Allbritton Communications News

That's the question posed by D.C.-based society magazine Washington Life in its May issue, which highlights 100 individuals who "show the depth and breadth of power in Washington and beyond." So who made it? Team Obama figures prominently, from David Axelrod to Bill Burton to Anita Dunn to Jim Messina to Julianna Smoot.

Charleston may be slathered with wedding-cake antebellum mansions and simmered in Southern tradition, but its news sites are experimenting with some decidedly untraditional ways to gather news - and audience.

Every local broadcast station has a repository of documents about political advertising that you have a legal right to see but can do so only by going to the station and asking to see "the public file." These paper files contain detailed data on all ads that run on the channel, such as when they aired, who bought the time and how much they paid.