Independent Groups
NY Times: Maher Wants His Show to Decide a House Race
By Bill Carter
After some culling and analysis, one member of Congress will be selected, and the show will follow up through November with examples of what it considers terrible work by that representative. Mr. Maher will make occasional visits to that member’s district to perform stand-up and generally stir up hostile feelings toward the show’s target.
“This year, we are going to be entering into the exciting world of outright meddling with the political process,” Mr. Maher said in an email message.
The project — which the show is calling the “flip the district” campaign — is intended to get real results, said Scott Carter, the show’s executive producer. Among the criteria for selecting a representative, other than some degree of outrageousness in statements or voting record, is that the member be in a truly competitive race. Those running unopposed will not be selected, no matter how egregious the show’s fans may claim them to be.
Washington Post: The exciting war to make secretaries of state more boring
By JAIME FULLER
Why has a series of elections known to send the most aerobic of election-year browser refreshers into a deep sleep suddenly taken on the contours of a close Senate contest? Blame a string of events that started with the 2000 presidential election and reached their climax with the current battle over voting rights.
The Constitution states, “the Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof,” and in 38 states, secretaries of state are tasked with carrying out the will of the legislature and orchestrating the complex system that decides who gets to run the country.
Mediaite: Dinesh D’Souza Tells Hannity Indictment Could Be ‘Payback’ for Anti-Obama Film
By Matt Wilstein
Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative commentator and filmmaker who was indicted last month on charges of campaign finance fraud spoke out for the first time about his legal troubles on Fox’s Hannity Friday night. His defenders have spent the last few weeks wondering aloud whether D’Souza’s indictment was some kind of retribution from the Obama Administration for his film, 2016: Obama’s America, but now it was his turn.
CPI: Democrats easily outpace Republicans in super PAC fundraising race
By Michael Beckel
Democrats are embracing super PACs — the independent political money groups they once derided — and are easily outpacing Republicans in the race for cash, according to the most recent campaign finance filings.
In 2013, the three highest-profile Democratic super PACs focused on congressional elections collectively raised more than $22 million — about four times more than their five mainstream GOP counterparts, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of new filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission.
Corporate Governance
Acton Institute: ICCR Working Inside Progressive Bubble
By Bruce Walker
“A little older, a little more confused,” the late Dennis Hopper once intoned. One month into 2014, the same could be said for this writer. After all, what could be more confusing than members of the religious community employed as willing conspirators in the great organized labor gambit to stifle corporate political speech? Year after year, however, that’s increasingly the case.
For example, the Interfaith Council on Corporate Responsibility’s recently redesigned website heralds its distaste for corporate participation in the political process:
Disclosure
Politico: Harry Reid slams Koch brothers
By Burgess Everett
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid slammed the Koch brothers’ political activities Thursday, accusing the influential conservatives of trying to “buy the country.”
Reid was responding to comments from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who howled over President Barack Obama’s crackdown on politically active tax-exempt organizations as “declaring a war not just on its opponents, but on free speech itself.” McConnell compared the administration’s proposed rules on those groups to the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of outside groups and said Democrats are trying to stifle their election-year critics.
Politico: Kochs fire back at Harry Reid
By Burgess Everett
“Senator Reid falsely accused the Kochs of trying to ‘buy the country’ because they have exercised their First Amendment rights of free speech and free association,” said Koch Companies Public Sector President Philip Ellender. “Sen. Reid’s divisive remarks were not only disrespectful and beneath the office he holds, they were indicative of what lengths he and his Democratic allies will go to eliminate and silence their political opposition.”
Reid’s off-the-cuff remarks were prompted by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who on the Senate floor sharply criticized President Barack Obama’s administration for proposing tighter restrictions on nonprofits that engage in political activities. Ellender praised McConnell for his “great courage” in taking on Democrats over the issue.
Senate Democrats’ campaign arm has increasingly referred to the Kochs’ influence in its fundraising solicitations, alleging that the brothers are behind “disgusting” attacks on vulnerable incumbent Democrats. It appears that Democrats will have plenty more opportunities to raise the Kochs as a boogeyman, as Ellender indicated their activities won’t slow during the 2014 midterm elections.
USA Today: Super PAC receipts tumble with death of donor
By Fredreka Schouten
WASHINGTON – A conservative super PAC focused on ousting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and several other Republican incumbents saw its donations tumble after the death of Republican mega-donor Bob Perry, a new report shows.
A $1 million donation from Perry last February accounted for the lion’s share of the $1.3 million the Senate Conservatives Action collected during the first six months of 2013. Perry, one of the Republican Party’s most prolific givers, died April 13. (Perry also donated $100,000 a pro-McConnell super PAC before his death.)
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
Politico: New Obama politics shop faces old questions
By Josh Gerstein
When President Barack Obama shuttered the White House’s Office of Political Affairs three years ago, aides claimed it was merely a streamlining move — but the action came just in time to head off unwelcome comparisons with former President George W. Bush, as a government report blasted abuses in that office during the Bush era.
Now, Obama is reopening a White House political shop and sailing back into murky legal waters his team seemed eager to steer out of not so long ago.
The back-and-forth over the White House political office seems to capture perfectly Obama’s ambivalence about old-school politics: his instincts are to heed good-government reformers and avoid anything that smacks of political favors being doled out on the public dime. But he’s also sensitive to complaints from lawmakers, and even his own staff, that he pays too little attention to the political needs of his backers in Congress — particularly with a tough midterm election looming.
