Tag: Lobbyists

DENVER-- Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and former Colorado Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff told a crowd of about 30 students closely gathered in the Senate Room at the Auraria Higher Education Campus Wednesday that he was trying to lead by example with his so-far low-key campaign. Earlier in the day his staff announced Romanoff would not be taking Political Action Committee contributions.

DENVER — ProgressNow Colorado founder and CEO Michael Huttner today in the Capitol presented a list of high-powered Washington, D.C., lobbyists who have donated to U.S. Senate candidate Jane Norton since she launched her campaign last month. Combing through Norton's latest finance disclosure forms, Huttner's progressive activist organization found eleven top national lobbyists among her donors, many of them the source of ethics scandals and the targets of investigation.

Health insurance companies for decades have been exempt from federal anti-trust laws and are exploiting that privilege to generate enormous profits at the expense of patients, Senate Democrats charged Wednesday. The laws allow companies to feign competition while really colluding to set prices. The Seanate debate is fueling calls to make a public health insurance option part of any reform bill. Lawmakers — including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) — want to repeal the anti-trust exemption as part of broader efforts this year to overhaul the nation’s dysfunctional health care system.

As the Washington Independent noted on Wednesday, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee is in the midst of tackling financial regulatory reform, which has...

How will newspapers survive? Maybe by finally coming out and admitting to the role reporters and editors have been sliding into for years now. In other words, Why sell journalism that targets the power elite when you can sell cozy access to the power elite, including of course high-profile reporters and editors? The sad news today is that the Washington Post has decided to begin charging lobbyists and executives a bundle to meet in congenial settings with media people and their lawmaker friends. As the Washington Post flier pitching the program puts it: "An evening with the right people can alter the debate." How true.