Independent Groups
AP: Was IRS Targeting Limited to Cincinnati Office?
The revelation could prove to be significant if investigators are able to show that Washington officials were involved in singling out tea party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. IRS officials have said repeatedly that the targeting was initiated by front-line agents in the Cincinnati office and was stopped once senior officials in Washington found out.
Wall Street Journal: Cleta Mitchell: How to Investigate the IRS
By James FreemanThe woman who helped expose IRS abuse of conservative activists has more news to share: The abuse continues, and she sees no evidence that the White House, the IRS or the Justice Department is doing anything to end it. “This is not in the past tense. This is still going on,” says Cleta Mitchell, perhaps the country’s pre-eminent expert on campaign-finance and political tax law.In 2012, Ms. Mitchell worked to persuade members of Congress that reports of IRS harassment of conservative groups were credible. GOP lawmakers demanded information from the IRS and triggered the internal audit that finally forced the agency last month to acknowledge abuses it had previously denied. Now Ms. Mitchell is determined to end the abuse and identify the culprits.
National Review: Report: IRS Lawyer Who Oversaw Tea-Party Targeting Said to Be Retiring
By Eliana JohnsonA tax law specialist and attorney who processed tea-party cases in the Internal Revenue Service’s Exempt Organization’s Technical Office is retiring, according to an IRS source. Reached over the phone, the lawyer, Carter Hull, would not confirm or deny the report, saying only, “I cannot verify anything about this entire matter.” Hull’s retirement comes after years of service in the Exempt Organization, where he has served ”for decades,” the source tells National Review Online.
Wall Street Journal: An IRS Political Timeline
By Kimberly StrasselPresident Obama spent months in 2010 warning Americans about the ‘threat’ to democracy posed by conservative groups, right at the time the IRS began targeting these groups.
Candidates, Politicians and Parties
Washington Post: Please, Republicans, save the filibuster
By Jonathan BernsteinHere’s the story: In just a few weeks, we’ll find out whether or not six — six — Republicans will be found to vote for cloture, and therefore get to a final confirmation vote, on: three D.C. Circuit Court nominees; choices for the Labor Department and the EPA; and the nominees for the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), the National Labor Relations Board, and very possibly some other executive and judicial vacancies.All of these are needed for the government to run smoothly. Republican objections to the contrary are either silly (in the case of the court vacancies) or based on a explicit preference that the government not run smoothly, in the cases of CFPB and other “nullification” filibusters.
Lobbying and Ethics
USA Today: Feds recommend 4 years in prison for Jackson Jr.
By Fredreka Schouten and Catalina CamiaWASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors Friday recommended a four-year prison term for former Illinois congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., who has admitted using $750,000 in campaign funds to pay his living expenses and to splurge on luxury items like furs and jewelry.The government also wants Jackson to repay his campaign $750,000.
FEC
Soft Money Hard Law: The Federal Election Commission and its Choice of a General Counsel
By Bob BauerAs the combatants see it, each side in its own way, the stand-off within the Federal Election Commission is a conflict over principle and the proper reading of the law. Commissioners affiliated with the Democratic Party say they seek reasonable but vigorous enforcement; the Republican-affiliated Commissioners say they apply only the law as it is, within constitutional limits, and not as the Democrats wish it to be. The disagreements run through a host of regulatory decisions; they affect the writing of advisory opinions, the outcome of enforcement decisions, and the decisions over whether to appeal adverse court judgments. Bad feeling seems to run high. But, as one might expect, no Commissioner would concede in the slightest that partisanship or power politics accounts for the way their positions are formulated or their votes are cast. And it is always difficult when there are differences over matters of substance to be certain of the play of politics beneath the surface. It might be suspected; it is often hard to prove.Partisan motives may be clearer to the eye, or the suspicion of them inevitable, in matters of process. The FEC faces just such a test of process in the handling of the vacancy now created in the office of General Counsel by the resignation of Tony Herman. The General Counsel is a figure of considerable influence and importance within the agency, bearing major responsibilities for interpretation and enforcement, but he or she is a “hire” of the agency. The General Counsel is staff, and yet more than staff. The agency’s history has shown that in controversial matters, Commissioners critical of the Counsel’s position and unwilling to follow her lead have found themselves in a tough spot. They are, after all, the political appointees and, on hard or political sensitive issues, they may be pitted against a Counsel who in theory should occupy neutral ground as an independent professional attorney unhampered by partisan loyalties or pressures in interpreting the law.
State and Local
New York –– Politico: Eric Schneiderman targets political nonprofits
By Byron TauIt’s the first major push anywhere in the country to crackdown on political nonprofits — even if it only applies to groups operating in New York state.“I don’t have jurisdiction over federal elections,” Schneiderman said. “But I do have jurisdiction over nonprofit activity in New York.”
New York –– Huffington Post: Campaign Finance Reform Coalition In New York Steps Up Efforts In Legislature’s Last Weeks
By Paul BlumenthalPaid media on television and radio are ramping up with help from financier Jonathan Soros and his Friends of Democracy super PAC. Mail is going out to 25,000 “independent-minded” voters who were identified using data in the Catalist voter file. Earned media, from editorial placement to op-eds by well-known figures like former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, is increasing.Billboards and banner drops can be seen along highways around the state. Organizers have been sent out to canvass in targeted Senate districts. The coalition is also pushing its efforts on social media from Twitter to Tumblr.The highly coordinated campaign has organized a handful of progressive groups, often with unconnected interests, for the common purpose of passing campaign finance reform. It has also been a campaign in which non-campaign finance reform groups have taken an uncommon leading role.
