In the News
NY Post: Who decides if a political ad is a lie?
By William McGurn
Bradley Smith, a law professor who served as chairman of the Federal Elections Commission and now runs the Center for Competitive Politics, says the whole thing is a game.
Here’s how it works: If you’re a candidate, he says, in the last days of the election you file a complaint against someone who’s run an ad or distributed a flier you don’t like. A three-member panel of the commission then finds “probable cause” to look into whether the accused has made a false statement.
“The complaining candidate then features this finding in advertisements run over the last weekend of the campaign,” says Smith. “It will say, ‘A panel of the Ohio elections commission found probable cause that my dirty rotten scumbag opponent’s campaign ads are lies.’ ”
Husch Blackwell: IRS Tightens Rules Regarding Tax‑Exempt Social Welfare Groups
The aim of this change is to add bright-line rules to what is currently a fact-intensive, and arguably subjective, inquiry. The draft rules come in the midst of congressional investigations and other attention into allegations that the IRS subjected applications for tax-exempt status submitted by certain partisan groups to heightened scrutiny. Currently, there is considerable debate among policy makers, the legal community and affected organizations over the efficacy of the proposed regulations as written. The Center for Competitive Politics, for example, is one organization that has already filed comments to the rules, and many more public comments are anticipated. Impacted organizations and others may submit written or electronic comments about the proposed regulations and requests for a hearing to the IRS as late as Feb. 27, 2014. Some iteration of these proposed regulations will probably be enacted, likely after the 2014 elections.
CPI: Top U.S. corporations funneled $185 million to political nonprofits
By Michael Beckel
Additionally, the Center for Competitive Politics, which favors campaign finance deregulation, last year launched a website called ProxyFacts.org.
It says it provides “the truth about corporate political spending issues” and argues that the ultimate goal of robust disclosure rules is “to remove corporations from the policy playing field altogether.”
Independent Groups
Tax Prof Blog: Conservative Groups Urge Congress to Reject Proposed 501(c)(4) Regs
A coalition of 55 conservative organizations has sent this letter to Congress requesting it to reject the IRS’s proposed regulations limiting the political speech of 501(c)(4) groups:
As the people’s duly elected representatives, it is imperative that Congress step in and stop the IRS from codifying its suppression of conservative groups. This rogue agency can clearly not be left to police itself, and we therefore urge you to include language in the omnibus appropriations bill to stop the IRS from pursuing rulemaking in this area and to continue robust oversight of this agency.
The IRS confessed to targeting conservative groups in a stunning abuse of power. While initially blamed on a small number of so-called “rogue agents” in Cincinnati, subsequent investigations revealed that high-level IRS officials in Washington, DC actually removed case files of conservative and tea party groups from Cincinnati to Washington, where they stalled action for years, sent lengthy and intrusive questionnaires, and undermined the rights of association and speech of conservatives.
Wall Street Journal: Campaign Activists Blast FEC Decision on Crossroads
By Thomas Catan
“I’m pleased that the Commission decided that GPS is not a political committee, and now we can move on from this politically-motivated complaint,” Tom Josefiak, general counsel to Crossroads GPS, said in an emailed statement.
If the FEC had decided to act on it and forced the group to register as a political committee, it might have had to disclose the identities of anonymous donors that contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the Republican group.
Crossroads GPS “has spent nearly $100 million on election ads since 2010 without disclosing its donors,” said Paul Ryan, Senior Counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, which will also join the lawsuit against the FEC. “A ruling by the FEC that Crossroads GPS is a political committee would result in this disclosure for past and future elections.”
The Hill: Baucus races against clock on IRS probe
By Bernie Backer
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is scrambling to complete an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s screening of Tea Party and conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status before he jets off to become ambassador to China.
But Baucus and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) both acknowledge it’s far from a slam-dunk that they’ll be able to finish the investigation, though they say they’re cautiously optimistic it would be done before the Montana Democrat leaves Congress.
He said Wednesday he hopes to wrap up the IRS probe in the next two to three weeks. Still, he also acknowledged he was trying to make progress on several other issues in what should be the final weeks of his nearly four-decade career on Capitol Hill.
The Hill: Kibbe: Grassroots trumps big money in ‘new politics’
By Alexander Jaffe
FreedomWorks is preparing to roll out its 2014 endorsements in the coming weeks, but the group’s president believes some GOP incumbents are already headed for defeat in their primary elections.
In a wide-ranging interview Wednesday with The Hill, the conservative group’s president, Matt Kibbe said he believes one of the biggest to fall will be former National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas). The group has already endorsed his primary challenger, Katrina Pierson.
CLC: Watchdogs to Sue FEC for Dismissal of Crossroads GPS Complaint
The suit will argue that the FEC’s dismissal of the case following the 3-3 deadlock was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and contrary to the law.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
Wall Street Journal: Chris Christie Is an Amateur: The left’s political methods make Gov. Christie look like Little Bo Peep.
By DANIEL HENNINGER
The Christie bonfire has burned for a week. In that same week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI found nothing in the IRS’s targeting of conservative political groups that warrants criminal charges.
This conclusion struck lawyers Jay Sekulow and Cleta Mitchell as fairly amazing. Both represent conservative groups targeted by the IRS, and they say the FBI only recently got in touch with a few of their clients.
Thus, two of the most powerful public institutions in the U.S.—the FBI and the IRS—have concluded no harm, no foul, and the memory hole swallows the Obama administration’s successful kneecapping of the GOP’s most active members just as they prepared to participate in the 2012 presidential campaign. Many—ruined or terrified by the IRS probes—shut down. Mr. Obama won.
National Journal: NRCC Blacklists Conservative Firm Jamestown for Fighting Republican Incumbents
By Alex Roarty
“Jamestown has made it very difficult to support their work and give them committee business,” said one Republican House campaign aide, who declined to speak on the record.
The decision means that Jamestown will not be hired to work for the committee’s lucrative independent-expenditure arm. And, according to sources, the NRCC has also discouraged individual House campaigns from using the firm. This is all likely to be a major financial blow to Jamestown, which counts New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie among its clients.
In addition to the two Senate and House political arms, sources also confirm that the Republican National Committee has also cut off Jamestown—although because the RNC doesn’t dole out contracts, its decision is far less consequential. The New York Times also reported in November that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce would no longer work with the company.
FEC
CPI: Congress, FEC meet about security breakdowns
By Dave Levinthal
Federal Election Commission staff today traveled to Capitol Hill and briefed congressional officials investigating the beleaguered agency on how it intends to address recent computer security and staffing problems, officials from both government bodies confirmed.
The FEC’s contingent was led by Alec Palmer, who doubles as the agency’s staff and information technology director.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many congressional officials participated in the meetings, although a spokesman for Rep. Robert Brady, D-Pa., confirmed to the Center for Public Integrity that his office participated.
State and Local
New York –– NY Times: Cuomo Has Raised Over $33 Million for Re-election Bid
By Thomas Kaplan
The size of Mr. Cuomo’s campaign account is particularly striking because it exceeds what he spent on his entire 2010 campaign for governor: about $28 million, according to the New York Public Interest Research Group, which tracks campaign spending.
With $613 Million at Stake, an Albany Rivalry Is Said to EscalateJAN. 16, 2014
As with his past fund-raising, Mr. Cuomo benefited from large donors writing five-figure checks, particularly from the real estate industry, as well as contributions from building trade unions, according to his campaign fund-raising filing with the State Board of Elections.
