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Consider the Source

Expenditure Profile: Mundy Katowitz Media

By Reity O'Brien

Rank: 4

Clients’ expenditures: $59 million*

Year founded: 2002

Website: munkato.com

Principals:

  • Carole Mundy (partner): Oversees the firm’s media planning and placement for multistate and national programs from its Roslyn, N.Y. office.  
  • Janet Katowitz (partner): A former operative with the Michigan Senate Democratic Caucus, Katowitz manages the firm’s day-to-day operations at its Washington, D.C., office.

Clients:

Background:

Founded in 2002, Mundy Katowitz Media (MKM) is a media buying firm that serves Democratic-aligned candidates and indepdent political spending groups. Its top client during the 2012 election was Priorities USA Action, the super PAC supporting President Barack Obama’s re-election.

Consider the Source

Expenditure Profile: American Media and Advocacy Group

By Reity O'Brien

Rank: 5

Clients’ expenditures: $27 million*

Principals: Unknown

Year founded: 2012

Website: None

Clients

Background:

American Media and Advocacy Group was a favorite media buyer for several top conservative Citizens United-related groups active in the 2012 election. 

Consider the Source

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walk in the Inaugural Parade during the 57th Presidential Inauguration. AP

Obama inauguration sponsors spent millions influencing government

By Dave Levinthal

President Barack Obama has long vowed to “take on” federal lobbyists, swearing off their campaign cash, curtailing access to his administration, and lately, directing his Presidential Inaugural Committee to reject their donations.

“We've always relied on each other, not Washington lobbyists or corporate interests, to build our campaign,” he wrote to supporters after launching his re-election campaign.

While Obama has banned donations to his second inaugural celebration from lobbyists, no such prohibition exists on donations from the corporations that employ them.

Donate they have: Obama’s inaugural festivities Monday are bankrolled by several of the nation’s most powerful corporate lobbying forces, which have collectively spent at least $158.6 million on lobbying since the president first took office, a Center for Public Integrity review of congressional disclosures indicates.

(A new list of sponsors current through Saturday pushes the total to $283 million, please see update.)

The ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, perhaps fittingly, falls squarely on the third anniversary of one of the most notable political influence developments in U.S. history — the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision — which Obama decried as a “huge victory” for special interests and their lobbyists and a “powerful blow to our efforts to rein in corporate influence.”

Consider the Source

Expenditure profile: Mentzer Media

By Alexandra Duszak

Rank: 1

Clients’ expenditures: $204 million*

Year founded: 1991

Principals:

  • Bruce Mentzer (founder)

Clients:

Consider the Source

Expenditure profile: Crossroads Media

By Alexandra Duszak

Rank: 2

Clients’ expenditures: $163 million*

Year founded: 2001

Principal:

Clients:

Biography:

Crossroads Media was founded by Michael Dubke, a longtime political player who is also president of the nonprofit group Americans for Job Security.

Consider the Source

The Supreme Court reinterpreted the law about how money from corporations and unions could be spent on campaigns. Super PACs and other outside groups made possible by the court's decision spent nearly $1 billion on advertising in federal races. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Court opened door to $933 million in new election spending

By Reity O'Brien and Andrea Fuller

The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision unleashed nearly $1 billion in new political spending in the 2012 election, with media outlets and a small number of political consulting firms raking in the bulk of the proceeds.

Spending records released by the Federal Election Commission show that throughout the 2012 election, corporations, unions and individuals that could take advantage of the high court’s ruling were responsible for about $933 million of the estimated $6 billion spent during the contest.

Nearly two-thirds of the new money — about $611 million — went to 10 political consulting firms, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis. All but one of the top 10 recipients bought advertising in various media markets on behalf of super PACs and nonprofits. Eighty-nine percent of the expenditures made to the top 10 went to spots attacking candidates, the data show.

“For some in the industry, it has been a definite boon,” said Dale Emmons, president of the American Association of Political Consultants. “This election appears to have set a new benchmark on the amount of money that could be spent, because there were no limits on what could be spent.”

The 2010 Citizens United decision and a lower-court ruling allowed unlimited donations to super PACs and nonprofits, independent groups that used the funds primarily to fund ad campaigns.

Media buyers keep only a fraction of the total spending — usually 15 percent, according to Federal Communications Commission records, with the rest going to media outlets.

Consider the Source

Listen: Dave Levinthal on Sirius XM's 'Press Pool'

Center senior political reporter Dave Levinthal talks with "Press Pool" host Julie Mason on this was an interview with the Press Pool show on SiriusXM’s POTUS channel about the funding behind the presidential inauguration and federal lobbying in 2013.

Consider the Source

A Range Resources well site in Washington, Pa. The company is one of many drilling into the Marcellus Shale layer deep underground and "fracking" the area to release natural gas. AP

Export push reframes debate over fracking

By Alexandra Duszak

When Pennsylvanians agreed to a massive increase in natural gas drilling in the state, they were told that the economic benefit would outweigh any potential risk to the environment.

The drilling employs a controversial technology known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that backers say will help the nation become energy independent and provide jobs and lower heating costs for Pennsylvanians.

But with gas prices collapsing thanks to an unforeseen glut, energy companies are pushing for permission to export the commodity to countries such as Japan and South Korea. Exports will lead to more drilling, more damage to roads and the environment, and higher, rather than lower, gas prices, say critics.

Pennsylvanians are “surprised, stunned, angry and upset” about the export push, said Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum. “And that’s whether or not they’re supportive of fracking.”

Some history

Fracking involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and toxic chemicals into holes drilled into underground shale deposits.

The technology, which became popular in Pennsylvania around 2008, enabled drilling companies to access enormous, previously unreachable supplies of natural gas — and brought hope to a state long-mired in a recession.

Despite its economic potential, fracking has a dubious environmental record. Exempt from the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Air Act, it has been blamed for contaminating residential wells and sparking explosions.

Consider the Source

The year of 'Consider the Source'

By The Center for Public Integrity

The 2012 election was the least transparent and most expensive presidential campaign of the modern era. The Center for Public Integrity's Consider the Source project exposed the shadowy political organizations that flourished in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, revealing the super donors and PACs behind the candidates.

The Supreme Court reinterpreted the law about how money from corporations and unions could be spent on campaigns. Super PACs and other outside groups made possible by the court's decision spent nearly $1 billion on advertising in federal races.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

 Two conservative groups associated with former Bush adviser Karl Rove raised millions, much of it from undisclosed donors. The two groups, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, spent more than $175 million on 2012 campaigns.

Tony Gutierrez/AP

Advertisement

An analysis by the Center for Public Integrity found that of $43.2 million raised by the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future during the primary season, $20.5 million, or 48 percent, came from finance industry donors.

Super PAC Prosperity First spent more than $294,000 in less than a week in 2012 on ads aimed at defeating Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop (shown with wife Kathy in 2010) in New York's 1st District. The contest was an example of super PACs targeting House members. Despite the spending, Bishop defeated Republican candidate Randy Altschuler.

Kathy Kmonicek/AP

Rick Hill, the Republican candidate for governor of Montana, lost to state Attorney General Steve Bullock despite help from American Tradition Partnership, a nonprofit that bombarded voters with mailers slamming the Democrat. The Center for Public Integrity identified the group’s backers, which included groups dedicated to advancing “right-to-work” legislation in the states.

Matt Gouras/AP

 

The flood of spending by independent super PACs and nonprofits unleashed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision helped Republican nominee Mitt Romney stay competitive in 2012, but it wasn’t enough to overcome President Barack Obama’s dominant fundraising machine.

AP

Super Donors

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg AP

Donor profile: Michael Bloomberg

By Alexandra Duszak

Ranking: 9

Total contributions to super PACs: $10 million*

  • $10 million to Independence USA PAC (pro-moderates and independents)
  • $50,000 to Women VOTE! (pro-Democratic)

Notable federal hard money and 527 contributions:

Pages

Writers and editors

John Dunbar

Managing Editor, Politics The Center for Public Integrity

John is director of Consider the Source, the Center's ongoing investigation of the impact of money on state and federal politic... More about John Dunbar

Michael Beckel

Reporter The Center for Public Integrity

Michael Beckel joined the Center for Public Integrity as a politics reporter in February 2012, where his focus is super PACs and the infl... More about Michael Beckel

Reity O'Brien

James R. Soles Fellow The Center for Public Integrity

Reity O’Brien is the Center’s 16th James R. Soles Fellow.... More about Reity O'Brien

Chris Young

American University Fellow The Center for Public Integrity

Chris Young is an American University Fellow currently working as a member of the Center’s Consider the Source team.... More about Chris Young

Dave Levinthal

Senior reporter The Center for Public Integrity

Dave Levinthal joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2013 to help lead its Consider the Source project investigating the influence of... More about Dave Levinthal

Ben Wieder

CAR Reporter The Center for Public Integrity

Ben Wieder is the Computer Assisted Reporter for the Consider the Sourc... More about Ben Wieder

Alison Fitzgerald

Senior reporter The Center for Public Integrity

Alison Fitzgerald is a finance and investigative reporter who joined the Center in April 2013 to help lead its financial reporting projec... More about Alison Fitzgerald

Alan Suderman

Reporter The Center for Public Integrity

Alan Suderman is a reporter for the Consider the Source project, where he focuses on the influence of money in state politics.... More about Alan Suderman

Dan Wagner

Reporter The Center for Public Integrity

Daniel Wagner came to the Center in 2013 from The Associated Press in Washington, D.C.... More about Dan Wagner