The Center for Public Integrity

The terrorist bombing in Boston and the subsequent manhunt there provided tragic bookends to a horrific week also marred by a massive industrial explosion in Texas, a tornado outbreak in Oklahoma, flooding in Illinois and attempted ricin attacks in Washington, D.C.

All of that wasn't enough, however, to keep several prominent politicians, political parties and special interest groups from attending to other business: fundraising.

"Giant thorn in Boehner's side" is the title of one fundraising message Thursday from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to supporters, which warns them: "Tomorrow is our ad buy deadline in the South Carolina special election. Elizabeth Colbert Busch (yeah, Stephen’s sister!) has a real chance to become the first Democrat to represent this ruby-red district in 30 years."

But it continues, ominously: "Right now, Elizabeth is in danger of getting drowned out by misleading Republican attacks. We can’t let that happen — especially in a tough district like this. We need $200,000 by midnight tomorrow for our Democratic Rapid Response Fund to fight Republican attacks like these and set the record straight."

It followed a Wednesday morning e-mail in which DCCC Executive Director Kelly Ward writes on Colbert Busch's behalf: "Look, stand with us right now and chip in $3 or more today" before providing a hyperlink to a contribution form.

(Updated April 20, 2013, 11:30 a.m.: This story has been updated to reflect that Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, electronically filed his first-quarter campaign finance report today.)

A small but increasing number of U.S. senators — the only federal politicians still allowed to submit campaign finance reports on paper — are opting to voluntarily file their disclosures electronically.

Fifteen current senators chose to e-file their first-quarter campaign finance reports, which were due Monday, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of Federal Election Commission records.

For Senate campaigns filing on paper, it can take weeks, if not months, to get detailed information about who is bankrolling senators and Senate hopefuls.

The FEC pays to manually key in the information contained on paper reports before uploading it into its publicly accessible online databases.

Similar information is available online immediately for House candidates, members of the U.S. House of Representative, presidential candidates and political action committees once those groups e-file their reports.

The cigarette, a product so politically passé that even the wiliest of Mad Men stopped selling it, is looking for second shot on Capitol Hill.

But like Don Draper, the maligned cancer stick has assumed a sleek new identity — the electronic cigarette — that capitalizes on societal pressure to quit smoking yet faces increased governmental scrutiny.

NJOY, the leading e-cigarette manufacturer, has hired a team of congressional staffers-turned-lobbyists to do its bidding on Capitol Hill, according to records filed with U.S. Senate.

Jeff Shockey and John Scofield — formerly senior staffers on the House Appropriations Committee — lead Alexandria, Va.-based firm Shockey Scofield Solutions LLC that will lobby Congress and the Food and Drug Administration on behalf of NJOY. Scofield also worked as an aide to former Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., and Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., while Shockey once worked for former Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif.

Mike Ference, who until late 2012 served as policy director to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., is also a partner at the firm and will lobby for NJOY. Ference also formerly worked at lobbying powerhouse Podesta Group and served as an aide to Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.

A cool $4.7 million could buy you Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke's new compound.

Or this cyclotron.

Or — yes — the original Batmobile.

For ex-Rep. Marty Meehan, such a cash stash ($4,661,671, to be exact, according to a new federal campaign disclosure report) sits quietly in a congressional campaign account the Massachusetts Democrat hasn't had much need for since he resigned from Congress in 2007 to become chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

But Meehan may yet use the money for its intended purpose: seeking elected office.

"I have no immediate plans, but I'm only 56 years old," he told the Center for Public Integrity by phone. "I haven't made a firm decision, I haven't decided I could never be a candidate for office again."

Any run for higher office, if one ever occurred, would likely come years from now, Meehan said.

"If you're trying to have a transformative impact on a university, that usually takes about 10 years," he said. "I'm very happy doing what I'm doing."

During the three years since Rep. Eric Massa resigned his congressional seat after male staffers accused him of sexual harassment, the Upstate New York Democrat has paid his wife — and campaign treasurer — a monthly salary from his dormant re-election account. 

Apparently, no longer.

Beverly Massa received no money from the Massa for Congress campaign committee between Jan. 1 and March 31, according to its latest Federal Election Commission disclosure report, filed Monday evening.

It's an abrupt change: Since Eric Massa quit Congress in March 2010, Beverly Massa consistently earned up to $2,404 per month to keep the books for a candidate committee with no active candidate, disclosure documents indicate.

Beverly Massa's monthly salary dropped to $1,694 per month in December 2010, then $1,292 in October 2011, before creeping back up to $1,294 in January 2012. In July 2012, it fell again to $692 per month.

For most cases, Beverly Massa's salary payments were earmarked for work performed during Eric Massa's 2010 primary, although a January 2012 payment of $1,294 went toward a "2012 primary" in which Eric Massa never ran.

Vanquished Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., is using his boatload of surplus campaign cash to fuel another political endeavor — building his newly created nonprofit organization.

West's still-active campaign committee made a "charitable donation" of $400,000 to the Allen West Foundation on March 27, according to a filing submitted to the Federal Election Commission today.

This is on top of $250,000 his campaign donated to the Allen West Foundation in January.

West formally established the Allen West Foundation in March as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, saying he intends to use it to train and educate conservative candidates who are minorities or have military backgrounds. He also plans to have the nonprofit group directly involve itself in political races.

During the 2012 election cycle, 501(c)(4) groups, which by law cannot have a primary purpose of engaging in politics, spent hundreds of millions of dollars directly advocating for and against political candidates — advocacy made possible by the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling in 2010.

Texas homebuilder Bob Perry, who ranks among the nation's most generous donors to Republican candidates and causes, has died at age 80.

Perry is perhaps best known in political circles for helping bankroll an aggressive media campaign against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry as part of a 527 political committee known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

During the 2012 election cycle alone, Perry contributed $23.5 million to a variety of GOP super PACs.

They include:

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and a dozen of his Republican colleagues have asked the Federal Communications Commission to resist implementing new rules targeting the makers of political advertisements in the absence of Congress passing new disclosure legislation.

"Political issues should be left to Congress," the senators wrote in a letter dated April 10 and obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. "If [the FCC] were to attempt to establish through rulemaking what Congress has declined to act upon, it would seriously undermine the integrity of the Commission and imperil its independence."

The new letter, which was also signed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., calls the yet-to-be-passed DISCLOSE Act "one of the most politically charged, partisan issues in recent Congresses." It criticizes the legislation for raising "grave Constitutional concerns for speech protected by the First Amendment."

The letter also admonishes the FCC not to become an arm of the Democratic Party.

"The FCC has a long tradition of being nonpartisan," the letter states. "We strongly urge you to categorically reject instituting the DISCLOSE Act by fiat."

Representatives for Cruz and the FCC could not immediately be reached for comment.

The senators' message comes a month after FCC officials testified before the Senate Commerce Committee about political advertisements. At the time, Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., advocated that the commission play a larger role in unmasking the funders of political advertisements.

Digital strategists Teddy Goff and Zac Moffatt worked for warring candidates during the 2012 presidential election, but they both agree that successful politicians going forward will fully embrace online engagement — and reap financial rewards from it.

Moffatt, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s digital director, points to Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., as candidates with particular online fundraising savvy — and both rising stars in the U.S. Senate who may be considering 2016 presidential bids.

“It’ll be interesting to see how much Rand Paul raised off the filibuster,” Moffatt said, alluding to Paul’s nearly 13-hour talk-a-thon in March against the confirmation of John Brennan to be the new CIA director.

Moffatt also remarked on how Rubio, who faced criticism and ridicule in February about drinking from a water bottle during his rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address, turned a potential gaffe into an online fundraising opportunity.

Rubio's tactic? Offer reusable Rubio water bottles for a donation of $25 or more, with the cash benefiting his Reclaim America PAC.

Campaign finance law is a “mockery,” a Democratic senator declared today during a hearing on Capitol Hill, while also urging federal officials present to criminally investigate politically-active nonprofits, shell corporations and super PACs.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on crime and terrorism, cited several “areas of mischief” regarding politically active nonprofits, known in Internal Revenue Service parlance as 501(c)(4) organizations.

Several such organizations spent into the millions of dollars directly advocating for or against political candidates during the most recent election cycle — activity not seen in U.S. politics prior to the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision.

Among Whitehouse's complaints about these nonprofits:

• Discrepancies in reporting to the IRS and to the Federal Election Commission
• Discrepancies between reported and actual political activity
• Characterizing political TV ads as “educational activities” or “legislative activities”
• Characterizing as non-political donations made to other groups that spend it on political advertising
• Disbanding and reforming under other names before the reporting is due for the disbanded organization

Whitehouse suggested the DOJ explore a new legal avenue for prosecuting nonprofits and super PACs active in elections — specifically, fraudulent claims about their political activity in federal filings.

Whitehouse pressed Mythili Raman, the assistant attorney general for DOJ’s criminal division, on what he considered the department’s failure to investigate potential false statements.