Independent Groups
The Hill: Rep. Issa jolts IRS probe with subpoena
By Bernie Becker
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is giving a jolt to the congressional probe of the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party groups with a new subpoena that was issued late Thursday night.
Issa and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) have for months sought documents from the Treasury Department that they say could detail a wide range of interactions with the IRS well before the public learned that conservative groups were singled out for extra scrutiny.
NY Times: ‘Super PAC’ Gets Early Start on Pushing for a 2016 Clinton Campaign
By Amy Chozick
On Tuesday, Mr. Stewart and a dozen or so other political operatives and 170 donors will gather in New York to plot how to help Mrs. Clinton win in 2016. The meeting is the first national finance council strategy meeting of Ready for Hillary, a “super PAC” devoted to building a network to support Mrs. Clinton’s potential presidential ambitions.
“We’re coming up with plans on how to engage emerging constituencies that will be incredibly important if there’s a primary and in a general — whether that’s women, African-Americans, Latinos, L.G.B.T.,” said Mr. Stewart, who went on to run Mr. Obama’s battleground-state strategy in 2012.
Disclosure
Governing: Seattle Voters Reject Public Financing of Council Campaigns
By J.B. WOGAN
Seattle voters rejected a ballot measure Nov. 5 that would have created a public financing mechanism for city council campaigns, with 54 percent voting no. If passed, the measure would have asked for an additional $7.38 in annual property taxes from the average homeowner in Seattle; that money would have created a complex funding instrument that matched small private donations with public dollars, with caps on fundraising and spending. If the measure had passed, Seattle would have become one of a handful of cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami, that match private contributions with public funds in city races.
The editorial board for the state’s largest daily newspaper, The Seattle Times, advised voters to reject the measure, as did the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Despite those two groups’ opposition, no political action committee formed to raise and spend money against the ballot measure. The most vocal critic of the proposal was an ethics and elections commissioner who argued it was trying to solve a problem — big money in local politics — that didn’t exist.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
The Hill: Donors plot against GOP rebel
By Alexandra Jaffe and Kevin Bogardus
In a letter obtained by The Hill, prominent Michigan donors request financial backing for Amash’s primary challenger, Brian Ellis. Seven individuals, including prominent Michigan businessmen Mark Bissell, J.C. Huizenga and Mike Jandernoa, signed the fundraising plea.They argue that Amash “and others have effectively nullified the Republican majority in the U.S. House.”
Lobbying and Ethics
Syracuse Post-Standard: Former Rep. James Walsh named a top lobbyist in Washington
By Mark Weiner
“To those who say lobbyists are bad, my response is that the right to petition ones government is enshrined in the First Amendment,” Walsh said. “People and businesses need advice because government is so complex. I know government well, and that knowledge has value. It’s kind of like hiring a guide.”
Walsh said that he brings “the same commitment to high ethical standards to this job as I did to my other careers in public life and private life.”
FEC
Washington Post: FEC to dead guy: keep filing
By Emily Heil
The agency tasked with overseeing campaign spending recently wrote to an Ohio-based organization called Friends of Charlie Wilson, telling the PAC that despite its request to shut down, it had to keep submitting filings.
One not-so-small problem with this picture?
The PAC’s namesake, former Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-Ohio), died in April.
NY Times: New Faces for a Hobbled Commission
Editorial
The Senate’s confirmation of two new members to the Federal Election Commission, one of the most dysfunctional and politically riven agencies in Washington, offers a ray of hope. The work of the commission has been stymied for months thanks to a standoff engineered by obstinate Republicans.
Boston Globe: Martha Coakley drew FEC inquiry
By Frank Phillips
Attorney General Martha Coakley, who has come under scrutiny over the management of her political funds, also faced a potential Federal Election Commission investigation three years ago into possible violations of federal campaign finance laws.
The commission’s legal staff, after a review of a state Republican complaint, said enough evidence existed for the agency’s commissioners to authorize a limited investigation into whether Coakley and the Martha Coakley For Senate Committee violated the finance statutes in the lead-up to the 2010 special US Senate campaign.
State and Local
Arkansas –– Pine Bluff Commercial: Ethics Commission fines Walker $200, Brown $100
Soffer’s complaint against Thelma Walker alleged that she failed to file a pre-election campaign contribution and expenditure report in 2010, that she failed to file final reports for the 2010 and 2012 campaigns, that she failed to properly report all of her sources of income on her 2012 statement of financial interest, and that she used her position on the council to obtain special treatment for Stanley Walker, who has been the subject of controversy over allegations that he has failed to pay city sales taxes generated by his restaurant, and former city collector Albert Ridgell, who Soffer alleged had improperly issued a business permit to Stanley Walker despite the ongoing tax issue.
Massachusetts –– Boston Globe: Campaign bill would order fast disclosure of donors
By Michael Levenson
But current law does not require those groups to reveal their donors until January. That means voters had no way of knowing, before they cast their ballots, who funded many of the ads that saturated the airwaves during the race.
Galvin, who is the state’s top elections official, said he is working with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance in hopes of passing the law before the governor’s race next year, when outside committees are expected to spend even more money to influence the outcome.
Minnesota –– Minnesota Star Tribune: Minnesota campaign finance regulators’ database isn’t adding up
By GLENN HOWATT and RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
The online files from the state agency charged with tracking candidate and campaign fundraising are riddled with inaccuracies, leading to errors that total as much as $20 million over the past decade, according to an analysis by the Star Tribune.
About 7,000 records of donations between Minnesota groups are incorrect — an error rate of about one in seven. Electronic records dating to 2001 show that such groups may have donated as much as $143 million or as little as $122 million. The flaws are enough to hamper any comprehensive attempt to examine the flow of political money in the state, at a time when that spending has soared to record heights.
New York –– Syracuse Post-Standard: Fitzpatrick says he’s on board with public financing for campaigns
By Teri Weaver
“I’m a fiscal conservative,” the Republican said Sunday evening on WRVO’s “The Campbell Conversations” with Grant Reeher, the director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute at Syracuse University. “If the money’s not there, I’m inclined not to spend it. But in reality, based on what I’ve learned over the last couple of months, I’m now a proponent of public financing,” Fitzpatrick said.
Public financing of campaigns, Fitzpatrick added, would lessen the pay-to-play atmosphere in Albany that has led to criminal indictments. Comparing the cost of those crimes with the cost of public financing – “The savings ultimately would be astronomical in the long run,” Fitzpatrick said.
