The Center for Public Integrity

Ranking: 23        

Total contributions to super PACs: $4.2 million*

• $2.4 million to Priorities USA Action (pro-Barack Obama)
• $725,000 to Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $500,000 to Workers’ Voice (pro-Democratic), formerly known as AFL-CIO Workers’ Voices PAC
• $436,000 to House Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $75,000 to The American Worker (pro-Democratic)
• $26,000 to Stronger Together (pro-Democratic)
• $10,000 to Connecticut's Future PAC (pro-Chris Murphy)

Notable federal hard money and 527 contributions:

• $30,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
• $20,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
• More than $2.2 million to federal Democratic candidates during the 2012 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics

Notable state-level contributions:

• $100,000 to Jay Nixon, Democratic candidate for governor of Missouri
• $55,000 to John Gregg, Democratic candidate for governor of Indiana
• $50,000 to the Maryland Democratic Party
• $50,000 to the Ohio Democratic Party
• $50,000 to the Democratic Governors Association

Total spent on federal lobbying (2007-2012): $3.1 million

Biography:

Billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and family poured nearly $40 million into the coffers of GOP-aligned super PACs In the final three weeks of the 2012 campaign, bringing their total giving to the groups to more than $93 million.

Ranking: 18

Total contributions to super PACs: $5.1 million**

• $1.1 million combined from son Jonathan Soros, son Alexander Soros and daughter Andrea Soros Colombel to Friends of Democracy (pro-campaign finance reform)
• $1 million to Priorities USA Action (pro-Barack Obama)
• $1 million to American Bridge 21st Century (pro-Democratic)
• $850,000 combined from Andrea, Jonathan and daughter-in-law Melissa Soros to Planned Parenthood Votes (pro-Democratic)
• $675,000 to House Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $300,000, all from Alexander, to the Jewish Council for Education and Research (pro-Barack Obama)
• $100,000 to Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)

Notable federal hard money and 527 contributions:

Ranking: 21

Total contributions to super PACs: $4.4 million*

• $3.4 million to American Crossroads (pro-Republican), including $850,000 from his company, Alliance Management Holdings
• $1 million to Restore Our Future (pro-Mitt Romney)

Federal hard money contributions:

Not including his super PAC contributions, Craft, along with his ex-wife, Kathy, has donated more than $800,000 to federal candidates, party committees, business PACs and other political committees since the 1998 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, including:

• $170,700 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee
• $79,500 to the Republican Party of Kentucky
• $71,600 to the National Republican Congressional Committee
• $59,500 to the National Mining Association PAC
• $57,000 to the Democratic National Committee
• $50,000 to the Democratic Party of Kentucky
• $50,000 to Alliance Resource Partners’ corporate PAC
• $31,950 to the Republican National Committee

Corporate names: Alliance Holdings GP, L.P.; Alliance Resource Partners, L.P.; Alliance Resource GP, LLC; Alliance Management Holdings; Alliance Management Holdings III LLC; MAPCO Coal Inc.

Total spent on federal lobbying (2007-2012): No record of corporate spending at the federal level, but the company has lobbied in the states and is a member of trade organizations that lobby.

Lobbying issues: N/A

Biography:

Wealthy coal executive Joseph W. Craft III was one of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s finance co-chairmen in Kentucky, Craft’s home state.

Ranking: 6

Total contributions to super PACs: $12.1 million*

• $12.1 million to FreedomWorks for America (pro-conservative)

Federal hard money and 527 contributions: $0

Corporate names: Specialty Investments Group, Inc. (formerly known as Specialty Group, Inc.); Kingston Pike Development, LLC; and Americana RoseCraft, LLC

Total spent on federal lobbying (2007-2012): $0

Lobbying issues: N/A

Biography:

A new corporate mega-donor called “Specialty Group, Inc.” splashed onto the scene during the final stretch of the 2012 campaign. Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 11, the Knoxville, Tenn.-based company contributed nearly $5.3 million to the conservative super PAC FreedomWorks for America. By Election Day, that amount increased to almost $10.6 million.

Sixty-one-year-old attorney William S. Rose Jr., serves as Specialty’s CEO, president and general counsel. Rose’s $634,000 home — about a 30-minute drive from downtown Knoxville in a subdivision called Montgomery Cove — is listed as the company’s “principal office.”

Business records show that Specialty Group registered with the Tennessee Secretary of State on Sept. 26. On Nov. 28, the company changed its name to “Specialty Investments Group, Inc.”

In late October, another of Rose’s companies, Kingston Pike Development, LLC, donated an additional $1.5 million to super PAC FreedomWorks for America. Records show the company was created on Sept. 27, a day after Rose registered Specialty.

Ranking: 12

Total contributions to super PACs: $8.2 million*

• $3.9 million to Workers’ Voice (pro-Democratic), formerly known as AFL-CIO Workers’ Voices PAC
• $1 million to Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $660,000 to America Votes Action Fund (pro-Democratic)
• $575,000 to American Bridge 21st Century (pro-Democratic)
• $565,000 to House Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $530,000 to Moving Ohio Forward Action Fund (pro-Democratic)
• $250,000 to Priorities USA Action (pro-Barack Obama)
• $125,000 to Iowans for Intergrity in Leadership (pro-Democratic)
• $100,000 to Fair Share Action (pro-Democratic)
• $100,000 to Patriot Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $100,000 Committee to Elect an Effective Valley Congressman (pro-Howard Berman)
• $54,900 to Working for Us PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $50,000 to The American Worker (pro-Democratic)
• $50,000 to Sierra Club Independent Action (pro-environment)
• $50,000 to Ohio Families United (pro-Democratic)
• $42,500 to Defend Our Homes (pro-Democratic)
• $10,000 to Protecting America's Retirees (union-aligned)
• $8,650 to Connecticut's Future PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $5,000 to Young Democrats of America (pro-Democratic)

Notable federal hard money and 527 contributions:

Ranking: 15

Total contributions to super PACs: $5.8 million*

• $2 million to Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $1.5 million to Priorities USA Action (pro-Barack Obama)
• $1.1 million to Workers’ Voice (pro-Democratic), formerly known as AFL-CIO Workers’ Voices PAC     
• $700,000 to House Majority PAC (pro-Democratic)
• $250,000 to DGA Action (pro-Democratic)
• $100,000 to Ohio Families United (pro-Sherrod Brown)
• $100,000 to Women Vote! (pro-Democratic)

Notable federal hard money and 527 contributions:

• $10,000 to the Ohio Democratic Party

Notable state-level contributions:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is running radio and Web ads that target 21 vulnerable Republican House members for “holding the middle class hostage” during the fiscal cliff negotiations.

The campaign is a bit unusual — most parties prefer to run ads a bit nearer to an actual election.

“It’s not really common to see much Democratic or Republican congressional spending this soon after an election,” said Michael Franz of the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks and analyzes campaign advertising. “The permanent campaign is really here.”

As part of its “GOP Hostage Takers” campaign, the DCCC is targeting U.S. representatives with radio and web ads called the “Holiday Cliff,” which look and sound like mock movie trailers, complete with a car hurtling off a winding mountain road.

“This holiday season, if you make only one phone call, if you send only one email, tell Congressman Chris Gibson — don’t drive us off the cliff,” the narrator says.

In addition to Gibson, R-N.Y., the DCCC has targeted five other Republican representatives with video ads — Gary Miller of California, Dan Webster of Florida, Tom Latham of Iowa, John Kline of Minnesota and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington.

All six are considered vulnerable in 2014 according to Larry Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. Eleven of the 15 members targeted in the radio ads are also beatable, according to the Center.

“The ads are about the here and now, not just about 2014,” Sabato told the Center in an email. “But no doubt they are also intended to send a message about the next election, that what the members do now will not be forgotten in two years.”

“It’s more of a warning to a member of Congress that, ‘Hey you’re in our sights. You better think carefully about this vote,’” said Travis Ridout, also of the Wesleyan Media Project.

Hope that negotiations over the so-called “fiscal cliff” will avoid partisan politics were dashed this week as a round of ads targeting four precariously positioned Senate Democrats hit the airwaves.

Crossroads GPS, the politically active nonprofit that spent millions in the 2012 election, launched a $240,000 radio ad campaign urging Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Tim Johnson of South Dakota to “stop the spending.”

All four senators’ seats are considered up-for-grabs in 2014.

Congress and the White House are scrambling to come to a deal on spending cuts and tax increases set to go into effect in the New Year.

Crossroads, co-founded by Karl Rove, a former aid to Republican President George W. Bush, is one of the heavy-hitting advocacy organizations speaking out.

Labor unions, big business and other groups with a vested interest in what happens in Washington are also peppering the public with messages urging citizens to tell Congress to cut spending, extend tax breaks and protect the social safety net — all in the name of avoiding the tax increases and spending cuts set to go into effect after the first of the year.

Return of Rove

Exactly one month after the most expensive election in history — one in which Crossroads GPS spent more than $70 million — the organization launched a $500,000 television campaign on cable networks attacking President Barack Obama’s plan to avoid the fiscal cliff.

“President Obama promised a balanced plan,” the ad says. “But so far, a huge tax increase is his solution.”

Amid protests by labor unions, and objections from the state’s congressional delegation and even the president, Michigan’s Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signed a “right-to-work” bill into law Tuesday, drawn word-for-word from a 32-year-old “model bill” pushed by a corporate-funded, conservative think tank.

The legislation deals a severe blow to organized labor in a state that has the fifth-highest union density in the country, and it marks the revival of an effort long promoted by the influential American Legislative Exchange Council, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that has seen its share of controversy recently.

Since 1973, ALEC has hosted corporate-sponsored meetings where state legislators and lobbyists meet behind closed doors to write and vote on model legislation. In a 1992 annual report, the free-market think tank boasted that it “provides the private sector an unparalleled opportunity” to influence state legislation.

One of its first priorities was passage of “right-to-work” laws, which now exist in 24 states. The 16 states with the lowest union density in the country have right-to-work laws, mostly in the American South and West, while the 13 states with the highest union density do not, until this week.

‘Forced unionism’

In a publication celebrating its 25th year, ALEC said it “began striking out against forced unionism and for the right to work in 1979.” ALEC members endorsed the law as model legislation and began introducing it in states in 1980.

Federal law prohibits workplaces from requiring employees to belong to a union and pay dues. However, employees, be they union members or not, may still enjoy the benefits of a union-negotiated contract.