In the News
Federalist: Why ‘Getting Money Out Of Politics’ Hurts The Little Guy
Brad Smith
So perhaps the biggest lesson of Maryland’s Eighth District is not that spending doesn’t determine winners and losers (although it doesn’t), nor that spending is necessary to get new voices into the system (it often is), nor that spending can make races less equal, but it can also make them more equal (it frequently does).
Rather, the big lesson may be that the politicians who write our laws have a strong self-interest in writing laws that benefit them. This is not to say that is always their intent. I don’t know Trone or Matthews, but I’ve known Raskin for years, and consider him a man of sincerity and integrity. It is to say that politicians will naturally tend to think the type of campaign system that helps them get elected is the type of system we should have.
Morning Consult: Senate GOP Strikes Back in Campaign Disclosure Rule Saga
Ryan Rainey
Four Republican senators led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Senate Republican leaders are declaring victory after a potential court fight abruptly ended Wednesday over whether the Securities and Exchange Commission should require companies to disclose their political donations.
A petition to require the SEC to propose a rule on company campaign disclosures was voluntarily withdrawn because, according to the petitioner, it would waste the court’s time.
Four Republican senators led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday submitted a “friend of the court” brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit urging the panel not to take up the petition. The brief was authored by the Center for Competitive Politics.
More Soft Money Hard Law: The “Evidence” In Reform (and Anti-Reform) Argument
Bob Bauer
The related but still distinguishable argument about political inequality has meant the same search for clinching proof that policy follows money and makes for a “rigged” system. This week, the Center for Competitive Politics took after a widely reported paper about the correlation between the aspirations of the wealthy and the manufacture of public policy. Noting that Rick Hasen and Larry Lessig had made use of the paper in arguing for a political equality theory of regulation, the CCP cited to critics of the scholarship and its conclusions. In this critical view, which CCP evidently favors, there is substantial agreement across income groups about policy. So the study that purportedly shows that we have a democracy of the rich cannot survive close scrutiny. CCP suggests that this should bring sharply into question the “lofty solutions” of reformers.
Corporate Speech
Huffington Post: Ben & Jerry’s Just Started A New Political Fight In North Carolina
Alexander C. Kaufman
But Ben & Jerry’s has a long history of stumping for political causes that align with the hippie flair of its founders’ beliefs. Among them were pushes to support LGBTQ rights and marriage equality, environmental justice and the labeling of foods containing genetically modified crops.
“The idea that business exists simply to maximize profit and not use its power to be helpful in society is really destructive,” Greenfield said.
Political Parties
Washington Post: Trump’s deal with the RNC shows how big money is flowing back to the parties
Matea Gold
Thanks to a pivotal 2014 Supreme Court decision and an expansion of party fundraising slipped into an appropriations bill later that year, the RNC and its Democratic counterpart have been able to vastly increase their top donor levels by pooling numerous accounts and affiliates together into jumbo joint fundraising committees.
The Trump Victory fund, a new partnership announced Tuesday, will take donations up to $449,400 that will be split between his campaign, the RNC and 11 state parties…
“What we’re watching here is theater of the absurd,” said Fred Wertheimer, who leads the watchdog group Democracy 21. “The presidential campaigns, the parties and Washington are operating on a different planet from the rest of the nation when it comes to big money in American politics. This system is in free-fall collapse.”
Independent Groups
Los Angeles Times: $20 million left to spend — what will the super PACs who backed Ted Cruz do with it?
Carrie Levine, CPI
A tangle of super PACs that supported U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential bid still have more than $20 million in the bank — and must now decide whether to back Donald Trump, close up shop or play politics elsewhere.
Nearly all the remaining money is held by half a dozen loosely affiliated super PACs known as the “Keep the Promise” network. Several were controlled by individual megadonors and their families…
Another group, Keep the Promise III, received $15 million from the Wilks family, fracking billionaires from West Texas. The group did not respond to questions about its plans but the Wilks family will sit out the remainder of the presidential race, according to Bloomberg News.
Free Speech
New York Times: Columbia University to Open a First Amendment Institute
Mike McPhate
The fight to preserve freedom of the press is getting a $60 million war room.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Columbia University announced on Tuesday that they would team up to create an institute at the university’s Manhattan campus dedicated to expanding in the digital age the freedoms of speech and the press outlined in the First Amendment.
The Knight First Amendment Institute would take on legal battles that newsrooms have found increasingly too costly to pursue on their own, the groups said in a statement.
Independent Voter Project: California’s Election Laws, Secretary of State Wage War on Term ‘Independent’
Richard Winger
California lets candidates for U.S. Senate and statewide offices write a statement about themselves, and then prints this in the government-distributed Voter Guide. The government charges $25 per word, so not all candidates take advantage of this opportunity to educate voters about themselves.
One candidate in the 2016 U.S. Senate race, Paul Merritt, did submit a statement for the Voter Guide. He described himself as “a registered independent voter.” This was true; Merritt is a registered independent voter. But the secretary of state censored out that sentence, without even telling Merritt. Merritt only learned that statement had been deleted when he saw the Voter Guide.
IRS
Fox News: House oversight chairman moves to censure IRS chief, strip pension
The chairman of the top House investigative panel introduced a measure Wednesday to censure IRS Commissioner John Koskinen — and remove him from office without a pension — in the latest bid by Republicans to pressure him into being more cooperative in their probe of the 2013 IRS targeting scandal.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is seeking Koskinen’s resignation or removal for what he calls an alleged “pattern of conduct inconsistent with the trust and confidence placed in him as an officer of the United States.”
If censured, Koskinen, who became commissioner in 2013, would also forfeit his government pension and other federal benefits.
House Republicans are upset with what they consider Koskinen’s failure to cooperate with their investigation of Lois Lerner and other IRS officials who targeted for additional scrutiny conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.
Influence
Map Light: Obama Foundation Donors Attended Private White House Events With The President
Andrew Perez
The exclusive event drew scant public attention. For one, it wasn’t on the president’s public schedule: a White House advisory simply said he had “no public events scheduled” that day. And the White House visitor log, released three months later, didn’t highlight Roberts’ attendance. She visited under her married name, along with her husband, cinematographer Danny Moder.
Some of the other visitors to the White House residence that evening were titans in their own industries. One couple in attendance, private equity executive Mark Gallogly and his wife Lise Strickler, had recently contributed $340,000 to the Barack Obama Foundation. Tom Campion, founder of the surf wear clothing chain Zumiez, and his wife, Sonya, donated $500,000 to the foundation in the months before the event.
The States
Helena Independent Record: A danger to citizen participation in Montana politics
Carl Glimm
The commissioner presents a David and Goliath story of how his “tiny state agency managed to win.” As a political appointee, Commissioner Motl runs his own investigating and enforcement agency and is not under the authority of the Montana attorney general. This “tiny agency” has the deep pockets of the state behind it. But anyone who is prosecuted by this commissioner must have the financial resources to hire attorneys, pay court costs and mount a defense while attending to their own careers. It is no wonder that most choose to accept a settlement rather than incur the legal costs of defending themselves.
The commissioner acts as an “expert” and a lawyer, providing opinions and acting on his theories. He used six additional attorneys on the case. It certainly feels like David and Goliath, but the Goliath is not the defendant but the so-called “tiny agency” which has been given the power to prosecute based on its own political agenda. This politically appointed commissioner who acts as prosecutor, chief witness, and often judge and jury, is a danger to justice and to citizens who participate in Montana politics.
Montana Public Radio: Montana Officials Seek To Delay Implementation Of Campaign Finance Ruling
Corin Cates-Carney
On Tuesday, a Montana District Court judge struck down limits on contributions to candidates. The judge said the limits were unconstitutional. When that happened, Montana’s old contribution limit laws went into effect, except for the laws capping how much a political party can give.
Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl says he spoke with the Attorney General’s office and they will ask the judge for a stay. That would restore the current limits on political party contributions for 2016.
Delaware Public Media: Slate of lobbyist, campaign finance bills hit Dover
James Dawson
Three new bills would force lobbyists to pay a fee to the state for each client they represent and disclose how much they’ve gotten paid to lobby legislation and who paid them.
That money would go toward funding the state Public Integrity Commission, the ethics oversight agency that’s staffed by two people and sponsored by Rep. Paul Baumbach (D-Newark).
Arizona Daily Sun: Ducey signs bills amending campaign finance laws
Ryan Van Velzer, Associated Press
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation Wednesday accelerating the effective date of a law that relaxes rules on anonymous political spending ahead of upcoming elections.
Ducey’s action moves the start date to June from November.
The new law could complicate an effort to repeal a recent campaign finance law that could go before voters in November. Opponents say they might now need to file two referendums to overturn language that appears in both laws.
Miami Herald: Miami Beach mayor takes lead in effort to end lobbyist, vendor donations in Miami-Dade County
Doug Hanks
Campaign cash from Miami-Dade vendors, developers and lobbyists are a staple of county races, and incumbents personally solicit big checks from those seeking their votes. The proposed legislation also would drop the maximum campaign donation from $1,000 to $250 per individual or entity.
The law would apply to any entity or individual with a Miami-Dade contract worth at least $250,000 a year, as well as lobbyists for the contractors. The county law would have no effect on donations to political action committees or other groups that currently have no limits on the amount of cash they can receive.
Arkansas Times: Petition asks Leslie Rutledge to stop blocking campaign finance and ethics reform
Max Brantley
A committee working on the amendment should file papers of organization with the Ethics Commission this week. Donna Massey, who put the petition on-line at change. org, is member of the Pulaski County Quorum Court and president of Arkansas Community Organizations.
