LANSING – More than 60 percent of spending for the Michigan Supreme Court campaign between incumbent Chief Justice Clifford Taylor and Judge Diane Marie Hathaway will not be disclosed in any campaign finance report because it paid for candidate-focused “issue” advertising. Michigan campaign fi...
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posted on 11/19/2008
Not all the campaign finance data that will be reported are in. Candidate committees have to file post-election reports, and late independent expenditures by state PACs will not be reported until the end of January. But some major story lines from Campaign 2008 are already clear. Here is a first loo...
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posted on 11/11/2008
LANSING -- Michigan’s top 150 political action committees (PACs) reported raising $37.1 million dollars in their pre-election October reports. That total is down by 28.5 percent compared to corresponding figures from the record-setting 2006 election cycle, when the top 150 PACs reported $51.9 mill...
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posted on 10/29/2008
The candidates who will appear on the November 4th ballot for the Michigan House of Representatives had raised $11,675,666 through October 19th, the date they closed books for their pre-general election campaign finance report.
That total is 1.3 percent less than corresponding figures from the re...
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posted on 10/28/2008
LANSING – Chief Justice Clifford W. Taylor and Judge Diane Marie Hathaway already have raised more than $2 million for their Supreme Court election contest: Taylor: $1.8 million and Hathaway: $370,000.
Taylor's campaign has spent $1,265,000 for television advertisements while Hathaway's campai...
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posted on 10/27/2008
LANSING - Barack Obama’s presidential campaign spent 50 percent more for television advertising than John McCain in the first five weeks after Labor Day in Michigan: $5,546,000 to $3,683,000. Obama’s September surge overcame McCain’s early television spending advantage in Michigan, which was d...
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posted on 10/06/2008
LANSING – Lansing lobbyists reported spending $19,159,635 in the first seven months of 2008, according to reports filed with the Michigan Department of State. That total is up by eight percent compared to the first seven months of 2007.
Five multi-client firms topped the lobbying expenditure li...
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posted on 09/17/2008
Candidates for the Michigan House of Representatives have raised $10.4 million and spent $6.9 million this election cycle through August 25th, according to post-primary campaign finance reports filed with the Michigan Bureau of Elections. The amount raised by candidates through the post-primary repo...
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posted on 09/10/2008
LANSING – The presidential candidates’ campaigns and their supporters spent $13.6 million for television advertising in Michigan between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Sen. John McCain’s campaign spent $6.15 million, while Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign spent $5.48 million.
Among supporting gr...
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posted on 09/02/2008
LANSING – The campaign of Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Clifford Taylor has raised $1,464,000 so far this year, setting a new record for a Michigan Supreme Court candidate’s campaign committee. Taylor had raised $1,419,000 as of August 7th, according to his pre-convention campaign finance...
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posted on 08/19/2008
LANSING – Michiganders will elect 249 state court judges this November and three-fourths of those seats have only one candidate. There are 180 incumbents (12 court of appeals, 66 circuit court, 91 district court and 11 probate court) with no challenger for the primary or general election, and six ...
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posted on 07/31/2008
LANSING – Michigan’s top 150 political action committees have raised $27,347,768 so far this election cycle, according to reports filed with the Michigan Bureau of Elections and compiled by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.
This year’s total is down by nine percent compared to the top ...
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posted on 07/29/2008
LANSING -- The field of 449 primary election candidates for the Michigan House of Representatives reports raising $8.4 million this election cycle through July 20th, according to reports on file with the state’s Bureau of Elections as of July 27th.
The 65 House incumbents have raised $3.5 milli...
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posted on 07/28/2008
LANSING – Television advertising for the 2008 presidential general election got a late start by recent Michigan standards but presidential TV ads have become a consistent presence in recent weeks.
John McCain’s television campaign began May 28th and spent $3.2 million by July 20th.
Barack...
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posted on 07/23/2008
LANSING – The Michigan Campaign Finance Network today announced the availability of new publication from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, A Citizen’s Guide to Redistricting.
The Citizen’s Guide is a comprehensive look at the rules for drawing political district lines, in...
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posted on 07/10/2008
LANSING - A new poll of Michigan residents shows broad dissatisfaction with the performance of state government and deep concern about economic-related issues. Michiganders had the most negative view about the direction of their state in the five-state Midwestern survey: 16 percent right track, 81 p...
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posted on 06/19/2008
Two of the major policy initiatives in Lansing this legislative session have been driven by seven-figure advertising campaigns, more than $700,000 in political contributions to legislators so far this election cycle and hefty lobbying campaigns, the extent of which will never be known with any real ...
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posted on 05/22/2008
The Midwest Democracy Network and the Justice at Stake Campaign released the following statement to accompany their new report, The New Politics of Judicial Elections in the Great Lake States, 2000-2008:
“This spring, Wisconsin voters endured their second special-interest-group dominated Supr...
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posted on 05/08/2008
LANSING – Michigan’s top 150 political action committees (PACs) have raised $21.8 million so far this election cycle, according to reports filed with the Michigan Bureau of Elections.
That total is down by 6 percent compared to funds raised by the top 150 PACs at this point in the record-sett...
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posted on 04/28/2008
LANSING – The Michigan Campaign Finance Network joined other reform advocates today in calling for a mandatory pause in the ‘revolving door’ between high-level public service and paid lobbying.
Michigan is in the minority nationally in not requiring an interruption between legislating or ex...
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posted on 03/10/2008
LANSING—The Midwest Democracy Network, a coalition of over 20 Midwestern civic groups working in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, of which the Michigan Campaign Finance Network is a founding member,issued the following statement on Tuesday, February 19th:
“During the past we...
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posted on 02/20/2008
revised 2/21/2008
LANSING – Lansing lobbyists spent $32,101,151 in 2007, according to reports filed with the Michigan Department of State. That total is up by six percent compared to 2006.
Governmental Consultant Services, Inc., a multi-client firm, was the leading spender again in 2007 at $...
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posted on 02/20/2008
LANSING – Grassroots activists brought a simple message to Lansing on Tuesday: Michigan’s high-priced and largely secretive Supreme Court election campaigns undermine public trust and confidence in the state’s highest court. Taxpayer-financed election campaigns would give Supreme Court candida...
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posted on 02/19/2008
REVISED 2/4/2008
LANSING – State officeholders’ first required campaign finance reports since their 2006 post-election reports were due on Thursday January 31st. During the time since their last reports were filed they have collectively raised $4,452,100, according to data compiled by the Mic...
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posted on 02/01/2008
LANSING – Political reform organizations from five Midwest states have collaborated to publish a new book that assesses the state of democracy in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The volume analyzes political pathologies that are unique to the respective states and those that cut...
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posted on 01/16/2008
LANSING -- Former Massachusetts Governor Willard “Mitt” Romney was the leading spender in Michigan’s 2008 Republican presidential primary television ad wars. Romney spent over $2 million, nearly three-times as much as Arizona Senator John McCain, and more than four-times as much as former Arka...
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posted on 01/14/2008
