The Center for Public Integrity

A political action committee former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., created last summer has attracted little interest from donors, a new campaign finance filing indicates.

Gabby PAC headed into 2013 with just more than $8,000 in its account, having raised only $250 between Nov. 27 and Dec. 31, according to documents filed this afternoon with the Federal Election Commission.

Its spending likewise proved modest, with several thousand dollars in airline tickets accounting for its most notable expenses.

Gabby PAC officially formed in August, with Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, suggesting at the time that it would serve as a vehicle for promoting solar energy, veterans affairs and border issues when not making donations to like-minded politicians. It raised about $29,000 on the year.

Giffords formed Gabby PAC — a traditional PAC that may raise up to $5,000 a year from individuals — months before the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

In its aftermath, Giffords, who continues to recover from a gunshot wound to the head sustained during a 2011 mass shooting at a community meeting, formed a gun control-focused super PAC she's calling Americans for Responsible Solutions.

If you're to believe the Green Party of the United States' latest campaign finance disclosure, the party is mired in financial crisis, carrying nearly $36,000 in debt and a negative cash balance of more than $58,000.

Not exactly a solid foundation for establishing yourself as a legit alternative to Republicans and Democrats.

But wait, the Green Party says: its financial situation isn't quite so bleak.

Errors in the party's previous reports to the Federal Election Commission are to blame, and in actuality, it's in the black by about $10,000, party official Brian Bittner tells the Center for Public Integrity.

"We are preparing to file several amendments over the next few weeks to correct those errors," Bittner said. "We do have to continue filing timely reports even while we are working to amend them."

To be sure, the Green Party has never been cash rich. At the end of 2004, the Green Party reported nearly $46,000 cash on hand, while at the end of 2008, it reported more than $33,000 in debt and deficits.

Green Party activists' tepid financial support for their own party committee doesn't mean they're turning to other political vehicles, such as super PACs, to boost their electoral prospects, either.

Deep in the heart of coal country, New Power PAC touts candidates who support clean energy.

While the Kentucky-based super PAC has registered with the Federal Election Commission like other super PACs, it's unlike most of its brethren in that its only activity during the 2012 election cycle was at the state-level.

It's also unlike many of its counterparts in that the only donor it has revealed is a group called Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a "social welfare" nonprofit group organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the U.S. tax code and, therefore, not required to reveal its funding sources.

More than 99 percent of the nearly $47,000 New Power PAC raised during the 2012 election cycle came from this related nonprofit, documents filed with the FEC indicate. State and federal records show the group paid for advertising online, in newspapers and on the radio in seven state-level legislative races.

Steve Boyce, who served as the chairman of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth during 2011 and 2012, says this lack of disclosure isn't for nefarious reasons.

Boyce said that his organization, which reported about $550,000 in revenue to the Internal Revenue Service in 2011, relies on "grassroots giving" and that the average household donation is "pretty modest," somewhere between $100 and $150.

"I wish there were more people who needed to be disclosed," Boyce told the Center for Public Integrity.

The group, he said, has focused its fundraising energies on raising money for the nonprofit, not the super PAC.

Former Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., who resigned from Congress nearly three years ago amid accusations he groped colleagues and cohabited with junior-level male staff members, continues to cut his wife a monthly check from his campaign account, a new Federal Election Commission disclosure indicates.

Beverly Massa received a monthly payment of $692 in October, November and December for "accounting services," according to the Massa for Congress committee's latest report, filed this morning. She is listed in documents as the committee's treasurer.

Massa's campaign account contained more than $62,000 as of Dec. 31, the report states. But aside from the payments to Massa's wife, the committee's only other payments in late 2012 went toward low-dollar legal fees, taxes and payroll services.

Beverly Massa used to receive even more compensation from the committee: Politico noted last year that Massa once paid his wife about double what he does now.

Updated (March 20, 5:00 p.m.)

Four foundations run by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch hold a combined $310 million in assets according to tax filings obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.

The documents also show that the brothers, principal owners of the second-largest privately held company in the United States, combined in 2011 to donate $24 million through those foundations with much of the money going to support free-market and libertarian think tanks and academic centers.

A $4.4 million grant to the George Mason University Foundation makes up 15 percent of the university foundation’s grant revenue for 2011. The school is the largest recipient of Koch foundation money since 1985, and it houses several free-market and libertarian research centers including the Institute for Humane Studies, which received $3.7 million from the Koch foundations.

Fix the Debt Coalition, the political arm of the bipartisan and star-studded Campaign to Fix the Debt, has hired a trio of professional lobbyists to press its fiscal reform agenda with federal government, according to a new document filed this evening with the U.S. Senate.

This marks the first time Fix the Debt Coalition has formally registered lobbyists, the group's Senior Finance and Operations Adviser Simone Frank confirmed to the Center for Public Integrity. 

The group's lobbying efforts wouldn't focus on any one governmental branch or agency but would rather hit "across the board," Frank said.  

"Fixing U.S. long-term debt and deficits" and "educate on the need for a comprehensive plan to fix the U.S. long-term debt and deficits" are Fix the Debt Coalition's lobbying goals as stated in its lobbying registration documents.

Fix the Debt Coalition's lobbyists work directly for the group, not a hired lobbying firm.

The three lobbyists are Cynthia Brown, a former chief of staff to Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis.; Nathaniel Hoopes, former legislative director for ex-Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass.; and Elizabeth Wroe, a former health policy director and counsel to the Senate Budget Committee, filings indicate.

As one of the leading advocates for new gun safety measures in the wake of the December mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., Mayors Against Illegal Guns will be pitted against the deep-pocketed National Rifle Association.

That doesn't faze Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a nonprofit launched in 2007 by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

"Money is not all that matters," Glaze, who is also a principal at the D.C.-based lobbying firm The Raben Group, told the Center for Public Integrity. "Intensity matters a lot."

Glaze said that Mayors Against Illegal Guns has seen more than 500,000 new supporters since the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 28 dead, including 20 children. 

"There are a lot of people who are more interested in the issue than there were before," Glaze said.

Nevertheless, the NRA has dominated Mayors Against Illegal Guns when it comes to recent influence spending.

Congressional records indicate that Mayors Against Illegal Guns has spent $730,000 on lobbying since President Barack Obama took office in 2009.

That total includes $200,000 spent in 2012 when Glaze and two other Raben Group principals — Katharine Huffman and Karen Marangi — were registered as lobbyists for the group. The organization advocated for requiring background checks for all firearms purchases, including those at gun shows.

The American League of Lobbyists has terminated its lobbying contract with Marlowe & Company, the firm run by Howard Marlowe, the league's former president, new documents filed with the U.S. Senate indicate.

The parting is mutual and amicable, officials at both the League and Marlowe & Company tell the Center for Public Integrity. The contract termination was effective Dec. 31, the filing indicates.

In addition to Marlowe, Marlowe & Company staffers Michael Willis, a former senior legislative assistant to Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., and Joel Porter, a former aide to ex-Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kansas, will also step away from representing the League.

"Howard's termination is just part of his not being president of ALL anymore," said Danielle Staudt, the League's executive director. "He's still the immediate past president and a member."

Staudt added that it plans to tap the firm run by its new president, Monte Ward, to represent the League.

So why does a group of lobbyists need lobbyists anyway?

House Majority PAC released a video today that features Democratic members of Congress praising the super PAC for “fighting back” against conservative groups — and helping them get elected in 2012.

“I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the tremendous help of the House Majority PAC,” says Rep. Elizabeth Etsy, D-Conn., one of the 40 House Majority PAC-backed candidates who won on Election Day.

House Majority PAC’s four-and-a-half-minute video showcases infomercial-style testimonials from seven new members of Congress. A disclaimer at the bottom of the screen reads that each politician is “not asking for funds or donations.”

The ad, titled "We Make The Difference," also chronicles and contrasts the past two election cycles. In the 2010 midterm election, an avalanche of spending by outside groups helped Republicans reclaim the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2012, Democratic-aligned groups jumped headlong into the super PAC game.

“As long as Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Crossroads exist, it’s important that progressives fight back,” Andy Stone, the organization’s spokesperson, told the Center for Public Integrity, referencing the former Bush adviser who helped launch super PAC American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, its politically active nonprofit sister group.

Urban Outfitters oozes hipness and irreverence, its fashion line a galaxy removed from, say, wingtips and power suits.

Just don't expect its newest associates to don "I Heart Stifler's Mom" T-shirts or "Bitch Please" gloves anytime soon. 

The teen- and twentysomething-focused clothier has hired Abraham & Roetzel LLC, the lobbying firm of former Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., to represent it, according to a new U.S. Senate lobbying registration filing.

"Retail" and "federal policy involving economic development and urban development" are the issues on which Abraham & Roetzel will lobby for Urban Outfitters, the filing states. 

Federal records further indicate that this is the first time Urban Outfitters has hired federal-level lobbying representation. Come April, the company will be required to disclose how much it paid for the help.

In the meantime, the government affairs shop is allocating three lobbyists to assist Urban Outfitters, including its president, Bob Carey, the former director of the Department of Defense’s Federal Voting Assistance Program and a one-time Senate aide to both Abraham and ex-Sen. George Allen, R-Va.