Independent Groups
MayDay PAC: Letter to the FEC
This letter responds to your request for additional information, dated January 25, 2015, regarding differences in reported totals between the PAC?s original October Quarterly Report and the amended Report.The decrease in the reported receipts total that you cited was attributable to Mayday PAC receiving incorrect contribution dates and decimal information from its online-contribution processor. Upon noticing the data issue, the PAC proactively filed an amendment to correct the original October Quarterly Report on 12/4/2014. Because this correction caused some contributions to shift from the October Report?s covered time period over to the Pre-Primary Report, it caused a difference in the receipt total listed on the original October Report as compared to the amended October Report. (The difference in the October Reports? total receipts that you noted was just -$109,000 because roughly half of the $217,000 in contributions shifted over to the Pre-Primary Report was offset by the decimal correction, which increased the amounts listed for some contributions.) Mayday?s actual cash-on-hand and receipts did not change during this time.
NY Times: Intrigue Deepens at Republican Committee in Virgin Islands
By Derek WillisThe strange case of the Virgin Islands political action committee took another strange twist.Prominent members of the Virgin Islands Republican Party who were caught unaware by the creation of a federal PAC run by a political operative in Virginia more than a year ago now find themselves in an unusual position: One of them is responsible for it, at least on paper.Bruce Cole, a Virgin Islands lawyer and the elected treasurer of the territorial Republican party, discovered he had become the treasurer of the PAC, known as VIGOP, a position he did not want. He had sent a letter in late January to the VIGOP committee’s treasurer, a Virginia-based consultant named Scott Mackenzie, ordering him to “cease all activities” relating to the PAC . Six days later, Mr. Mackenzie filed a notice with the Federal Election Commission handing the position over to Mr. Cole.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
Washington Post: Scott Walker works to harness national donor network for White House run
By Matea GoldIt was not yet 8 a.m. on a recent Sunday morning, but a crowd of heavyweight GOP donors already was gathered on the back patio of Carl and Jimmy Westcott’s desert home, nestled at the base of a mountain in an exclusive community in Indian Wells., Calif.The early morning attraction: Scott Walker, who stood before a rolling golf course and laid out why his tenure as governor of Wisconsin shows he has the right qualities to be the next president of the United States.
CPI: Capitalizing on a political contribution cap hike
By Carrie LevineA pair of wealthy campaign contributors — including one who’s dead — wasted no time exercising their newfound right to pump political parties with significantly more cash than they could before December.Public Storage founder B. Wayne Hughes Sr. gave the Republican National Committee $67,600 on Dec. 30, which the RNC labeled as a “convention fund contribution,” according to new federal campaign finance disclosures.The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, meanwhile, reported receiving $38,392.06 on Dec. 31 from what appears to be a trust for the estate of Robert Bohna, a Sonoma, California, businessman who died five years ago. That contribution is labeled in a federal filing as a “building fund contribution.”
Washington Post: Rick Perry to name 80-plus major donors to his PAC’s advisory board
By Philip RuckerFormer Texas governor Rick Perry on Thursday will announce that he has recruited more than 80 major donors, including some of the biggest bundlers in Republican politics, to aid his efforts as he prepares for a likely 2016 presidential campaign.Perry’s list of supporters is heavy with wealthy Texans, including many energy executives, investors or other business leaders who have backed his previous campaigns, such as his unsuccessful 2012 presidential run. The Rick PAC Advisory Board also features bigwigs in California, New York, Florida, Illinois and other donor-rich states, as well as more than a dozen donors who made five- or six-figure contributions in 2012 to Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign, his super PAC or both, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Corruption
Fordham Law Review: Event: Fighting Corruption in America and Abroad
This full-day symposium will focus on defining corruption and initiatives to regulate it within the United States, internationally, and in foreign countries. The symposium will include a keynote address delivered by Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and four panel discussions among legal academics, prosecutors, defense lawyers, economists, and political philosophers.
State and Local
Maryland –– AP: Hogan to propose replenishing public campaign finance fund
Hogan said in his State of the State speech Wednesday that he will submit legislation to reinstate the voluntary check-off which allows a taxpayer to make a donation to the state’s public campaign financing system.
Virginia –– Washington Post: Ethics reforms advance in Virginia legislature
By Rachel Weiner and Jenna PortnoyNew rules agreed to in unanimous House committee and Senate subcommittee votes Wednesday would cap gifts to lawmakers and immediate family members at $100 rather than the $250 limit set last year. Lawmakers also voted to close a major loophole in restrictions passed a year ago that continue to allow such “intangible gifts” such as vacations, event tickets and meals to remain unlimited. Lawmakers can still attend industry or professional receptions so long as they expect a crowd of at least 25 people. Any travel paid for by a third party that is not reported as a campaign donation would have to be related to a lawmaker’s public duties.Larger gifts can be received only from personal friends, who cannot be lobbyists or anyone represented by a lobbyist. For state or local administration officials, friends also cannot include anyone seeking a business relationship with Virginia. That provision is aimed at the circumstance that led to former Republican governor Robert F. McDonnell’s conviction in September, after he accepted gifts and loans from Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the onetime Star Scientific chief executive who wanted the state’s help promoting Anatabloc.
