The Center for Public Integrity

US Airways — in the midst of merger proceedings with American Airlines — is blostering its already robust lobbying force with a pair of new government relations firms, documents filed with the U.S. Senate this weekend indicate.

Joseph Gibson of The Gibson Group will handle one lobbying account, while Scott Reed of Chesapeake Enterprises will lead the other, according to US Airways' filings. Both contracts went into effect in mid-February, just days after the airlines announced the merger proposal.

Gibson, for his part, brings extensive government experience to bear, having most notably served as chief minority counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, deputy assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice's Office of Legislative Affairs and chief of staff for Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. His lobbying responsibilities include "issues relating to the proposed merger of US Airways and American Airlines," the filing states.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced Friday that he will likely appoint an emergency financial manager in an effort to solve Detroit’s decades-long financial woes.

A state-appointed review board declared “financial emergency” in Detroit on Feb. 19, paving the way for Snyder’s announcement.

The move comes only four months after Michigan voters repealed Public Act 4, known as Snyder’s “emergency manager” law, which had given the governor vast powers over city government.

When voters repealed Public Act 4 in November, it appeared that Detroit would avoid a financial manager. The Center for Public Integrity chronicled the roots of the law and its effects on residents in Flint, Pontiac, Benton Harbor, the Detroit Public Schools and elsewhere.

But Snyder’s Republican administration fought back following the referendum.

The governor’s attorney general first released a legal opinion stating that an earlier emergency manager law passed in 1990 would replace the repealed law, preserving many of the same powers for the state government.

Then Snyder signed a replacement law, Public Act 436, in December’s lame duck legislative session. That new law, which also preserves many of the powers of Snyder’s 2011 law, is set to take effect March 28.

Congressional candidate Elizabeth Colbert Busch — she of the same parentage as comedian Stephen Colbert — is trekking to Capitol Hill next week for a campaign fundraiser featuring top Democrats, according to a invitation obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.

Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., will host the event from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, for which the minimum individual donation is $250. Political action committees are asked to give either $2,500 or $5,000, earning them status as either a "sponsor" or a "host" of the event.

Colbert Busch has already received a boost from her famous super PAC-loving sibling, who's stumped for her in recent days as she persues the Democratic nomination in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District special election. The primary is March 19.

Catholics have no pope. But American Catholics still have their own super PAC.

While the powerful U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops serves as the main public policy arm of the Catholic hierachy, a lay-led group of believers launched the CatholicVote.org Candidate Fund in March 2011. It is affiliated with CatholicVote.org, a Chicago-based nonprofit formerly known as Fidelis.

The super PAC raised $476,000 during the 2012 election cycle, according to federal campaign finance records.

It made about $293,000 worth of independent expenditures, mostly on ads and materials that either supported Republican Mitt Romney's failed presidential run or criticized President Barack Obama.

It also spent modest sums aiding the unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidates Richard Mourdock of Indiana, Connie Mack of Florida and Tom Smith of Pennsylvania. All are Republicans.

The bullk of the money the super PAC raised — $200,000 — came from Michigan businessman John C. Kennedy, the founder, president and chief executive officer of two companies based in Kentwood, Mich., Autocam and Autocam Medical.

Last year, Kennedy sued the U.S. government over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. ObamaCare, because he believed the law would violate his religious beliefs by requiring that the health insurance he offered his employees cover abortions, sterilization and birth control.

A well-connected Texas lobbyist is the nation's newest hybrid super PAC treasurer.

Randy Cubriel, an attorney who practices law in both North Carolina and Texas, where he is also a registered lobbyist, has formed "Texans for a Conservative Majority," according to new documents posted by the Federal Election Commission.

Because the Austin, Texas-based committee registered as a hybrid super PAC, it may raise donations of unlimited size to fund political advertisements — like a super PAC — and also maintain a separate, segregated account for raising limited contributions that may, in turn, be donated directly to politicians.

Records indicate that Cubriel's lobbying clients currently include Texas Port Recycling LP, which is "home to the largest shredder in Southeast Texas," according to the company's website, and Charlotte-based Nucor Corp., a Fortune 300 company and the country's largest steel producer.

Despite his committee's right-leaning name, Cubriel is bipartisan when it comes to political giving, according to state and federal campaign finance records.

Local jurisdictions should take the lead in regulating politically active nonprofit organizations, according to a new report slated for publication today by New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and the Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending.

"State and municipal governments should not wait for the IRS to enact reforms," asserts the report, an advance copy of which the Center for Public Integrity obtained.

"Regulations are needed immediately to close loopholes in the law which allow 501(c)(4) organizations to spend on elections without disclosing their donors and spending in the same manner as independent expenditure groups and political action committees," it continues.

The 29-page document assesses the increased political activity of so-called "social welfare" nonprofits in New York's congressional elections since the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which in part granted nonprofit corporations the ability to expressly advocate for the election or defeat of federal elections.

According to the report, 32 nonprofits registered with the Internal Revenue Service under Sec. 501(c)(4) of the U.S. tax code were active throughout the Empire State in 2012. Collectively, they participated in New York's U.S. Senate race and 20 U.S. House races.

Four years earlier, only six such nonprofits together reported political spending in three House races.

Not only did the number of politically active nonprofits climb, but their expenditures also increased, with the groups spending nearly $7.2 million in 2012, up from less than $430,000 in 2008.

The U.S. political system is increasingly gamed against Americans of modest means — a situation exacerbated in recent years by major changes in the nation's campaign laws.

That's the overriding takeaway from a new report slated for release today by Demos, a left-leaning nonprofit public policy group "working for an America where we all have an equal say in our democracy and an equal chance in our economy."

The 39-page report, entitled "Stacked Deck," paints a picture of corporate powerhouses and wealthy businesspeople dominating political discourse and exacting disproportionate influence over policy incomes.

The Center for Public Integrity obtained a copy of the report prior to its publication.

Blacks and Latinos — statistically, the poorest Americans when compared to other races and ethnic classes — are particularly marginalized when it comes to political clout, the report states.

Low-wage workers, for example, make up about one-fifth of the nation's population but have very few paid lobbyists in Washington, D.C. While labor unions spend tens of millions of dollars each year lobbying the federal government, unions "are mainly concerned with advocating
on behalf of their members who are paid well above the minimum wage," the report states.

"As private interests have come to wield more influence over public policy, with ever larger sums of money shaping elections and the policymaking process, our political system has become less responsive to those looking for a fair shot to improve their lives and move upward," the study asserts. "Recent developments have aggravated this long emerging trend."

During a heated exchange Tuesday night, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., accused Fox News host Sean Hannity of being "a shill for the Republican Party."

Hannity's response: denying the charge and betting Ellison $10,000 that he is not a registered Republican.

Incidentally, that's about the same amount of money that Hannity donated to Republicans in 2010.

Records filed with the Federal Election Commission indicate that Hannity donated the legal maximum of $4,800 to John Gomez in May of 2010.

Gomez, a childhood friend of Hannity's, appeared on the ballot that year as both a Republican and a member of New York's Conservative Party, the party with which Hannity said he's registered. Gomez was ultimately unsuccessful in his attempt to unseat Democratic Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who now serves as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

New York is one of the few states that engages in "fusion voting." Under this system, one candidate can appear multiple times on the ballot on different party lines, and all votes the candidate receives are then combined.

Documents show that in August 2010, Hannity further contributed $5,000 to the leadership PAC of Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., as did his wife, Jill Hannity.

When it comes to political donations, Fox News' parent company is lately catering to liberals as much as conservatives.

News Corp.'s News America-FOXPAC political action committee contributed to five Democratic political candidates during January, with Republican candidates scoring a goose egg, Federal Election Commission records show.

January recipients of News America-FOXPAC cash include Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah ($5,000); Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark. ($2,500); Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. ($1,500); Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. ($1,000); and Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. ($500), according to a Center for Public Integrity review of the records. All the contributions are earmarked for 2014 political primaries except for $500 toward Landrieu's 2014 general election campaign.

In the spirit of being fair and balanced, News America-FOXPAC also contributed $15,000 in January to the National Republican Congressional Committee, which may by law accept significantly larger contributions than candidate committees.

The PAC ended January with more than $128,000 in its bank account.

Such bipartisan giving is emblematic of News America-FOXPAC's donation habits from the 2012 election cycle.

Its contributions to partisan PACs and national party committees, for example, skewed Republican.

Correction (Feb. 27, 2013, 11:48 a.m.): This article originally overstated the size of the Respect for Marriage Coalition's TV buys last Sunday by $10,000. The Center regrets the error.

The Respect for Marriage Coalition has spent at least $49,000 to air a new television advertisement in the nation's capital, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of documents recently filed with the Federal Communications Commission.

"Freedom means freedom for everyone," says Craig Stowell, a former Marine and Republican gay rights activist, in the coalition's new TV ad, which aired on Sunday on the Washington, D.C., affiliates of NBC, CBS and ABC.

"I didn't used to understand the importance of same-sex marriage, but after learning my brother was gay, I wanted the same rights for him," Stowell continues in the ad. "He was the best man at my wedding, and I want to be the best man at his."