Political Parties
National Review: The Decline of Political Party Power
Jonah Goldberg
Once upon a time, earmarks and other perks encouraged partisan loyalty up and down the food chain. But party leaders stripped themselves of these prerogatives, like soldiers tearing off their stripes.
As party power has declined, the relative strength of special interests has grown. Outside groups often have more money and flexibility than the parties.
And yet, news of the parties’ demise hasn’t really reached the voters. The ranks of people describing themselves as independents have been swelling for decades, at least partly on the mistaken belief that breaking from the parties is a bold act of rebellion, when in reality they’re kicking a dead donkey — or elephant.
Campaign Finance Enforcement
More Soft Money Hard Law: Mrs. Holland’s (and Mrs. McIntyre’s) Complaint
Bob Bauer
The Holland case also raises an important question about private enforcement schemes. The federal campaign finance laws include one, not quite like Colorado’s, but the risks are comparable. Anyone can file a complaint with few meaningful screens on reliability (though in fairness, federal claims without any basis whatsoever in law may well be bounced). Those who will do best within the system, achieving the most impact, will have the most resources, including the capacity to drag the FEC into court if unsuccessful in winning their point at the administrative level. One effect is to swell the Commission’s workload. Another is to add more noise to the clamor about rampant violations of a campaign finance laws in the face of which the FEC is seen to be helpless.
Independent Groups
Associated Press: Big bucks, shadowy companies: Election mystery money returns
Jack Gillum, Chad Day and Stephen Braun
Democratic-leaning American Bridge 21st Century reported more than $1.5 million from its affiliated nonprofit, which doesn’t have to name its donors. American Bridge, which said it used the money to pay for shared expenses like rent and staff, was founded by Hillary Clinton supporter David Brock.
The AP counted more than two dozen groups that each gave at least $50,000 to presidential-aligned super PACs during the last three months of 2015, piecing together property tax documents, public records and millions of digital campaign finance records. At least half of those were unrecognizable names like family trusts, real estate holdings or firms that were far from household brands.
American Prospect: Hillary and Bernie’s Union Power — in Iowa and Beyond
Justin Miller
In all likelihood, unions helped push Clinton over the top in Iowa on Monday night. Among the 21 percent of caucus attendees who came from union households, Clinton claimed 52 percent support while Sanders garnered 43 percent.
The linchpins of Clinton’s labor support are the nation’s four giant public employee unions: the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); the American Federation of Teachers (AFT); the National Education Association (NEA); and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Campaign Donors
USA Today: Meet the people who give campaign money to billionaire Donald Trump
Ledyard King and Fredreka Schouten
Newly released campaign-finance records show about 2,300 donations from individuals during the final three months of 2015 to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign even as he touted his ability — and desire — to self-fund because he doesn’t want to be seen as bought by special interests.
For Tony Kapnisis, it was a bit of selfishness.
“It makes me feel good to do that,” said the owner of Nature’s Garden, a health food store in Naples. “I know it sounds stupid. He doesn’t need the money. But, hey, I did it for me.”
FEC
JD Supra: FEC Dismisses Wal-Mart PAC Match Case
Matthew Bobys, et. al.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) recently dismissed a complaint filed against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and its political action committee (PAC), finding that Wal-Mart’s 2-for-1 PAC match program did not violate federal election law. See FEC MUR 6873.
Under the Wal-Mart program, for each dollar an employee contributes to the PAC, Wal-Mart makes a matching charitable donation of $2 to Wal-Mart Associates in Critical Need Trust (ACNT), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
In September 2014, three watchdog groups — Public Citizen, Common Cause and the Organization United for Respect at Walmart — filed the complaint with the FEC, alleging that the 2-for-1 PAC match program constituted an improper exchange of corporate funds for PAC contributions and exerted improper coercive pressure on employees to contribute to the PAC. By a vote of 4-2, the FEC decided to dismiss the compliant and approve the FEC general counsel’s report finding Wal-Mart’s PAC match program to be permissible under the law.
Executive Action
Philadelphia Inquirer: Money talks in elections
Editorial Board
If [Obama] believes that, he should jump-start the reform effort by issuing an order requiring federal contractors to disclose all political spending, including secret donations to supposed nonprofits.
That won’t cover all that is wrong with too much money in politics, but it would open the eyes of stockholders and customers so they can decide whether they agree with the kind of politics their money is financing. If they don’t, they just might choose different stocks or buy different products.
An executive order on federal contracts would also encourage those who have unsuccessfully battled for campaign finance reform.
Candidates and Campaigns
Weekly Standard: Trump Criticizes Voters for Not Giving Him ‘Any Credit’ for Self-Funding
Chris Deaton
“I don’t believe I have been given any credit by the voters for self-funding my campaign, the only one,” he tweeted. “I will keep doing, but not worth it!”
Although Trump does fund his own campaign — he reported $10.8 million of self-financing the last quarter of 2015 — he doesn’t back it by himself. Past filings with the Federal Election Commission have revealed millions of dollars of donations to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., and he disclosed about $2.6 million of individual contributions between October and December.
The Hill: Trump says he ‘probably will’ sue over results of Iowa caucuses
Bradford Richardson
Trump said Cruz’s actions were tantamount to “voter fraud.”
“It’s total voter fraud when you think of it, and he picked up a lot of those votes, and that’s why the polls were so wrong, because of that,” said Trump, who was leading in the latest polls in Iowa prior to the caucuses.
The billionaire businessman also attacked Cruz’s use of a mailer that was formatted to look like an official document and claimed its recipients had committed a “voter violation” by not voting.
“It says ‘voter violation’ up top on very official-looking stationary,” he said. “The way you clear it up is go and vote for Cruz. The whole thing is incredible.”
“This guy is a real fraudulent,” he concluded.
The Hill: Fiorina calls on RNC to act to include her in debates
Ben Kamisar
“Networks are making up these debate rules as they go along — not to be able to fit candidates on the stage — but arbitrarily to decide which candidates make for the best TV in their opinion. Now it is time for the RNC to act in the best interest of the Party that it represents,” she wrote in the letter.
“There are only 8 candidates left. It’s time for the RNC to demand that media executives step aside and let voters hear from all of us.”
Saturday night’s ABC News debate is the first to not include an undercard contest. Its criteria includes the top three finishers in the Iowa caucuses, as well as any candidate polling within the top six in averages of recent New Hampshire or national polls.
CNN: Bernie Sanders’ improbable revolution
Tom LoBianco and Nia-Malika Henderson
But an angry electorate, fed up with establishment politics, has tossed away many of the conventional rules of presidential politics. Sanders, as much as Donald Trump, embodied that with his rockstar-like rallies of thousands of supporters, millions of small donations that beat even President Barack Obama’s vaunted online efforts and a singular message attacking Wall Street, unchecked campaign money and income inequality.
“There is profound anger at a campaign finance system which allows billionaires to buy elections, nobody wants that,” Sanders told Cuomo.
Capitalizing on that opportunity meant making some important decisions early, and the first, possibly most important, was to go toe-to-toe with Clinton in every state they could, beginning with Iowa.
Washington Post: Clinton blasts Wall Street, but still draws millions in contributions
Matea Gold, Tom Hamburger and Anu Narayanswam
Even as Hillary Clinton has stepped up her rhetorical assault on Wall Street, her campaign and allied super PACs have continued to rake in millions from the financial sector, a sign of her deep and lasting relationships with banking and investment titans.
Through the end of December, donors at hedge funds, banks, insurance companies and other financial-services firms had given at least $21.4 million to support Clinton’s 2016 presidential run — more than one of every 10 dollars of the $157.8 million contributed to back her bid, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission filings by The Washington Post.
The States
South Carolina Post and Courier: Senate committee moves another ethics bill to consideration for floor debate
Maya Prabhu
“Senators voted Tuesday to move forward the House-passed ethics bill that focuses on income disclosure and third-party investigations for lawmakers, two topics that Gov. Nikki Haley mentioned as a priority during her State of the State speech last month.
One senator who opposed the legislation, Brad Hutto, an Orangeburg Democrat, issued a minority report on the legislation, saying it didn’t go far enough. He said he would prefer the Senate take up one of several bills that already are before the body. A minority report effectively can block the bill from being debated on the Senate floor.
Arizona Republic: Ruling intensifies Ariz. ‘Dark Money’ battle
Mary Jo Pitzl
A state council Tuesday ordered the repeal of rules the Citizens Clean Elections Commission enacted last year to regulate “dark money,” escalating an ongoing battle over who has authority to require disclosure of campaign contributors.
The council’s action means “nothing,” said Tom Collins, executive director of the Clean Elections Commission. He contends the citizen’s initiative that created the commission puts the panel outside the authority of Executive Branch oversight.
That fell on deaf ears with the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council, which voted 4-0 to require Clean Elections commissioners to repeal their action of last year within the next six months.
Oakland Press News: Michigan House committee OKs bill clarifying ballot proposal law
Associated Press
A state House committee has approved a new bill clarifying what local officials are allowed to distribute about upcoming ballot proposals.
The measure was approved Wednesday and now goes to the House floor for debate and possible revision.
It follows a law Gov. Rick Snyder signed this year that prohibits public money or resources from being used to disseminate information about local ballot measures through TV and radio ads, mass mailings or robocalls in the 60 days before an election.
