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NY-26 SPENDING SURGE CONTINUES: Money-in-politics reporter Michael Beckel passes along this report …

Election Day is almost here in New York’s 26th Congressional District, and the advertisements are coming fast and furious.

On Tuesday and Wednesday alone, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics, outside groups reported spending about $680,000 on mailings, television ads, radio ads and other messages designed to aid their preferred candidates in the three-way race between Republican Jane Corwin, Democrat Kathy Hochul and Democrat-turned-Tea Party candidate Jack Davis.

During the past nine days, outside groups have now spent more than $1.8 million — a figure that is all but certain to increase in the final days before the May 24 election. The candidates themselves are also spending millions of dollars.

The spending by these outside groups breaks down as follows:

$689,800 by the conservative super PAC American Crossroads for television and online media advertising, mailings and phone calls

$424,680 by the National Republican Congressional Committee for “survey research” and media advertising buys

$266,745 by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for media advertising buys

$182,000 by the liberal super PAC Communications Workers of America Working Voices for “printed materials,” mailings and radio ads

$149,950 by the liberal super PAC House Majority PAC for television advertising

$75,000 by the PAC of the 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for canvassers and mailings

$62,950 by the conservative nonprofit American Action Network for mailings

$22,050 by the National Right to Life PAC for mailings

$7,400 by the National Rifle Association’s PAC for mailings

Super PACs are groups that can accept unlimited contributions from corporations, unions and individuals for advertisements they produce that expressly advocate for or against federal candidates. Traditional PACs, meanwhile, must rely on contributions of $5,000 or less to fund their expenditures, and they cannot take money from corporate or union general treasuries.

THE SECULAR LOBBY VISITS WASHINGTON: A group of secular activists are flocking to Capitol Hill this weekend, where they hope to meet with lawmakers and congressional staff to promote the causes of “godless” Americans.

More than 100 committed atheists, humanists and other so-called nontheists will be in town for the first-ever Biennial Strategic Summit, according to a press release emailed to OpenSecrets.org . The conference is being held by the Secular Coalition for America , which bills itself as the nation’s “leading lobby for nontheistic and secular Americans.”

Though quiet in recent years, the SCA has an established record of lobbying in Washington, D.C. The group has spent more than $171,500 on federal lobbying expenditures since its first efforts in 2006, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics . The group has not reported any lobbying expenditures since 2009.

What issues have previously mattered to the nation’s leading secular lobby? Well, religious issues, for one. At its spending peak in 2008, the SCA made religious issues a top concern in Congress: Reports filed by the SCA mention religion as much as any thing else. The reports spelled out the SCA’s aim to target laws related to the enforcement of laws regarding religious discrimination and legislation aimed at creating abstinence-only provisions in laws to increase HIV-AIDS prevention.

What issues this year the nontheists will bring with them to Capitol Hill is still a mystery. But there is one group that believes they know precisely what the SCA — and any other group for that matter — will be able to bring up with Congress, and that’s… no issues at all.

to lobby, according to Harold Camping, leader of the group That’s because there won’t be anythinglobby, according to Harold Camping, leader of the group WeCanKnow.com . Camping is predicting that this Saturday will mark the end of the world as we know it. Camping and other activists are prophesying May 21 to mark the return of Jesus Christ, an event that would theoretically mark the End of Days, according to the Christian Bible. Camping and others related to the movement have been buying up billboards to spread the word, and even made a stop in Washington, D.C., a few weeks ago.

Obama released a copy of his long-form birth certificate publicly on the White House website a few weeks earlier, in response to a small but vocal contingent of conspiracy theorists have for several years posited that Obama was not a U.S. citizen and was therefore ineligible for the presidency. Although Obama released a copy of his original birth certificate during his 2008 campaign for president showing that he was indeed born in Hawaii, the so-called “birther” movement called the document a forgery and demanded to see the long-form copy of the certificate.

The movement seems to have reached its apex in recent months when businessman Donald Trump seized on the issue to gain attention for a purported (and eventually aborted) presidential campaign and began to join the calls for Obama to release his birth certificate.

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