In the News

LifeZette: Did Lisa Bloom Break Campaign Finance Laws by Arranging Pay for Trump Accusers?

By Kathryn Blackhurst

Former FEC Chairman Brad Smith pointed to specific requirements of what campaign regulation refers to as “express advocacy” as likely not met by the Bloom effort.

“An independent expenditure has to include express advocacy, per statute. So if the accusers specifically said something like ‘I hope that voters will reject Trump’ that might do it. But it might still be hard to show that that is what the payment was for,” said Smith, who is chairman and founder of the Institute for Free Speech.

“The payment, they would argue, was just to go public with their stories, not to specifically oppose the election of Trump. That was a voluntary comment by the speaker, on her own. No money spent, no violation,” he said.

Smith cautioned, however, that “you wouldn’t need express advocacy to violate the ‘electioneering communication’ rule, but that would require using the statements in paid tv/radio ads of at least $10,000, which I gather is clearly inapplicable here. If coordinated with the campaign, payments would be a contribution to the campaign.”

Donor Privacy

Center for Individual Freedom: Donor Privacy and First Amendment Freedoms

Cleta Mitchell, Partner and Political Law Attorney in the Washington, DC office of Foley & Lardner LLP, discusses efforts to protect donor privacy and First Amendment freedoms of speech and association from government abuse by eliminating the 990 Schedule B form requirement for 501(c) organizations.

Supreme Court

CNN: First Amendment is at a crossroads in Supreme Court

By Ariane de Vogue

First Amendment principles are on the docket in cases concerning the free-speech implications of an abortion regulation in California, so called “fair share” fees at public sector unions, a Minnesota law that bans voters from wearing ideological clothing at polling places and a retaliatory arrest claim out of Florida…

Andy Cilek, a Minnesota voter and executive director of the Minnesota Voters Alliance, was temporarily blocked under Minnesota law from voting because he was wearing a T-shirt that stated “Don’t Tread on Me” at a polling place.

“Although this court has permitted campaign-free zones that prohibit campaign materials and active solicitation, it has never endorsed a ban on all political speech,” lawyers for the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, who are representing Cilek, argued in court papers…

Fane Lozman is a critic of redevelopment efforts in Riviera Beach, Florida. During the public comment period at a City Council meeting in 2006, a presiding officer ordered his arrest. After the state’s attorney declined to prosecute, Lozman brought suit arguing in part that his free speech rights were violated when the city retaliated against him for having criticized the government.  

Taxpayer-Funded Campaigns 

New York Post: How Tish James shamelessly milked the public

By Editorial Board

Public Advocate Letitia James didn’t just take $750,000 in public money that she didn’t need for her campaign this year: She spent $500,000 of it on Election Day itself – dumping money she’d otherwise have been obliged to return.

Her gaming of the system is arguably worse than Mayor de Blasio’s: He at least faced a credible general-election challenger. James’ little-known Republican rival, J.C. Polanco, raised just $26,000.

Which means she outraised him by 4,000 percent – yet still got a bath of taxpayer funds.

The law cuts public matching funds by three-quarters if a candidate has no serious opponent. But the legal rules for “serious” are laughable: Merely because Polanco had made many talking-head appearances on NY1 and Univision, James was able to oblige the Campaign Finance Board to pay her the full amount in matching funds.

And on Election Day, she won 74 percent of the vote to Polanco’s 16 percent, with minor-party candidates splitting the rest.

Mayor de Blasio pulled much the same scam to collect big cash during the primaries, when he had no serious opposition. 

Washington Post: It’s past time for public campaign financing in the District

By Editorial Board

The Fair Elections Amendment Act of 2017 got unanimous approval from a council committee Wednesday and is set to to be taken up next week by the full council for the first of two votes. Under the bill, candidates for office in the District could receive limited public matching funds if they meet certain conditions. This includes raising a certain amount of money from small donors and forgoing corporate or political action committee contributions. The program would be voluntary and is modeled after public-financing systems that have been put in place in other jurisdictions, including New York City, Connecticut, Maine and Maryland’s nearby Montgomery and Howard counties.  

The States

Casper Star-Tribune: Did lawmakers accidentally opening the flood gates for political dark money in Wyoming?

By Arno Rosenfeld

The Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions committee voted at its November meeting in Sundance to require groups to report spending related to political advertising even when it doesn’t include a clear call to action.

But – and it’s a big but – the committee simultaneously appears to have removed the requirement for groups whose main goal is not political advocacy to report any political spending, even traditional independent expenditures that ask voters to elect a particular politician or pass a ballot measure, which they are currently required to disclose…

Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, said that while it does appear that all reporting requirements for non-political action committees, or PACs, were eliminated in the bill draft approved by the committee, he’s not quite sure that’s what lawmakers were attempting to do…

Klein, with the Liberty Group, said that was the point. For a group that is not a political action committee and doesn’t spend most of its time campaigning, filing paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office and carefully recording donors would be onerous and unfair, he said.

Vancouver Columbian: Shine Light on ‘Dark Money’

By Editorial Board

When legislators return to Olympia next month, they should be quick to back a bill that would shine light on “dark money” in politics…

A 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission erected roadblocks to transparency in the election process, and Congress should work to overturn it. While such a recommendation is about as feckless as spitting in the wind, protections for voters are more likely to occur at the state level.

Because of that, State Sen. Andy Billig, D-Spokane, has pre-filed Senate Bill 5991 to make the process less opaque. The bill would expose the top contributors to a nonprofit when that entity engages in political activity. All donors contributing $100,000 or more would be revealed, as would the top 10 contributors giving $10,000 or more. Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, is among 25 co-sponsors.

Bangor Daily News: Latest call to rein in how Maine PAC money can be spent fizzles

By Christopher Cousins

On Thursday, Sen. Justin Chenette proposed tightening what he sees as loopholes in the system. Now, legislative leaders who run political action committees can use money from the PACs for personal benefit. Chenette, a Saco Democrat, pitched his proposal – “An Act to Close Loopholes in Election Laws and Ban the Use of Leadership Political Action Committees for Personal Profit” – to the Legislative Council, which met to consider after-deadline bill requests for consideration when the Legislature returns in January…

Republican Senate President Mike Thibodeau pushed back on Chenette’s proposal. Thibodeau, a Winterport Republican, has a leadership PAC, but hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing. He said if the Legislature is going to look into PAC spending, it should also investigate how funds from Maine’s taxpayer-funded Clean Election system are being used, particularly in the area of advertising. He suggested that some of that money is being funneled to businesses owned by sitting lawmakers. “If we’re going to take on the ethics debate, it should be a broad debate,” Thibodeau said.