Independent groups
Bloomberg: How Super-PACs Will Keep the Campaign Clean
By Jonathan AlterStrangely enough, the 2012 presidential campaign, expected to be the dirtiest in modern memory, may end up being relatively clean.
Bloomberg: Grandfather’s Millions Make Paul Fan A Political Player
By Greg GirouxJohn Ramsey became old enough to buy a Carlsberg nine months ago. The 21-year-old college student from east Texas isn’t old enough to serve in Congress. His intellectual role model, U.S. Texas Representative Ron Paul, has been in Congress 22 years — longer than Ramsey has been alive.
Slate: Save Us, Soros!
By David WeigelRepublican Thomas Massie has a terrific shot at winning a seat in Congress. He’s an outsider—only one little local victory on the resume—in a year when that’s still popular. His district, Kentucky’s fourth, is a cluster of coal counties and rich suburbs that’s started to go solidly GOP. By primary day, May 22, Massie had slightly outspent his two strongest opponents. And he won, by 45 percent to 29 percent over a highly-touted state senator.
The Hill: Trump considering funding his own super-PAC
By Alicia M. Cohn“I am thinking about just doing my own super-PAC, ” Trump told conservative news site Newsmax in an interview published Wednesday night. He said unnamed operatives have approached him about the idea, due to Trump’s ability to fund an independent political action committee that would likely support Mitt Romney and oppose President Obama.
National Journal: Buy Early and Often
By Reid WilsonThe bully pulpit ain’t what it used to be. That’s the lesson President Obama learned when his assault on Bain Capital was drowned out by Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker. It’s no better for Mitt Romney, who lost control of his narrative when the mere prospect that a group unaffiliated with his campaign might run incendiary ads about the president’s former pastor forced the presumptive GOP nominee to disavow a sympathizer.
Trial
Politico: First sign of progress from John Edwards trial jury
By Josh GersteinOn their fifth day of deliberations following a four-week-long trial, the jury asked for 20 exhibits, most or all of which appear to pertain to Edwards backer Fred Baron’s expenditures in connection with Edwards’s mistress Rielle Hunter.
News and Observer: Instructions may complicate Edwards jury’s task
By Anne BlytheIf the jury tasked with deciding the fate of John Edwards is following the judge’s direction, only the jury’s eight men and four women know what their deliberations have focused on for the past four days.
Candidates and parties
Huffington Post: Rescuing ‘We, the People’
By Rep. Jim McGovernDefenders of the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United and the ascendant corporate rights doctrine that underlies it must be getting nervous.Note: We aren’t.
FEC
National Journal: Amid GOP Pressure, FEC Releases Enforcement Documents for First Time
By Andrew JosephThe Federal Election Commission on Wednesday released, for the first time, enforcement documents after members of Congress asked the watchdog agency to be more transparent about how it enforces the nation’s election laws.
