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Capital Eye Opener, Feb. 1: Five Things We Didn’t Know About 2012 Until Last Night, and More

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FIVE THINGS WE DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT 2012 UNTIL LAST NIGHT: We know, we know: 2012 is over, done, in the rear-view mirror. But in the campaign finance world, midnight last night marked a sort of reckoning for 2012 politicos and entities, as it was the FEC’s deadline for filing all year-end campaign finance reports. Now, your humble reporting team was off-the-clock by that hour. But several dedicated reporters were up burning the midnight oil and squeezing every last drop out of the most expensive election in U.S. history. Here’s a quick round-up of what they found.
1. Obama and Democrats finished in the red, while Team Romney kept in the black. 


That leaves Democrats in the hole going into 2014, while Republicans are in good shape, money-wise. 

2.  Other GOP presidential hopefuls didn’t fare as well, with most revealing they remain deep in debt.

There’s Newt, who by far is in the deepest hole:


Rick Santorum owes six-figures — and his creditors apparently include this NASCAR Sprint Cup racing team


Herman Cain finished the year with $450,000 in debt. And that’s less the $1,500-odd his campaign received from, uh, selling furniture to Rib Shack.

Jon Huntsman, however, used his own personal wealth to pay off his campaign debt, which is certainly one way to do it:
(And if you’re keeping track at home, another way to do it would be to raise and spend almost nothing.)
3. The two biggest presidentially-focused super PACs still have plenty of money. 


Paul’s question (“WHY?[???]”) is fair. Expect to hear more from these two groups — or at least from that money — in the future.

4. The NRA and the Brady Campaign both laid low in December.



Turns out the NRA has a massive stockpile, however — and it’s surely bigger now than this report suggests:

5. Mitt Romney had nearly 70 lobbyists bundling about $17 million for him during the 2012 cycle. 


Five new lobbyist-bundlers were revealed last night: 

You can read more on Michael’s findings — as well as other nuggets that turned up last night — over at Primary Source.

— Evan Mackinder


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ANHEUSER LOBBIES TO BUY CORONA: The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit yesterday to stop Anheuser-Busch InBev from taking over Grupo Modelo, the Mexican beer company that owns, among other brands, Corona. The deal would be huge — worth at least $20.1 billion — and according to the government would give Anheuser-Busch 46 percent of the beer market in America. 
Anheuser-Busch has been preparing for this move for awhile. Besides making its case in meetings with DOJ — apparently without success — it has been trying to win the sympathy of members of Congress. According to lobbying disclosures filed by Anheuser-Busch, the company has lobbied on “notification/information pertaining to the acquisition of the remaining share of Grupo Modelo not already owned.”

And when Anheuser-Busch talks, lawmakers tend to listen — the company spent $3.6 million lobbying last year and the company’s PAC gave more than $850,000 to members of Congress in the 2012 election cycle. The company spends more on lobbying than any other entity in the beer/wine/liquor industry except the Distilled Spirits Council; it’s significantly ahead of its next biggest competitor (on K Street and in the beer market) SABMiller, the conglomerate that owns Coors, Miller and other brands. 

Although the lobbying didn’t prevent the lawsuit, antitrust battles can drag on for years — and as Google recently seemed to prove, it’s better to make your case with anyone in Washington who will listen than to leave it solely up to the courts. 

— Russ Choma

Images: Budweiser image via Flickr user eytonyz 

The post Capital Eye Opener, Feb. 1: Five Things We Didn’t Know About 2012 Until Last Night, and More appeared first on OpenSecrets Blog.


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