outside money

January 16, 2015 - With the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision lifting political spending restrictions coming up on Jan. 21, the Brennan Center for Justice released a report this week looking at outside spending and dark money in last year's U.S. Senate races -- and it paints a frightening for democracy.

November 14, 2014 - The American Petroleum Institute jumped into the outside spending game in the North Carolina state politics this year. Most of its chosen legislative candidates won re-election -- but not all of them. Was outside spending by environmentalists a factor in the losses?

October 31, 2014 - Led by the American Petroleum Institute, energy interests are contributing to the outside spending onslaught in North Carolina elections this year. Not surprisingly, their giving overwhelmingly favors anti-regulatory Republicans and Democrats with weak environmental records.

October 23, 2014 - Over the past 15 years, North Carolina's high court has sided against the environment in every major environmental law case it's considered, a new study finds. And with the court's three Democrats facing tough re-election challenges, the odds could become even more stacked.

October 17, 2014 - In the first election since the end of North Carolina's judicial public financing program, Supreme Court and Court of Appeals candidates have raised nearly three times the amount of individual contributions as they had in recent elections -- and much of that money is coming from those with matters before the courts.

September 11, 2014 - A Facing South analysis finds that candidates for the North Carolina Supreme Court and Court of Appeals are set to spend record sums on campaign ads in the coming weeks. The election will be the first in a decade without the state's public financing program for judges, and special-interest money is pouring in.

July 23, 2014 - Environmentalists and others have condemned the Obama administration's decision to open up the Atlantic to seismic testing for oil and gas reserves, blaming political pressure from deep-pocketed oil and gas interests. Just how much is the industry spending to influence federal policy?