Weekly Watchdog

December 14, 2012

'Fiscal cliff' ads already target candidates in 2014

Hope that the negotiations over the so-called "fiscal cliff" will avoid partisan politics died this week as a round of ads targeting four precariously positioned Senate Democrats hit the airwaves.

Crossroads GPS, the politically active nonprofit that spent millions in the 2012 election, launched a $240,000 radio ad campaign urging Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Tim Johnson of South Dakota to "stop the spending."

All four senators' seats are considered up-for-grabs in 2014.

Labor unions, big business and other groups with a vested interest in Washington are also peppering the public with messages urging them to tell Congress to cut spending, extend tax breaks and protect the social safety net - all in the name of avoiding the tax increases and spending cuts set to go into effect after the first of the year.

ALEC's decades of 'right-to-work' effort pays off in Michigan

Amid protests by labor unions, and objections from the state's congressional delegation and even the President, Michigan's Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signed a "right-to-work" bill into law Tuesday, drawn word-for-word from a 32-year-old "model bill" pushed by a corporate-funded, conservative think tank.

The bill marks the revival of an effort long promoted by the influential American Legislative Exchange Council, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that has seen its share of controversy recently.

Voters in the dark about last-minute mega-donations

Billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson gave $1 million to a super PAC active in Michigan's U.S. Senate race during the campaign's final days, a fact unknown to voters until long after polls closed.

New records further show that billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg provided nearly $10 million to the "Independence USA PAC," whose priorities include gun control, marriage equality for same-sex couples and education issues. It was launched on Oct. 18 and reported spending $8.2 million on five House races.

The deadline for reporting donations made since Oct. 17 was Dec. 6.

Last-minute contributions are not unusual in politics, but thanks to the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and a lower court ruling, the amount a donor can give to outside groups' electoral efforts is unlimited. Furthermore, donations to political action committees during the final three weeks of the election need not be reported until December.

The reporting gap should be closed, say watchdogs.

The BP toxic mess you've never heard of

Two weeks before the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing 11 workers and spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP was spewing a different kind of pollution - in a major case that has received far less attention.

A BP refinery in Texas City, Texas belched massive amounts of toxic chemicals into the surrounding area for 40 days. Now, as many as 47,830 residents, plant contractors, and nearby workers are suing BP in multi-district legal proceedings based on "symptoms classically associated with exposure to benzene and other toxic chemicals that have been released by BP," the suit alleges.

The first bellwether case is slated for trial in Sept. 2013.

Related: To see how pollution might be effecting your community, use our interactive map of more than 17,000 facilities across the US.

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