. Another bill proposed by Rep. Baird would require “political intelligence” firms to publicly disclose their activities in the same way lobbyists do. In case you were wondering whether there is an actual insider trading positive effect on Congress’ stock sheets, check out this graph:

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Sen. McCain, can you hear me now? Sen. Stevens pays for his own lunch like a big boy. And Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah continues his annual tradition of earmarking funds for his biggest campaign contributors. That and more in today’s news:

The Atlantic’s Joshua Green takes a look at the Verizon and AT&T cell phone tower plans for Sen. John McCain’s ranch and determines that the defenses offered by the companies and the McCains are simply not sufficient. The excuse for the now-derailed permanent installation of cell phone towers at the McCain ranch in Sedona was that Cindy McCain had made an independent request for cell service. Of course, the rapid and costly effort undertaken by the two companies had nothing to do with her husband’s public role as a United States Senator and possible presidential candidate. Except that Verizon referred to the Sedona ranch, not as Cindy McCain’s ranch, but as “John McCain’s cabin.” Green writes, “So while Cindy McCain may indeed have requested the tower over the web like an ordinary millionaire rancher with spotty phone reception, Verizon was well aware that she was anything but that.”

Sen. Ted Stevens emphatically denied any wrongdoing as he took the stand yesterday in a federal corruption trial in which the senator is accused of filing false statements on his personal financial disclosure reports. Sen. Stevens stated outright that, “I don’t allow people to buy my lunch or buy my dinner; wherever I am, I pay my bills.” Prosecutors have sought to show that the Alaska oil company VECO, headed by Stevens friend Bill Allen, paid for renovations to Stevens’ house in Girdwood, Alaska and Stevens and Allen colluded to hide the expenses by filing false disclosures. Stevens’ examination continues today.

Utah Rep. Rob Bishop has an annual tradition: earmark hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in earmarks to ES3, a company operating at Hill Air Force Base and then attend an August fundraiser thrown by ES3 after the earmarks are secured. This year, Rep. Bishop secured $800,000 in earmarks for ES3 whose employees have generously donated $22,000 in August of this year to Bishop’s reelection bid. Over the past five years, Rep. Bishop has secured $9.8 million for ES3.

Sunlight’s Nancy Watzman has the final disclosures for the party convention committees over at Party Time. Democrats raised $60,966,482 for their convention, while Republicans raised $51,229,299 for theirs.

Open Secrets now has lobbyist campaign contributions available in their lobbying database. The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 required the disclosure of lobbyist campaign contributions for the first time.

Open Congress‘ Donny Shaw continues his excellent series of posts comparing the legislative achievements of John McCain and Barack Obama by using actual data rather than stump speeches and press releases. Today, Donny is looking at the two candidates’ voting records. Hurray, factual data comparisons!

And for something slightly different, here’s a great article from Reason explaining, by way of Cindy McCain’s beer distributor fortune, how the government aids and subsidizes certain parts of the beer, wine, and liquor industry, in the process raising the price of that frothy cold one waiting for you at that happy hour around the corner.

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Birds of a feather flock together. On Monday, our nation’s legislators will return, on winged flight, to finish up the year’s legislative work in less than 30 days. The bills of most pertinent attention will likely be appropriations bills, defense authorization, and, if necessary, a continuing resolution. The Senate Democrats just released an e-mail describing their September legislative agenda and groups are lining up to fight over a number of bills. Below, I’m going to take a quick look at the influence game around three of the bills that will surely get a vote in the next three weeks.

There are three bills outside of appropriations and military authorization that will come up in September. These include S. 3268, a bill to restrain energy speculation markets; S. 3186, a bill to provide low income heating assistance; and H.R. 1338, a bill to end gender discrimination in workplace pay. Using MAPLight.org’s listing of supporting and opposing interest groups and Open Secrets’ campaign contribution and lobbying data I have created some graphs showing the level of money groups are pumping into these two influence channels, and which side is spending more.

[Update: I only used 2008 data for these numbers. Campaign finance data at Open Secrets is updated through the second quarter filing period, which covers contributions up to June 30, 2008. Lobbyist disclosures also go through the second quarter filing covering spending up to June 30, 2008.]

S. 3268 — Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act of 2008

S. 3186 — Warm in Winter and Cool in Summer Act

H.R. 1338 — Paycheck Fairness Act

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From Teapot Dome to Ted Stevens, the oil and gas industry holds a special place in imagination of Americans. This industry is one that is deeply connected to numerous corruption scandals throughout American history. In the 1920s, the Ohio Gang bought the election for Warren Harding, installed their own Interior Secretary and Attorney General, and went about stealing public lands to drill for resources. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Enron rigged the electricity market in California, helped elect a president, and funneled huge amounts of money into Republican coffers. And in 2008, Alaska’s senior senator, Ted Stevens, was indicted on charges related to his accepting gifts in exchange for seeking favors for the Alaskan oil company VECO.

Today, campaign contributions from the oil industry are ubiquitous in presidential and congressional races and oil lobbyists are paid millions in Washington. But in many ways, this is an old story. Instead of looking at oil and gas influence, why not look at the influence coming from new energy sources. If you’ve been watching television or reading the news, you’ve probably noticed the growth of stories surrounding alternative energy, from the explosion of wind turbine farms, Al Gore’s WE campaign, and T. Boone Picken’s plan. How does this nascent, yet exploding, industry measure up to the influence giants in Washington? (more…)

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On Saturday, Nancy Pelosi said she and the Democratic leadership had changed their position on offshore oil and gas exploration. Republicans have pounced on drilling as their solution to the pain at the pump Americans are experiencing while depicting Democrats as putting environmental concerns before the pocket books of the country’s drivers. Pelosi’s fudging on the issue is evidenced that the GOP’s campaign is working. And the energy debate is raging as a top issue locally in competitive congressional races.

Dave Johnson writing at The Huffington Post said that the GOP was “a political party working for oil companies - for money.”

With this coordinated campaign we see oil company advertisements on TV, hear them on the radio, read reports of “studies” from these industry front-group “think tanks,” read op-ed pieces written by industry-paid “experts,” and then to top it off elected officials and candidates reinforce the message (while the industry message reinforces their candidacy).

But what about the Democrats? Is Pelosi’s switch evidence of Democrats succumbing to Big Oil’s cash as well?

The Center for Responsive Politics’ charting of oil and gas interests giving over the past 10 election cycles shows Republicans have received three out of every four dollars. So far in this current cycle, again, the GOP has received 75 percent of the $19.8 million contributed by oil and gas companies and PACs. The Democrats 25 percent is up from 18 percent over the 2006 cycle, which must partially reflect the fact that Democrats control Congress. The industry has almost matched its $20.2 million contribution it made in the whole 2006 cycle, and there’s two-and-a-half months left before election day. With the Democratic leadership signaling they are willing to shift their position, it will be interesting to see if any more petro cash will flow their way.

(more…)

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“My name is Daniel Plainview and this is my son and partner H.W. Plainview. I’m an oil man.” Ok, ok, there won’t be blood, but there will be money made from oil profits. Over the last two weeks, gas prices and oil industry influence have been a key focus in both the media and here on this blog.

Last week, I looked at campaign contributions from the oil industry to a group of Republicans staging a pro-oil industry protest on the floor of the House. There are other ways to look at the economy of influence using publicly available data. For one, members of Congress must disclose their assets in personal financial disclosure forms. In this case, I want to look at stocks, in particular oil stocks. Thanks to Open Secrets’ personal financial disclosure database, I was able to put together the nifty chart below. (more…)

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Our friends at the Center for Responsive Politics are partnering with Helium to hold a contest for citizen journalists who can best write about the influence of money in US politics and elections. Here’s the run-down from CRP:

The Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) has partnered with Helium to bring you the OpenSecrets.org Citizen Journalism Awards. Compete by writing unique, compelling articles about money’s influence on US elections and public policy. You could be named the next OpenSecrets.org Citizen Journalist and win a cash prize.

The assignment: CRP will feature one new title each month. Follow CRP’s article guidelines, research the featured topic using OpenSecrets.org and other resources and write a compelling article for your chance to win.

The awards: CRP will pick one winning article each month. The winning writer will receive an OpenSecrets.org Citizen Journalism Award and a $100 cash prize from CRP.

CRP will also feature the winning articles on its website and in its email newsletters, which reach thousands of journalists, activists, academics and citizens.

Get started

Pick a title: See CRP’s current contest title below. You can also visit CRP’s partner page at Helium to write to more (noncontest) titles.

Research: OpenSecrets.org is an unparalleled resource for researching the influence of industries and interests in U.S. politics, and on issues that affect all our lives. The more you draw on OpenSecrets.org in your article, the better. Please attribute all data and statistics and provide URLs, whether you find the information on OpenSecrets.org or elsewhere. Expressing your opinion is fine, but please back it up with facts.

Write: Write a unique, well-researched article in 750 words or less. You can submit articles to this contest until noon on Friday, August 8. CRP’s staff will begin reviewing essays on August 5 from the top articles rated by the Helium community. Selection will be based on the most compelling essay and the winner will be the essay that brings the freshest insight on the issue presented.

Submit: File your article at Helium.com, where other Helium users will be able to read and rate it. CRP will pick the contest’s winner from among the top-rated articles.

Do not pass go. Proceed directly to OpenSecrets.org to enter the contest and collect your $100. The current contest topic is:

How have campaign contributions and lobbying efforts influenced policy on an issue you care about?

Submissions are due by August 8th.

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New campaign finance data — covering both the Congressional and Presidential races — is now available from the Center for Responsive Politics. Here are some of the highlights:

Barack Obama and John McCain’s top contributing industries look awfully similar . . .

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has given the most money to other candidates and lawmakers through his leadership PAC or candidate committee, according to our updated candidate-to-candidate section. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who’s in a tight re-election battle, collected the most from other lawmakers at nearly $351,900.

The percentage of money coming from donors giving $200 or less to Barack Obama’s presidential bid has increased by two points, from 45 percent to 47 percent, according to our updated presidential donor demographics page. We’ve also updated our donor demographics pages for members of Congress.

The National Association of Realtors’s PAC has given more money to candidates than any other PAC so far this election cycle, according to our updated PAC database. The group has given $2.3 million so far, 59 percent of which has gone to Democrats. Sixteen of the top 20 PACs have favored Democrats with their contributions. We’ve also updated contributions from PACs to individual members of Congress.

In addition, CRP has  updated their 527s database, Donor Lookup for members of Congress and presidential candidates, and our ZIP code lookup.

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