In the News
Providence Journal: Whitehouse wants IRS to chill speech
By Luke Wachob
Apologists for the Internal Revenue Service claim that there is no “smoking gun” linking the targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exemptions to political bias. It would be more accurate to say that there’s too much smoke and too many guns to single out just one shooter.
The IRS was under tremendous pressure from members of Congress, including Rhode Island’s Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, President Obama and groups favoring greater regulation of political speech, to scrutinize conservative groups. As Lois Lerner, the disgraced IRS exempt-organization head, said in 2010: “Everyone is up in arms … [and] they want the IRS to fix the problem.” Is it really a surprise that the IRS targeted these groups unfairly?
Just weeks before the IRS targeting scandal came to light, Senator Whitehouse said the IRS was “toothless” and letting social welfare advocacy groups make a “mockery” of campaign finance law.
IRS
Wall Street Journal: A Special Prosecutor for the IRS
By Jim Jordan
The House Oversight Committee’s investigation of the IRS is at an inflection point. The president’s congressional supporters realize that the administration’s version of the agency’s targeting of conservative nonprofits seeking tax-exempt status—such as blaming local officials in the Cincinnati office or claiming that liberal groups were victimized along with conservative groups—is nonsense. Instead of debating the substance, they have resorted to procedural antics and misleading rhetoric.
I have spent a considerable amount of time and energy on the investigation—which included 38 daylong interviews of IRS and Treasury employees ranging from line employees in Cincinnati to the IRS commissioner to the chief of staff of the U.S. Treasury. The real news has been revealed at the Lois Lerner hearing on March 5 and in the report of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on March 11: “Lois Lerner’s Involvement in the IRS Targeting of Tax-Exempt Organizations.”
The evidence brought to light in that hearing and report completely discredited Ms. Lerner’s claims about her involvement in what went on. It also eviscerated the notion that liberal and conservative groups were targeted.
Independent Groups
The Hill: Union frustration adds to Dems’ woes
By Kevin Bogardus
“I certainly think that it’s going to affect turnout. … You have people that are disillusioned and angry; they either vote a different way or they don’t vote at all,” O’Sullivan told The Hill. “You can sense my temper getting up. Our members are no different than I am. They’re not happy. Is that going to have an impact? I would say, bet your ass it’s going to.”
SCOTUS/Judiciary
Wall Street Journal: Texas Court Agrees to Review Tom DeLay’s Case
By Nathan Koppel
AUSTIN, Texas–Texas’ highest criminal court on Wednesday agreed to review a lower court’s ruling overturning the money-laundering conviction of former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
The decision by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals means that Mr. DeLay is not quite out of legal trouble after being found guilty in 2010 of channeling $190,000 in corporate political donations to Republicans running for the Texas Legislature in 2002. Texas law prohibits corporate campaign contributions to state candidates.
An Austin appellate court overturned the verdict against Mr. DeLay last September, concluding that the state had failed to prove that the donations came from corporate funds. Mr. DeLay faced a three-year prison term, though he has been free while appealing his conviction.
Disclosure
Politico: Back when the Kochs gave to Democrats …
By Byron Tau
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other top Democrats have made vilifying the Kochs part of a deliberate political strategy to rile up the party’s base and drive the party’s small-dollar fundraising efforts. Last week, Reid blasted the two brothers in a blistering Senate floor speech, accusing them of trying to hijack the political process with their donations and of meddling in the country’s foreign policy to protect their own interests…
…Since 2000, KochPAC has given more than $1.4 million to Democratic candidates, leadership PACs and party committees, according to numbers compiled by Congressional Quarterly’s Moneyline.
The DSCC even asked the Kochs to donate in 2011 — inviting them to a private donor retreat on South Carolina’s Kiawah Island in exchange for a five-figure contribution. The Kochs released audio of DSCC’s then-Chairwoman Patty Murray soliciting funds from them.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
Washington Post: RNC chair calls for reversal of ‘soft money’ ban to finance conventions
By MATEA GOLD AND PHILIP RUCKER
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Tuesday that political parties should be able to raise “soft money” to pay for their presidential nominating conventions now that federal funding for the quadrennial events will be cut off, seeking the kind of big checks parties have not been able to collect since the passage of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.
Lobbying
Washington Post: Lobbyist faces $5 million fine for allegedly failing to file disclosure reports
By Holly Yeager
Federal prosecutors have charged a lobbyist and his Alexandria firm with violating federal lobbying law by failing to submit dozens of disclosure reports, a rare legal move that could carry a fine of as much as $5.2 million.
The civil complaint, filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, alleges that Alan Mauk and his firm, Alan Mauk Associates, did not file required quarterly lobbying reports at least 13 times between 2009 and 2013. They are also charged with failing to file semi-annual reports on political contributions on at least 13 occasions, also in violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act. The law carries a fine of up to $200,000 for each violation.
Ethics
CREW: Going Rogue: Once a Reformer, John McCain Exploits Campaign Finance Loophole
It turns out a determined member of Congress can find a way around the most straightforward of campaign finance regulations—and even someone once known as “Congress’s leading champion of campaign finance reform” isn’t above doing it.
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) found a creative way to skirt a $5,000 limit on contributions from a campaign committee to a political action committee (PAC). In fact, his method was so successful he was able to freely transfer an asset worth nearly $3 million: his campaign mailing list.
State and Local
Kentucky –– Lexington Herald-Leader: Kentucky Senate passes bill to let Rand Paul run for re-election and president in 2016
By SAM YOUNGMAN
Kentucky’s junior senator has said he is considering a run for the White House, but that he will definitely run for his Senate seat the same year, putting him at odds with a state law banning the same candidate from appearing on a ballot twice.
Paul and his allies believe the state law doesn’t apply to federal elections, pointing to a Supreme Court ruling that said an Arkansas law instituting congressional term limits ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution.
Michigan –– Free Beacon: SEIU Hit With Second-Biggest Campaign Finance Fine in Michigan History
By Bill McMorris
The Service Employees International Union will have to pay the second-highest fine in Michigan history for its failed 2012 campaign to preserve forced union dues among home care workers.
Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said that the politically powerful union agreed to pay the state nearly $200,000 for failing to properly disclose donors and file timely campaign reports.
The union funneled more than $9 million into two 501(c)(4) non-profit groups, Home Care First Inc. and Citizens for Affordable Quality Home Care, which served as the public face of a ballot initiative.
Virginia –– Washington Post: Judge: McDonnell lawyers ‘dancing through fantasy land’
By Matt Zapotosky
RICHMOND — A federal judge on Tuesday signaled that he is growing increasingly frustrated with the voluminous and at times rancorous filings by defense attorneys representing former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife in a corruption case, dismissing one of their recent requests as “dancing through fantasy land” and asking them and prosecutors to limit their written disputes “for the sanctity of the trees.”
