Today, the White House is issuing a new Executive Order on Open Data -- one that is significantly different from the open data policies that have come before it -- reflecting Sunlight's persistent call for stronger public listings of agency data, and demonstrating a new path forward for...

By Lisa Rosenberg

Neither the IRS nor the Department of Justice have prosecuted flagrant violations of campaign finance and related tax laws, despite both agencies' authority to take legal action against those who stealthily funnel dark money into our elections. At a

By John Wonderlich

There's a certain conventional wisdom that President Obama wants stronger campaign finance laws, and to protect our democracy from the corrupting effects of money in politics.

It's a story that you should no longer believe.

The arc of the Obama presidency may be...

By Kathy Kiely and Bill Allison

Tonight, at Washington's stately Mayflower Hotel, just a few blocks from Sunlight's offices, family and former aides to the late President Richard Nixon...

Just like the debt limit negotiations and super committee process that helped cause it, the so-called "fiscal cliff" of expiring laws is creating another round of secretive negotiations among our political leaders. The heads of both parties now thrive on stories of impending fiscal consequences, even when they're...

(Updated Nov. 6, 11:31 a.m.)

For the candidates, it's all over except for the voting, but for those of us who follow money in politics, it will take months to close the books on what will...

This post was written by Lee Drutman.
This post was prepared in collaboration with Alexander Furnas. All graphics by Amy Cesal.

Outside money continues to pour in at a record pace this election cycle, and beyond the presidential race, the...

The cloak and dagger tale circulating on the Internet about a group of hackers who claim to have purloined old tax returns of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and say they will release them to whoever is first to pay their ransom suggests why a federal court case

This post was written by Lisa Rosenberg.

As the pundits debate what the addition of Paul Ryan to the GOP presidential ticket means for the race, one sure thing the presumptive candidate for vice president brings to the campaign is a prodigious fundraising ability. According to

On Monday, the Senate is expected to vote along party lines to deny cloture to the DISCLOSE Act. Republicans have even promised to launch a filibuster to guarantee the bill is defeated. But several Republican senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), its most ardent opponent, have spoken in...

By Lisa Rosenberg

A war is being waged against the DISCLOSE Act. Its commander in chief is Senator Mitch McConnell, his secret weapon is misinformation and his goal is to protect unlimited dark money contributions to the political process.

It's time for a counter-attack.

McConnell outlined his plan...

By Bill Allison, editorial director for the Sunlight Foundation.

The strange case of John Edwards -- who has been humiliatingly undressed as a scoundrel and the very opposite of what he pretended to be in two runs for the presidency -- sheds some light on the relationship between...

By Nancy Watzman, consultant for the Sunlight Foundation.

Days after receiving several campaign checks from the food lobby last May, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who is up for re-election this year, sent a letter raising concerns about the Federal Trade Commission's efforts to develop voluntary guidelines...

This post was written by Lisa Rosenberg, government affairs consultant for the Sunlight Foundation.

Senate Democrats unveiled their version of the DISCLOSE Act today. (We wrote about the House bill, introduced last month, here.) Senator Whitehouse was joined by approximately 35 of his Democratic colleagues on legislation...

This post was written by Lisa Rosenberg, government affairs consultant for the Sunlight Foundation.

"What we're seeing here is the opening phase of what will turn into being the largest scandal in American history ... because it involves foreigners being directly involved in the American political system [and] the...

This post was written by Lee Drutman, senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation

The revolving door is alive and well in Washington. In less than three years, at least 378 House staffers employed in personal and committee offices have left Capitol Hill to become registered lobbyists, a Sunlight...

This post was written by Bill Allison, editorial director of the Sunlight Foundation.

Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, who have reportedly given a combined $10 million to Winning Our Future, the super PAC that supports and is run by former staffers of Republican presidential candidate...

This post was written by Daniel Schuman, policy counsel for the Sunlight Foundation.

Recent calls for technologists to hire lobbyists to educate Washington on internet issues miss a significant part of the big picture. Congress makes bad technology decisions because it has dismantled its ability to evaluate policy issues....

This post was written by Nancy Watzman, consultant for the Sunlight Foundation.

A major lobbying push by a powerful group of food and media companies appears to be working, with a federal agency indicating it would back off on parts of proposed voluntary guidelines for marketing food to children....

This post was written by Lee Drutman, data fellow at the Sunlight Foundation. He is also an adjunct professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, the University of California, and Smith College.

On Sunday, Bloomberg News reported on an estimated $13 billion worth of income that banks...