smokeymischief

The Brookings Institution hosted an event in conjunction with Publish What You Fund on Thursday, January 19th to discuss progress made in regards to foreign aid transparency. Video of the event is available here.

It\'s a big day in politics: Voters in Florida are casting ballots in their hotly contested GOP presidential primary; voters in Oregon\'s 1st Congressional District are picking a replacement for ex-Rep. David Wu, a Democrat. Here in Washington, we\'ll be hovering over computer screens and hitting the refresh button in hopes of learning who is trying to influence those contests and beyond.

1. What makes a super PAC super?

Traditional political action committees are bound by a $5,000 annual limit on the size of contributions they can accept from individuals and are prohibited from accepting contributions from corporations and labor unions. A super PAC is freed from these restrictions under two conditions: The PAC must neither 1) give money directly to a candidate or other political committees that give directly to candidates, nor 2) coordinate how it spends its money with a federal candidate. As long as those two conditions are met, a super PAC may accept donations directly from corporate or union treasuries and in amounts that are limited only by the size of donors\' bank accounts. Movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg wrote a $2 million check to the super PAC backing President Obama\'s reelection; casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife have reportedly underwritten a super PAC backing Newt Gingrich to the tune of $10 million. Neither of these donations could have been le

Nearly four decades ago, the delivery of a suitcase stuffed with $250,000 in cash to one of then-President Richard Nixon\'s top aides helped fuel the Watergate scandal and a complete overhaul of the laws regulating campaign finance. Voters in the 2012 election are likely to know less about who is trying to influence their decision than they have at any time since then. And, compared to the amounts of unregulated dollars flowing into campaigns, the stash of cash that former Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans accepted during the 1972 presidential campaign seems like peanuts.

An interactive timeline of the events that shape money in politics. Click on the dots for more information.

While the polls have constantly fluctuated in the last week before Tuesday\'s GOP presidential primary in Florida, one number has seen a steady rise: the campaign money being pumped into the Sunshine State. Helping to boost the total: The two super PACs supporting frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have spent more than $15 million in the state. That number makes 38 percent of all presidential super PAC spending that Sunlight is tracking.

Here is the week\'s first look at transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events.

The Private Equity Growth Capital Council has a new president with Democratic credentials who has been through Washington\'s revolving door. Steven Judge won the job after serving since last year as interim head of the trade group, which, among other things, lobbies against proposals to increase taxes on carried interest. Those proposals have gained steam in recent weeks because of revelations that carried interest enabled GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney to keep his tax rate lower than that paid by many Americans who made considerably less.