The Center for Public Integrity

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.

One might reasonably assume a casino company run by Sheldon Adelson, the most generous super PAC donor of the 2012 election cycle, would sponsor a rather substantial political action committee.

Think again.

The Las Vegas Sands Corp. Political Action Committee has nearly run its account dry with less than $11,000 to its name as of Dec. 31, a new document filed with the Federal Election Commission indicates.

Unlike super PACs, which may accept unlimited contributions to attack or promote political candidates, the casino's PAC is of the traditional variety, legally empowered to accept only limited donations for the primary purpose of donating directly to political candidates. Individuals may donate no more than $5,000 per year to a traditional PAC.

Nevertheless, Sands PAC's spending during the 2012 election season is tiny compared to the more than $93 million Adelson and his family directed to various conservative super PACs ahead of November's election. It's also notably less than the spending by many other corporate PACs of similarly sized corporations, which routinely ranged deep into six- and seven-figure territory last year.

For the 2012 election cycle, Sands PAC raised more than $95,000 and spent less than $126,000, federal records show. Most of its expenditures came in the form of modest contributions to a couple dozen congressional candidates, the American Gaming Association Political Action Committee and the National Shooting Sports Foundation PAC.

Too early to think about the 2014 midterm elections?

Not for a quartet of first-term Democratic senators who face potentially contentious — and expensive — re-election campaigns ahead of an Election Day that's more than 21 months away.

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; Kay Hagan, D-N.C.; Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; and Mark Udall, D-Colo.; have teamed up to form Senate Victory 2014, a federal joint fundraising committee, new paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission indicates.

Such a committee raises cash on behalf of each participant, then distributes funds among them. The setup makes it easier for big-dollar donors to write a single check to the joint committee instead of sending money to multiple candidates.

Judy Zamore of Capitol Compliance Associates will serve as the committee's treasurer.

Why is 2013 an important year for campaign finance? Dave Levinthal and Michael Beckel will answer that, and many other questions about the money-in-politics world in a live chat next Monday, February 4, at 1:00pm ET. 

Cain Connections PAC, a super PAC led by former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and administered by his cigarette-smoking right hand man Mark Block, finds itself struggling to stay solvent. And relevant.

For one, the super PAC took in just $640 in contributions between Nov. 27 and Dec. 31, new federal filings show.

That's a pittance compared to the more than $1.24 million it collected from people and political committees during the rest of 2012.

Most of the money Cain Connections PAC generated in late 2012 — $19,294 — came from renting lists of information on its supporters to a pair of Virginia-based political fundraising firms, its latest federal disclosure indicates.

Meanwhile, the super PAC's minimal expenditures aren't going toward political advocacy at all but to bankroll its own internal operations.

Legal services and credit card and bank fees rank among its late-year spending, which stands in stark contrast to the tens of thousands of dollars it invested earlier in 2012 on attacking President Barack Obama through various advertisements.

Cain Connections PAC ended the year with about $37,000 in reserve against more than $13,500 in debt, records show. That means it's just back in the black after spending chunks of 2012 carrying more debt on its balance sheet than available cash.

"Jeopardy!" viewers in Denver will get a dose of politics during this evening’s program, Federal Communications Commission records indicate.

A recently formed group called Americans for a Strong Defense has purchased advertising time during "Jeopardy!," "Wheel of Fortune," "Meet the Press" and several other programs in Colorado’s largest media market ahead of this week’s potentially contentious confirmation hearing of former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be the next defense secretary.

The group has purchased more than 90 TV spots for roughly $73,000 in the Denver media market, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of FCC records posted online.

Last week, Americans for a Strong Defense announced a multi-state advertising spree urging viewers to call their senators to vote against Hagel’s nomination.

The group’s ads are targeting Colorado’s two Democratic senators — Mark Udall and Michael Bennet — as well as Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska; Mark Pryor, D-Ark.; Mary Landrieu, D-La.; and Kay Hagan, D-N.C. With the exception of Bennet, each senator is likely to face a competitive re-election in 2014.