Influence
Library of Law and Liberty: The New York Times Gets Money and Politics Wrong
John O. McGinnis
Nicholas Confessore’s long front-page article in Monday’s New York Times, “Rauner and his Wealthy Friends Are Remaking Illinois,” raises concerns about the power of rich individuals to influence elections. The article both subtly and overtly argues that rich people are using their money to overturn the kind of government citizens of Illinois want. But it actually shows the importance of preserving the First Amendment right to push back against the ingrained biases of the government and the media, like the New York Times itself.
Omaha World-Herald: Hillary Clinton will hit Omaha, stump with Warren Buffett in December
Robynn Tysver
The Democratic presidential front-runner will be stumping in Omaha on Dec. 16, with the help of famed Omaha investor Warren Buffett.
A Clinton campaign staffer said the visit is an effort to organize grassroots support before Nebraska’s Democratic caucuses.
She is also expected to talk about tax reform with Buffett, who has called for an income tax increase on the nation’s wealthier citizens.
Independent Groups
New York Times: Wary of Donald Trump, G.O.P. Leaders Are Caught in a Standoff
Jonathan Martin
Pleading for an outside group to run ads highlighting, for example, people who lost their jobs because of some of Mr. Trump’s business deals, the senator warned, “Until somebody with A, the money, and B, the incentive to step up comes along, I worry he kind of glides along unmolested.”
The sidelines are crowded. The Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; American Crossroads, the group led by Karl Rove; and Right to Rise, the “super PAC” supporting Jeb Bush, have no immediate plans to go after Mr. Trump, officials said.
The exceptions so far: The super PAC supporting the presidential bid of Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio has attacked Mr. Trump, but partly to gain attention and raise money. The Club for Growth, a conservative group, ran a short-lived and unsuccessful ad campaign against Mr. Trump in Iowa this fall but has limited resources.
Washington Post: A simple fix for big money in politics: Tax campaign spending
Daniel Nemirovsky
A more intriguing method would be to apply the tax based on the number of donors. To foster equal recognition of all, each donor could be associated with tax-free campaign spending of up to $2,700, the maximum an individual may give directly to a candidate under federal election law. That is to say, an organization participating directly in an election could spend $2,700 tax-free for every donor it has, regardless how much he or she donated.
If an organization received donations from 1,000 individuals, it could spend $2.7 million tax-free, but any additional expenses would be taxable. I’d suggest a 100 percent rate for all expenses beyond the donor-based limit.
Mother Jones: Who’s Behind the Ghost Companies Funding Jeb Bush’s Super-PAC?
Russ Choma
“If there is a human behind Heather Oaks LLC, and that human simply routed $100,000 through Heather Oaks to Right to Rise, because the human didn’t want his identity known, that’s illegal,” says Paul Ryan, deputy executive director of the Campaign Legal Center. “But if it’s sitting on real estate or other assets or cash—$100,000 or more in cash—and the directors of this LLC decided they want to support Right to Rise, that’s not necessarily illegal.”
Both Heather Oaks and TH Holdings appear to be classic shell companies—business entities that often have no assets or business operations of their own and exist solely as a conduit for transactions by other companies or individuals.
Breitbart News: Google’s Schmidt Backing Hillary Clinton in 2016
Erik Telford
The Groundwork, presumably, specializes in data analytics and digital outreach, but the rest of its function is unclear. Its mysterious website, thegroundwork.com, fails to clarify anything – the only feature on the page is a strange triangle logo Quartz describes as “looking vaguely like the Illuminati symbol.” Campaign finance disclosures show that the quiet, unassuming company has just one political client: the Clinton campaign.
It looks like it has been created by Schmidt for the express purpose of cultivating elite engineering talent to help Clinton win in 2016 – much like the Obama campaign’s technology staff helped tip the scales in his favor in 2008 and 2012.
The Groundwork, Quartz reporters Adam Pasick and Tim Fernholz note, is the third Schmidt-funded startup run by former Obama campaign staffers. The other two, Civis and cir.cl, emerged out of Obama’s campaign, but the Groundwork is different because Schmidt backed it before the Clinton campaign even got underway. It’s already giving her campaign a leg up on the competition.
Political Parties
National Public Radio: Campaign-Finance Provisions May Be Attached To Spending Bill
Peter Overby
Sen. Mitch McConnell wants to do away with limits on how much a party committee can spend to support a candidate. Party committees are bound by contribution limits intended to prevent corruption.
Roll Call: Campaign Finance Riders Face Fight in Year-End Spending Bill
Kate Ackley
Progressive and political money groups say they will intensify their lobbying in the coming days to prevent four campaign finance measures from hitching a ride on a year-end spending deal…
“They’re swimming upstream every step of the way,” said Costas Panagopoulos, a Fordham University professor who specializes in campaign and election issues. “Legislators are going to be hard-pressed to vote against an appropriation bill that’s otherwise appealing to them on the basis of some of these riders.”
Opponents of the measures argue they would decrease transparency and would make it easier for “soft money” to flow to the political parties. McConnell and other backers of rolling back limits on party-candidate coordination say it would help political parties compete in the campaign funding scene increasingly dominated by super PACs that can raise unlimited funds.
Candidates and Campaigns
Washington Post: Donald Trump has spent less than 1 percent as much as Jeb Bush on ads
Chris Cillizza
But, I actually think the fact that Trump has spent just over $200,000 on paid media is even more amazing — and speaks to Trump’s true political gift: Getting lots and lots of free publicity.
Trump has repeatedly insisted he will spend whatever it takes out of his multibillion-dollar personal fortune to win the Republican nomination. But, as of October, Trump had only put $2 million of his own cash into his campaign largely, by his own admission, because he is getting so much free media attention. “I’ve gotten so much free advertising, it’s like nothing I’d have expected,” he told the New York Times in September. “When you look at cable television, a lot of the programs are 100 percent Trump, so why would you need more Trump during the commercial breaks?”
Politico: Trump threatens to boycott CNN debate, demands $5 million
Hadas Gold
Donald Trump on Monday night threatened to boycott the next Republican presidential debate unless hosting network CNN donates $5 million to charity.
“How about I tell CNN, who doesn’t treat me properly, I’m not gonna do the next debate, OK?” Trump said at a rally in Georgia. “How about we do this for CNN: I won’t do the debate unless they pay me $5 million, all of which money goes to the Wounded Warriors or goes to vets?”
It’s the same move the Republican front-runner pulled before the GOP debate hosted by CNN in September. Trump sent a letter to CNN President Jeff Zucker, asking him to donate all profits from the debate to veterans charities. Despite not getting an official response from CNN, Trump made it to the debate.
Associated Press: Calendars Show Clinton Made Time at State for Supporters
Stephen Braun
But the difference with Clinton’s meetings was that she was a 2008 presidential contender who was widely expected to try again in 2016. Her availability to luminaries from politics, business and charity shows the extent to which her office became a sounding board for their interests. And her ties with so many familiar faces from those intersecting worlds were complicated by their lucrative financial largess and political support over the years – even during her State Department tenure – for her campaigns and her husband’s, and for her family’s foundation.
Burlington Free Press: Bernie leads Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ poll
Nicole Gaudiano
Democratic presidential candidate, who has rallied crowds in the thousands with his fight against income inequality and a campaign finance system he says is corrupt, had 10.4 percent of the vote in the reader poll as of Monday evening, Time reported Monday.
He was way ahead of 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was in second place at 5.3%. Yousafzai, 18, is a Pakistani activist for girls’ education who survived an assassination attempt in 2012.
Other presidential candidates were far behind Sanders. GOP candidate Donald Trump had received 2.1% and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was at 1.4%.
The States
Santa Fe New Mexican: Wirth aims to rewrite rules on campaign disclosures
Justin Horwath
Wirth’s bill also defines what constitutes “coordination” between such independent expenditure groups and candidates. That’s significant because the U.S. Supreme Court reasoned that candidates can only be bribed by campaign contributions if they have a hand in spending them. Thus, the Supreme Court has said, laws that limit election spending violate the First Amendment right to free speech…
Alcon said the bill went nowhere during the last 60-day legislative session. And the session that begins in mid-January is only a short, 30-day budget session in which nonbudgetary legislation must be put on the governor’s call before it can be heard. A Martinez spokesman did not respond to questions about whether the governor would consider Wirth’s bill.
Wisconsin Watchdog: Walker yet to sign GAB overhaul bill
M.D. Kittle
More than two weeks after the Assembly finalized passage of a bill that would dismantle the state’s rogue political speech regulator, Gov. Scott Walker has yet to sign the legislation into law.
And it’s not clear when he will do so.
“I don’t have an update beyond what I have previously provided, which is that he will review this legislation and supports overall reform of the Government Accountability Board to provide a replacement that is fair, transparent, and accountable to Wisconsinites,” Walker press secretary Laurel Patrick told Wisconsin Watchdog in an email Monday.
