Independent Groups
WSJ: The Tea Party Battles to Come
By Stephen Moore and Matt Kibbe
These business interests and a growing number of GOP insiders are fed up with tea party tactics that they believe have become a negative political force for a Republican Party that is now suffering record-low approval ratings. One business leader recently compared its influence to the Occupy Wall Street crowd taking control of the Democratic Party.
The tea party’s answer to the GOP establishment threats: Bring it on—we aren’t backing down. That’s the message I gleaned from recent interviews with three of the movement’s most prominent leaders: Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks, Amy Kremer of Tea Party Express and Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots.
Time: Book: Obama Attended Super PAC Fundraiser, Violating 2012 Campaign Pledge
By Michael Scherer
Four days after his dismal Denver presidential debate performance, Barack Obama secretly attended a fundraiser for a super PAC in violation of a campaign pledge to avoid such events, according to the authors of a new book, Double Down: Game Change 2012.
The Oct. 7 event, at Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Beverly Hills house, involved nine other tycoons and former President Bill Clinton, and it helped secure three checks for $1 million, according to the new book’s authors, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. Just eight months earlier, Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina had promised Obama supporters in a blog post that “the President, Vice President, and First Lady will not be a part” of the campaign’s efforts to support SuperPacs.
Disclosure
Politico: Koch brothers slam Harry Belafonte’s Ku Klux Klan remark
By Maggie Haberman
“Already we have lost 14 states in this union to the most corrupt group of citizens I’ve ever known,” Belafonte said at the First Corinthian Baptist Church, according to Capital New York. “They make up the heart and the thinking in the minds of those who would belong to the Ku Klux Klan. They are white supremacists. They are men of evil. They have names. They are flooding our country with money.
“They’ve come into to New York City,” Belafonte added. “They are beginning to buy their way in to city politics. They are pouring money into Presbyterian Hospital to take over the medical care system. The Koch brothers, that’s their name. Their money is already sewn into the fabric of our daily system, and they must be stopped.”
Politico: Silicon Valley’s donor divide
By BYRON TAU and ANDREA DRUSCH
The hottest new startup in Silicon Valley isn’t a tech company; it’s Ro Khanna. The 36-year old attorney and former Commerce Department official, who is challenging six-term incumbent Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) to represent Silicon Valley in Congress, has the overwhelming support of the deep-pocketed tech community’s CEOs and venture capitalists.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
NY Times: Republican Campaign Committee Pushes Back Against Conservative Group
By JONATHAN MARTIN
In a warning shot to outside conservative groups, the National Republican Senatorial Committee this week informed a prominent Republican advertising firm that it would not receive any contracts with the campaign committee because of its work with a group that targets incumbent Senate Republicans.
Even more striking, a senior official at the committee called individual Republican Senate campaigns and other party organizations this week and urged them not to hire the firm, Jamestown Associates, in an effort to punish them for working for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group founded by Jim DeMint, then a South Carolina senator, that is trying to unseat Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and some other incumbents up for re-election next year whom it finds insufficiently conservative.
State and Local
California –– LA Times: California probe of campaign donations sheds light on ‘dark money’
By Chris Megerian and Anthony York
SACRAMENTO — Tony Russo had a multimillion-dollar problem.
The Republican consultant and his team had raised piles of cash to use in California politics as last November’s election approached. But a wrinkle in state law meant he couldn’t spend it in the final two months of the campaign without jeopardizing the anonymity he had promised his rich donors.
Colorado –– Denver Post: Ethics violation by Gov. Hickenlooper? Not at all
Editorial
The complaint, filed by a conservative group, alleges the governor violated Amendment 41, the state’s ban on gifts to public officials, by allowing the Democratic Governor’s Association to pick up $1,200 in costs for the governor to register for a DGA conference and stay at a hotel in Aspen.
Amendment 41 was aimed at influence peddling so that public officials would not be wined, dined and junketed by special interests seeking favor. But is that really the case here? The governor is vice chairman of the DGA, was a keynote speaker and participated in panels at the conference.
Florida –– Herald Tribune: A raised ceiling on campaign donations
By Zac Anderson
Supporters of the higher contribution limits say the trade-off is greater transparency in the way contributions are collected and reported to the public.
But there are skeptics.
“There’s a lot of questions as to whether the campaign finance reforms really had a lot of teeth in them,” said Susan MacManus, a University of South Florida political science professor.
Massachusetts –– NY Times: Outside Money at Issue in Boston Mayor’s Race as Labor Unions Weigh In
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Outside cash has been pouring into the mayoral race in the last few days, about three times as much of it for Mr. Walsh, 46, a state representative and union leader backed by organized labor, as for Mr. Connolly, 40, a city councilman who is receiving money from education groups.
Mr. Connolly has been careful not to disrespect labor, an influential political force here. But over the weekend, he escalated his assertions that the new money obligated Mr. Walsh to the unions.
Massachusetts –– Boston Globe: Martha Coakley’s campaign funds in disarray
By Frank Phillips
State law prohibits the use of federal campaign funds to support a state race. Coakley has consistently signaled that she is not interested in another Senate run and since 2010 had said that she would instead run for reelection as attorney general, before changing her mind and announcing a bid for governor last month.
Yet she dipped into her federal account to pay for an advertisement and fees at the state party convention that highlighted her position as attorney general, a move her aides say was a mistake. Several months later, she again used the federal cash to travel to the national party convention.
Virginia –– Washington Post: For the next governor of Virginia, a ride through the skies is fast but not luxurious
By Laura Vozzella
In a state as congested and wide as Virginia — sprawling from the Atlantic to west of Detroit — an airplane can be a candidate’s ticket to the governor’s mansion. But it is by no means a first-class ticket. This is travel that makes flying coach in the era of baggage and pillow fees feel like Concorde-style coddling.
“My pilot was kidding me today, ‘A lot of the pilots wouldn’t even fly that thing,’ ” said C. Richard Cranwell, a former Democratic state delegate who has let McAuliffe use his Piper Aztec at least four times since spring.
