David Donnelly

This morning's op-ed in the New York Times by Goldman Sachs exec (or should I say, ex-Goldman exec) Greg Smith is turning heads and has the financial world abuzz. The truth-telling about a change in culture within the investment bank away from one that is client-centered towards one...

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) traveled to Florida recently to help raise money for embattled Representative Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.). "Two Bentleys, an Aston Martin and a Maserati" sat parked outside, according to a report from the Bradenton Herald.

Two Bentleys, an Aston Martin, and a...

Earlier this year in Louisiana, a plan by Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) to privatize prisons narrowly failed in a legislative committee by a vote of 13 to 12. The 12 members of the House Appropriations Committee who voted to approve the prison privatization plan have received more than three...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was scheduled to give a speech on income inequality at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School today -- a sign that as much as he’s bad-mouthing the protests popping up around the country, the message from them has him paying attention. But he abruptly...

At the White House last night, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va) balked at President Barack Obama’s plans on debt talks. President Obama wants to include new revenues--likely through closing corporate tax loopholes and letting the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans expire--and Cantor says any sort of taxes...

Last week, a man impersonating billionaire Republican donor David Koch asked Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisc.), "Now what else could we do for you down there?" After  taking tens of thousands of dollars in Koch-related donations for his election, and creating a budget filled with corporate special interest carve outs,...

Amid the fanfare of the State of the Union address tonight, the House Republican leadership is pushing legislation this week to kill the presidential system of financing elections. Let’s understand this for what it is: House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the Republican leadership want to place elections even...

Citizens United. “I apologize.” Hammer to the slammer?

In a year filled with Tea and slurpies, the story of corporate and special interest money often played second fiddle. But it played second fiddle so often and so consistently, my colleagues at Public Campaign and I have compiled the top...

An army of journalists, bloggers, and advocates armed with tax filings and spreadsheets have spent countless hours trying to expose and excoriate those financing all of the front groups estimated to spend $400 million this election cycle. We may not know who they are yet, but it doesn't...

Secret wealthy individuals and corporations, both foreign and domestic, are financing attack ads against Democrats from one end of the country to the other. But just because they're secret, does that mean we don't know who they are? I, for one, am ready to drop the incredulity and admit that...

From Massachusetts to West Virginia to Utah, voters have already sent a message to Congress this year that they are tired of the way Washington works for the special interests and not for them. They're angry about what they view as an out-of-touch Congress.

Tuesday's primary elections in Pennsylvania, Kentucky,...

There are moments when you just have to ask, What are they thinking?

This is one of them.

Rep. John Campbell, a Republican from California, used to work as a car dealer. He has taken $170,550 in campaign contributions from auto dealers, according to...

His colleagues call him Senator McConnell, or Mr. Minority Leader. He's campaigning across Kentucky trying to convince his longtime constituents that his "clout" helps them.

But instead of using his "clout" for pork and earmarks, he's really flexing his muscles for the big donors who fill his campaign coffers. That's...

From my colleague Dave Miller, posting at McCainsLobbyists.com:

We've all been there - you're in a remote area and cellphone coverage is lacking or sometimes non-existent. Most of us resign ourselves to being out of touch for awhile.

But when you're Cindy McCain, you get two cellphone towers...

In a conference call with reporters today, John McCain's lawyer John Dowd claimed that the Keating Five ethics investigation into McCain and four other senators was a "political smear job."

That seems to put him at odds with what McCain has claimed over the years. In fact, in 1999,...

John McCain once said, "I am a deregulator. I believe in deregulation." Those words have come back to haunt him this week. More importantly, this deregulatory approach he espoused over decades in Congress has left Wall Street unchecked and now teetering, with more than just "storied" investment houses at risk.

The John McCain who fought for campaign finance reform in the past is not the same John McCain speaking tonight. In his acceptance speech, McCain will try to recapture the past reform victories as prologue to what a President McCain would fight for, but the last two years have exposed...

On Sunday I wrote about the spike in donations to John McCain from Texas oil executives following a June 16 speech in which he reversed his longstanding opposition to offshore drilling.

In fact, no fewer than 85 Texas-based donors connected to the oil and gas industries gave $1,214,100 to...

On June 16th, a day before Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) scheduled to begin a series of big donors fundraising events in Texas, the presidential candidate announced a reversal in his longstanding opposition to coastal drilling for oil.

The reversal was been met with derision by economists, energy CEOs, and environmentalists....

While some have argued, quite convincingly, that this should have been the week to end John McCain's campaign, a little-noticed press briefing Thursday by lobbyist and campaign head Rick Davis is the one silver-lining for the candidate. Davis announced the campaign would have $400 million at its disposal.