Peter Overby

Doug Hughes flew into Washington, D.C., on something resembling a hybrid bicycle and helicopter. He did it to protest money in politics, but he could face up to a decade in prison. He has no regrets.

Doug Hughes, the Florida postman who gyrocoptered through Washington's anti-terrorism warning system to land on the Capitol lawn, now faces two felonies, four misdemeanors and up to 9 1/2 years in prison for his efforts.

His mission was to deliver stamped letters — he is a postman — ...

Secret money in politics has been controversial since the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling. Some 70 charitable foundations are asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to end that secrecy.

You just had a good look at your financial situation last month, when you did your tax return. Now you can check out the government's official financial reports on President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Federal elected officials, candidates and high-level bureaucrats have to file annual ...

If Congress is all about sausage-making, Washington's political-money industry has its own specialty: slicing the particular sausage that is campaign finance law, thinner and thinner.

The meat of the law is in its definitions. What is a "contribution"? An "expenditure"? What does "coordinate" really mean? "Public communication"? How about ...

The lofty target for the superPAC of not-quite-a-candidate Jeb Bush is one more sign of the cash gusher — and legal gray areas — opened up by recent campaign finance decisions.

Under narrow definitions of corruption, candidates courting billionaires to fuel their White House bids doesn't qualify. But some activists, on the left and the right, argue that it should.

If there's one thing that today's Supreme Court doesn't like, it's governmental overreach in regulating political money.

But if there's something the court likes even less, it's the increasing prominence of money in electing America's judges. That's how five justices came to uphold a rule in Florida that ...

Since Hillary Clinton launched her presidential run, her family's foundation has been scrutinized. The Clintons responded, calling it the most transparent organization of its kind. But is that true?

Clinton called campaign finance reform one of the "four big fights" of her campaign. But does this idea of a constitutional amendment to restrict or eliminate big money stand a chance?

Here's a question for you last-minute tax filers. See that little checkoff box at the top of the 1040 tax form, the one labeled "Presidential Election Campaign"? You didn't check it, did you?

If not, then you're just like pretty much everybody else.

That little box is for presidential ...

You can still check the box on your 1040 federal income tax return and earmark $3 for presidential public financing.

As Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., prepared for his official announcement of a White House run, so had Conservative Solutions PAC. It's a superPAC focused exclusively on helping Rubio reach his goal.

Technically, Conservative Solutions has no ties to Rubio. His campaign can't coordinate messages or strategy with it.

But Rubio ...

Presidential campaign donors can give as much as they want to superPACs. These groups aren't officially affiliated with the candidate, but they're changing the nature of presidential campaigns.

As Sen. Rand Paul declares for the GOP presidential nomination, a secret money group called the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America attacks him as a weak protector in foreign policy.

Sen. Bob Menendez, who came up in the sharp-edged politics of Hudson County, N.J., has been under varying levels of ethics scrutiny in seven of his nine-plus years as a senator.

He'd never been indicted — until yesterday.

The indictment landed like a chunk of loose concrete from ...

Updated at 5:40 p.m. ET

Two liberal watchdog groups are challenging the strategy that four presidential hopefuls — Republicans Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Rick Santorum and Democrat Martin O'Malley — are using to avoid legal contribution limits and disclosure requirements.

In complaints ...

More money is expected to be raised and spent in 2016 than in any election in U.S. history. But, as candidates ditch old ways of campaigning, more of it is expected to be undisclosed and untraceable.

Hillary Clinton is, at least for now, not officially running for president. That's what she has said all along, and now all six members of the Federal Election Commission are on record agreeing with her.

The commissioners — three Republicans and three Democrats — unanimously voted they found "no ...

For all the presidential aspirants, just three have launched exploratory committees. The others are jumping through hoops to make clear that they're just thinking about the possibility of running.