In the News
Scranton Times-Tribune: Heavy Burden (LTE)
Scott Blackburn
Imagine, for example, a local Delaware Kiwanis Club publishing a mailer saying, “The Kiwanis Club asked the town council for $1,000 to help pay for this year’s Fourth of July fireworks display, traditionally sponsored by Kiwanis. The council voted 3-2 against the motion, with members Jones and Smith voting yes and members Brown, Black and Green voting no.”
Under Delaware law, as unfortunately upheld by the 3rd Circuit Court in Delaware, such a flyer would be considered a “campaign communication.” This would be the case even if this was one line in a 10-page newsletter. Before distributing that mailer, Kiwanis in Delaware would be required to register with the state, follow a series of complicated regulations intended for political committees and make public all of their members who paid their monthly $10 dues fee… All contributors for the last four years, regardless of their current affiliation with the group, must be publicly reported to the state.
IRS
Wall Street Journal: The Stonewall at the Top of the IRS
Ron DeSantis and Jim Jordan
Unfortunately, Commissioner Koskinen, who took over in the wake of the IRS targeting scandal, has failed the American people by frustrating Congress’s attempts to ascertain the truth. A taxpayer would never get away with treating an IRS audit the way that IRS officials have treated the congressional investigation. Civil officers like Mr. Koskinen have historically been held to a higher standard than private citizens because they have fiduciary obligations to the public. The IRS and Mr. Koskinen have breached these basic fiduciary duties:
-Destruction of evidence… an internal IRS preservation order, a congressional subpoena, and knowledge about Ms. Lerner’s hard-drive and email problems—the Treasury inspector general for tax administration discovered that the agency on March 4, 2014, erased 422 backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 emails. (Congress learned of the discovery only last month.)
The Hill: House Republicans to Obama: Fire IRS Chief
Bernie Becker
“Mr. Koskinen failed to testify truthfully. The statements he made to Congress were false,” Chaffetz said. “And there are consequences for misleading Congress.”
More than two years after the IRS acknowledged improperly scrutinizing Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status, Chaffetz and his fellow Republicans said the IRS obstructed their investigation in other ways as well, by not complying with subpoenas and failing to follow protocols for an internal preservation order to ensure a document trail for outside investigations.
New York Post: Obama’s pathetic attempt to spin the IRS scandal
Editorial Board
No sooner did President Obama claim last week the IRS scandal was just a mirage than new evidence emerged to show it was anything but.
The conservative group Judicial Watch says documents it obtained “confirm” the agency targeted the donors of certain tax-exempt organizations. And the Government Accountability Office faulted IRS procedures, saying they failed to prevent bias in the selection of nonprofits for audits. That’s key, since the agency has been accused of targeting conservative groups.
Donor Disclosure
Reuters: Citizens United loses New York ruling over donors
Jonathan Stempel
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan refused to impose a preliminary injunction that would stop Schneiderman from requiring charities to disclose names, addresses and total contributions of big donors in order to solicit funds in the state.
Citizens United argued that Schneiderman’s interpretation of a 2006 state regulation on donor disclosures violated its First Amendment free speech and association rights, and invaded the privacy of donors who wished to remain anonymous.
But the judge said Schneiderman’s policy was substantially related to the important government interests of enforcing charitable solicitation laws, and protecting residents from illegitimate charities.
Independent Groups
Politico: Zephyr Teachout takes over Larry Lessig’s PAC
Adam Lerner
Lessig started Mayday PAC in 2014 to help elect politicians who support overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision and passing comprehensive campaign finance reform. It was supposed to be the PAC to end all PACs, in other words. The group employed the motto “embrace the irony” and doled out more than $10 million on candidates in the 2014 midterm elections.
But it was a miserable failure, as Lessig himself admitted afterward: Only one candidate backed by Mayday PAC, Republican Walter Jones of North Carolina, ultimately won his or her race last November.
Influence
Politico: Jon Stewart’s secret White House visits
Darren Samuelsohn
Ann Ravel, the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, said Stewart and his former Comedy Central colleague Stephen Colbert didn’t spark any obvious changes in campaign finance policy when they set up a super PAC during the 2012 presidential election to lampoon the Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision giving corporations free speech rights to spend unlimited amounts of money in political campaigns. But, she said, the two comedians got the country talking about esoteric campaign finance policies.
“They raised the issue to the American public in a way that no one has ever done,” she said.
Candidates and Campaigns
Washington Post: All 2016 presidential candidates should disclose campaign bundlers
Editorial Board
It’s heartening that Mr. Bush and Mr. Walker — serious contenders for the Republican nomination — have made a move toward transparency, especially when so many fell short last cycle. Today, super PACs package billions of dollars for candidates. Almost every major candidate except Bernie Sanders has at least one as a backer. “Dark money” also streams into presidential and congressional races from nonprofit corporations that can donate unlimited amounts without disclosing individual contributors.
New York Times: Presidential Race Just Started? Not According to the Spending
Nicholas Confessore, Sarah Cohen and Eric Lichtblau
Since late last year, presidential hopefuls have been romancing donors, hiring staff and haunting the diners and senior centers of Manchester and Dubuque.
But on paper, most of the candidates spent virtually no money exploring a presidential bid until very recently. According to campaign disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission last week, the much-promoted campaign staff they hired had other jobs. And their many, many trips to New Hampshire and Iowa had nothing to do with running for president.
New York Daily News: Group files federal complaint against Donald Trump claiming he did not disclose paid supporters at campaign launch
Celeste Katz
“Donald Trump might be running for President to entertain and build publicity – as evidenced by his employment of professional actors at his campaign launch,” said Mary Rutherford Jennings of the American Democracy Legal Fund, which said it filed the complaint against Trump with the Federal Election Commission on Monday.
“However, the rules of campaign finance law are the same for all candidates and you must clearly and accurately disclose your spending to the FEC,” she said.
The States
Arizona Republic: Oh the horror. Clean Elections Commission targets dark money
Laurie Roberts
The non-partisan Clean Elections Commission in August will vote on a proposed rule that would require non-profits that spend at least $500 on a campaigns to reveal their donors.
Reagan’s guy, Spencer, last week warned the committee that only the secretary of state has the authority to regulate campaign finance. If commissioners approve the rule, he warned, “you’ve bought yourself a lawsuit.”
Salt Lake City Tribune: Billboard PAC: Anybody but Becker for Salt Lake City mayor
Christopher Smart
A political action committee has now put up billboards for all of Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker’s challengers in what appears to be an anyone-but-Becker campaign…
Becker has fought against billboards and Reagan specifically for decades, including during his tenure in the Utah House…
“The whole goal behind this [billboard] campaign is to let people know there are options other than Becker out there,” Sechrest said. “We are not doing this in coordination [with any campaign], so I’m not in a position to talk to any candidates [about taking down billboards].”
