PaperTrail BlogPaper Trail Blog

RSS Feed

Tag : Election '08

  1. December 05, 2008, 5:31 pm

    ELECTION ’08: The Final Totals

    It’s official. President-Elect Barack Obama not only made history as the first black president, but also by drawing almost $750 million for his campaign — the most ever since anyone cared enough to start tracking such things. And he still has $30 million of it left in the bank. Read more

  2. November 25, 2008, 8:05 am

    ELECTION ’08: Coulda Been a Contender: Catching Up With ’08 Presidential Also-Rans

    PaperTrail is going through withdrawal. Memories of once-regular characters like Fred Thompson, Chris Dodd, and the slew of other presidential contenders are beginning to fade. And though Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden have stayed in the picture — benefiting from President-Elect Obama’s “Team of Rivals” approach — what about the remaining cast of challengers we grew to know (and occasionally love) over the past two years? Read more

  3. November 10, 2008, 11:55 am

    ELECTION ’08: Felons in Office: Ted Stevens Set to Join an Even More Elite Club

    If the current returns hold up, then Alaskans will have reelected a newly convicted felon to the U.S. Senate; Senator Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in that august body, currently leads his opponent by about 3,000 votes. His victory comes less than two weeks after he was convicted on seven counts of corruption. Unlike the chattering classes, what surprises PaperTrail is not Stevens’s victory, but that he will be the first convicted felon to be elected – or reelected – to the U.S. Senate. Apparently, in even the darkest corners of our history books, we have so far managed to avoid this eventuality. Read more

  4. November 06, 2008, 1:47 pm

    ELECTION ’08: Democrats Dominate Secretary of State Races in Toss-up States

    Secretary of State Project leaders are probably still celebrating. The liberal 527 group that supports progressive candidates for secretary of state positions in swing states saw three of the four candidates it supported this cycle win their elections. As of this morning, the fourth, Linda McCulloch, is ahead in Montana by about 4,400 votes. Read more

  5. November 04, 2008, 4:30 pm

    ELECTION ’08: Lines at the Polls: A Tale of Two Neighborhoods

    I waited almost two hours to vote today in Mt. Pleasant, my neighborhood in D.C. Andrew, our web editor, lives one neighborhood over in Columbia Heights, but waited only about five minutes. Why did I have to wait while he breezed through? Read more

  6. November 04, 2008, 12:53 pm

    ELECTION ’08: Best Election Websites

    Let’s be realistic: For political junkies out there, today is bigger than the start of March Madness. Work, if it’s done at all, will be completed between furtive refreshing of favorite political websites. But which sites offer the best analysis, the surest returns? PaperTrail has put together a list of our favorite stops (with commentary by our far-flung staff), to help guide your Election Day reading. Read more

  7. November 03, 2008, 5:59 pm

    ELECTION ’08: As America Votes, It Ain’t Pretty

    Election junkies who’ve already checked every poll three, four, 10 times over can now monitor the travails of individual voters, thanks to the Election Protection Coalition. The nonpartisan group, which mans 1-866-OUR-VOTE, a voter protection hotline, is broadcasting reports of voting problems in real time. Read more

  8. October 31, 2008, 4:23 pm

    ELECTION ‘08: Alaskan FOIA Follies

    To be sure, an out-of-the-way state like Alaska may have been ill-prepared for the deluge of reporters filing Freedom of Information Act requests that followed John McCain’s surprise pick of its governor in August as his running mate. Read more

  9. October 30, 2008, 4:15 pm

    ELECTION ’08: Hoosier Secretary of State Takes First Crack at ACORN

    Forget Obama and McCain; the hottest battle in Indiana this election season is between the secretary of state and ACORN. The left-leaning voter registration group has been caught up in a dispute over more than 400,000 invalid registration ballots that its workers collected or created around the country. Part of the flap over ACORN’s actions stems from the fact that in many states it’s illegal to toss application forms once they’re filled out, even if they’re clearly false. But ACORN has been getting flak for turning in those forms. What should the group have done? That’s the question PaperTrail posed to six secretaries of state offices recently, all of which concluded the organization’s best bet was to turn in the forms to authorities and flag those that were likely fraudulent. But in Indiana, Republican Secretary of State Todd Rokita is calling for an investigation of the group – even though Indiana law would appear to make it illegal both to submit the forms and not to submit them. Read more

  10. October 23, 2008, 2:49 pm

    ELECTION ’08: The Haves, the Have-Lesses, and the Have-Almost-Nothings

    Much has been made about Barack Obama’s record-shattering fundraising efforts ($150 million in September alone, more than $621 million raised to date) — and his financial advantage over John McCain. But very little attention has been paid to the true underdogs in this election: the “third party” candidates. So, what kind of contributions have they hauled in? Read more

Tags

President Obama, Election '08, Environmental Protection Agency, Politics, politics, Energy, Coal Ash, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, John Murtha, Environment, Federal Election Commission, Justice Department, Tennessee, Alabama, Blue Dogs, Bill Buzenberg, Defense, New York, West Virginia, Hillary Clinton, Treasury Department, Freedom of Information Act, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, Public I Podcast, Kathleen Sebelius, Congress, Federal Elections Commission, American Electric Power, Investigative Reporting Workshop, James Oberstar, Climate Change, Fannie Mae, Defense Department, Sunshine Week, Securities and Exchange Commission, Supreme Court, Government Accountability Office, Nancy Pelosi, States, John McCain, Blue Dog Coalition, Robert Gates, Government Accountability Project, Andrew Cuomo, Department of Defense, Iraq, Department of Homeland Security, Duke Energy, Freddie Mac, Broken Government, Transportation, Lamar Alexander, Tim Armstead, Arlen Specter, Deval Patrick, Southern Company, Economy, House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Henry Waxman, Mitch McConnell, President Bush, The Washington Post, Barbara Boxer, ProPublica, Orrin Hatch, Defense Contract Audit Agency, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Health and Human Services, Brennan Center for Justice, Jon Corzine, Wisconsin, Ed Markey, Bank of America, David Patterson, Sonia Sotomayor, Lockheed Martin, Office of Management and Budget, Lisa Jackson, Idaho, Todd Tiahrt, Center for Investigative Reporting, Tobacco Underground, Tennessee Valley Authority, David Scott, Microsoft, Whistleblower Protection Act, Mel Martinez, Tobacco, Bob Riley, Blue Dog Democrats, Energy Department, United Nations, Superfund, Department of Transportation, Air Force, National Association of Realtors, Maurice Hinchey, Cato Institute, Illinois, IRS

Become a fan
image Follow the Center

Stay Connected

Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter and get the latest from our in-depth investigations, articles, interviews, blogs, videos, and more.

Support the Center

Your support will help us bring you more investigations, articles, interviews and news related materials relevant to U.S. politics and politics abroad.

Donate

About the Center

The Center for Public Integrity is dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern in the USA and around the world.

More about the Center

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

The Center’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is a collaboration of some of the world’s leading investigative reporters. ICIJ extends globally the Center’s style of watchdog journalism, working with 100 reporters in 50 countries to produce long-term, transnational projects.

ICIJ website