Peter Overby
Peter Overby has covered Washington power, money, and influence since a foresighted NPR editor created the beat in 1994.
Overby has covered scandals involving House Speaker Newt Gingrich, President Bill Clinton, lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others. He tracked the rise of campaign finance regulation as Congress passed campaign finance reform laws, and the rise of deregulation as Citizens United and other Supreme Court decisions rolled those laws back.
During President Trump's first year in office, Overby was on a team of NPR journalists covering conflicts of interest sparked by the Trump family business. He did some of the early investigations of dark money, dissecting a money network that influenced a Michigan judicial election in 2013, and — working with the Center for Investigative Reporting — surfacing below-the-radar attack groups in the 2008 presidential election.
In 2009, Overby co-reported Dollar Politics, a multimedia series on lawmakers, lobbyists and money as the Senate debated the Affordable Care Act. The series received an award for excellence from the Capitol Hill-based Radio and Television Correspondents Association. Earlier, he won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for his coverage of the 2000 elections and 2001 Senate debate on campaign finance reform.
Prior to NPR, Overby was an editor/reporter for Common Cause Magazine, where he shared an Investigative Reporters and Editors award. He worked on daily newspapers for 10 years, and has freelanced for publications ranging from Utne Reader and the Congressional Quarterly Guide To Congress to the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.
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When the billionaire developer entered the presidential race, he drew a sharp line between other candidates — needy candidates, always trading favors for money — and himself. -
Lawmakers have left Washington, D.C., for August recess, but intense lobbying over the Iran nuclear deal followed them home.
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Even as former Gov. Perry's campaign is cutting its payroll, his political committee may be able to help. If it works, it's likely to set a new standard for how presidential campaigns are financed. -
Larry Lessig wants to crowdsource $1 million for his White House bid, which he says he would use to bring attention to political money and "fix this rigged system." -
A two-year bipartisan Senate investigation found the agency needs to cut through bureaucratic red tape and institute better communication and management. -
Jesse Benton runs the superPAC backing Ron Paul's son, Rand Paul, in his presidential bid. But Paul's campaign pointed fingers at the "Obama Justice Department" for the timing of its release. -
The Koch brothers' political network of wealthy donors this weekend auditioned five GOP presidential candidates, another sign of billionaires' increasing political clout.
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Trump says he's rich enough to pay for his own White House bid. But the billion-dollar-plus price tag might be tough, even for him. -
Jeb Bush's presidential campaign got a nice fundraising haul last quarter, $11.5 million. But that's piddling compared to the $103 million his Super PAC pulled in, thanks to unlimited contributions.
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The Vermont senator's campaign said its average contribution was $33.51, but reliance on small donors cuts both ways. -
The bank, which helps finance trade deals for U.S. companies, needed reapproval by June 30. Now it is living on borrowed time, after an anti-crony capitalism campaign driven by conservative groups.
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Donald Trump held up a one-page summary of his wealth that he claimed showed he's worth almost $9 billion. But the public essentially has to take his word for it until more details are disclosed.
