Peter Overby

Jeb Bush's Right to Rise USA broke all records for presidential superPACs, but it didn't propel him to frontrunner status in the Republican presidential race. NPR explores if this means superPACs are overrated.

The TV ad campaign for Republican Jeb Bush is faltering in South Carolina, where GOP voters go to the polls Saturday.

A new report by the Wesleyan Media Project finds that the pro-Bush superPAC, Right To Rise USA, aired an estimated 2,664 ads in the state between Feb. 1 ...

Hillary Clinton's superPAC seemed to be essentially sitting out the primary, saving its war chest to fight Republicans in the general election. Now that's changed.

In the 10 days since Bernie Sanders thumped Clinton in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, the pro-Clinton superPAC Priorities USA Action has spent $1.3 ...

It was a point of agreement between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders at their last debate. It's also supported by some Republican contenders. But that doesn't mean it'll happen easily.

Here's a question for New Hampshire voters. Would you have voted for Jeb Bush if he'd given you $1,086?

Bush didn't offer that, obviously. But that's the amount his campaign and superPAC spent on TV ads in New Hampshire for each vote Bush received in the primary on Tuesday.

The ...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders both pledged their allegiance Thursday to the cause of campaign finance reform during the final Democratic presidential debate before the New Hampshire primary.

Polls show that many Americans agree: Too much money comes from too few donors. The candidates' ...

The Takeaways:

• Republican candidates raised more than $227 million in 2015, less than the GOP field raised in 2011.
• The year-end reports include the first disclosure of big money from Donald Trump and reveal the precarious state of Jeb Bush's White House bid.
• Some wealthy conservative donors, including Las ...

Update at at 6:30 p.m. ET on Friday: Sen. Ted Cruz gave the Federal Election Commission an accounting of his campaign loans Thursday evening. The Cruz for Senate treasurer acknowledged in a letter that Cruz's loans to the campaign were underwritten by a margin loan from Goldman Sachs, where his ...

Outside groups were expected to propel candidates this year. But in the 2016 Republican primary, they are having little impact on who's up and who's down.

Ann Ravel had success uncovering secret money in politics as a California state official. As her year leading the Federal Election Commission ends, she says she couldn't bridge the partisan divide.

A Supreme Court ruling in 2014 opened the door for an individual to give nearly three-quarters of a million dollars through a committee established by one candidate during the 2016 race.

Sheldon Adelson has bought The Las Vegas Review-Journal. In addition to making lots of money off of gambling and hospitality, Adelson is one of the most active donors in conservative politics.

If it seems like there are a lot more presidential ads on TV than in past campaign cycles, it's because there are.

Without a Democratic president running for re-election, Republicans have upped their ad volume nearly 45 percent from the 2011-12 cycle, according to a new report by the

It's a fair bet that in 1934, five years into the Great Depression and a year into the New Deal, Congress wasn't thinking about a political future that would be rife with secretly financed political groups.

But the Communications Act of 1934, the cornerstone of U.S. broadcasting law, may require ...

Even as negotiators struggled this week at the Paris summit on climate change, Senate Republicans held a subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill to challenge the underlying science. They called it "Data or Dogma?"

"The computer models are profoundly wrong," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who's running ...

An alliance of anti-establishment Republicans and Democrats in Congress is seeking to hold down at least one kind of political spending.

Hard-line conservatives say GOP leaders want to undermine Tea Party-style newcomers who challenge the Washington establishment. Progressives see their own leaders ready to write off a long-standing provision of ...

Sen. Mitch McConnell wants to do away with limits on how much a party committee can spend to support a candidate. Party committees are bound by contribution limits intended to prevent corruption.

Florida mailman and gyrocopter pilot Doug Hughes has pleaded guilty to one felony for his campaign-finance reform caper last April. He landed his flying machine on the Capitol lawn before authorities apprehended him.

He meant to deliver individual letters to all senators and House members, urging them to clamp down ...

The superPAC backing Jeb Bush seemed to have everything it needed. It went into the primaries with the most money by far. Right to Rise USA had raised $103 million by June 30, with plenty of help from Bush before he officially announced his candidacy and could no longer ...

Bernie Sanders proudly says he doesn't have a superPAC — one of those unshackled political committees that raise and spend unlimited money that the candidate couldn't accept.

Most other presidential candidates have a superPAC or two running alongside. Republican Carly Fiorina's superPAC has played a major role in boosting ...