Independent Groups
Washington Post: Ready for Hillary: The smartest political business in recent memory
By Philip BumpLet’s be very clear: Ready For Hillary, the super PAC that has spent more than two years vacuuming up donations and dishing out Hillary Clinton gear, was never critical for attaining its original purpose. “It’s a draft movement,” cofounder Allida Black told The Hill at the group’s launch in January 2013. “We want her to run, but we are not rookie volunteers.”But there was was never any real question that Hillary Clinton was going to run. So the stated purpose of the organization quickly re-centered on demonstrating that Clinton had a wide base of support. The group “is focused on the grass-roots piece of organizing, and making sure that all throughout the country, if she does this, that there’s an army of grass-roots supporters behind her from Day 1 that are ready to go,” co-founder Adam Parkhomenko told NPR last April. The group became about getting as many e-mail addresses as possible (and selling some swag in the interim). “We’re not creating the support for her,” communications director Seth Bringman said to The Atlantic in December 2013. “The support for her is out there. We’re harnessing it.”Indeed. The group has raised $13 million so far.
Politico: The center-right fights back
By Lauren FrenchThe center-right is putting more money into the game — and taking fresh aim at the conservatives bent on dragging the House to the right.The deep-pocketed American Action Network, which has raised over $104 million since 2011, will put $1.8 million toward ads in 76 districts touting members who stood up to right-wing pressure and supported the House leadership on the budget and bipartisan Medicare legislation.The digital and television ads follow the group’s leap into last month’s contentious Department of Homeland Security funding debate, in which it spent $400,000 against fellow Republicans who refused to fund the agency in protest of President Barack Obama’s immigration actions. It followed with another $350,000 for TV ads in four districts to thank GOP lawmakers who backed the long-term funding deal in early March.
National Journal: Behind the Quixotic, Bipartisan Campaign to Create a New National Holiday
By Emma RollerImagine a special day each year when employees from Koch Industries and the Center for American Progress can link arms, sing Kumbaya, and agree to disagree.That special day is Freedom Day—a holiday being proposed by think tanks and “thought leaders” across the ideological spectrum to encourage Americans to celebrate the freedoms afforded to them by the Constitution.On April 13, representatives from the Aspen Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, the Federalist Society, and the American Civil Liberties Union—an unlikely bipartisan coalition—will travel to Philadelphia to convene a “national conversation about the future of freedom.”
CNN: Jindal group sent cease and desist letter over ‘American Future’
By MJ LeeIn the letter, attorney Jason Torchinsky, who is representing the American Future Fund, demanded that Jindal’s group immediately stop using the name “American Future Project.” Torchinsky said the similarities in the two names would result in people being “confused or misled.”“Your use of the name ‘American Future Project’ conflicts directly with my clients’ trademark and other legal rights in the name,” Torchinsky wrote. “As a result of your use of the name ‘American Future Project,’ viewers of your communications could reasonably believe that you are speaking for the well established American Future Fund or American Future Fund Political Action.”
SCOTUS/Judiciary
Washington Post (Volokh Conspiracy): 99Rise protesters charged with Class A misdemeanor in federal court
By Orin KerrThe defense presumably will claim that the protesters were not trying to influence the Justices because they knew their protest wasn’t going to persuade them. The protesters were trying to gather support for a constitutional amendment to overturn these precedents, they will argue, rather than trying to get the Justices to overturn their precedents. Maybe, although on the whole that strikes me as a tough argument on the facts. When you stand up before the Justices and yell out, “Justices . . . overturn Citizens United!!!,” it’s a little hard to say that you have no conscious object to influence the Justices in how they decide cases. (Perhaps some defendants will argue that they didn’t have that intent based on the specifics of what they said, but that’s an uphill battle given that this was clearly a joint operation.)What kind of prison term might the defendants face under this count if they are convicted? Violations of 18 U.S.C. 1507 are Class A misdemeanors, for which the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines apply. The Guidelines direct that Section 1507 cases should be sentenced under the Obstruction of Justice guideline, 2J1.2, which specifies a base level 14. At first, this suggests a severe recommended sentence: 15-21 months assuming no priors. A judge couldn’t actually sentence a defendant to that, as the statutory maximum is a year — and the sentence can’t exceed the statutory max. Pleading guilty to get acceptance of responsibility would at least lower the recommended sentence to 10-16 months. But still, ten months is a long time.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
Washington Post: Rand Paul announces presidential run
By Katie ZezimaSen. Rand Paul, the maverick first-term senator who rode a Tea Party wave from a Kentucky ophthalmology practice to Congress, on Tuesday formally announced a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.“I am running for president to return our country to the principles of liberty and limited government,” Paul wrote on his official campaign website, hours ahead of an official campaign launch in Louisville.Paul’s announcement makes him the second major Republican candidate to formally jump into the 2016 race, just the first of a string of campaign debuts currently slated for this month.
Wall Street Journal: Rand Paul Sets Up Combined Fundraising Committee
By Rebecca BallhausKentucky Sen. Rand Paul, ahead of the launch of his presidential campaignon Tuesday, has set up a fundraising committee that lets donors give simultaneously to his presidential and Senate campaigns.For Mr. Paul, who unofficially got the go-ahead from the Kentucky legislature last month to run for both offices in 2016, the joint committee suggests that Mr. Paul doesn’t plan to ignore his Senate campaign as he targets the White House—an unusual move for a presidential contender.“This has to be a first,” said Kenneth Gross, former head of the enforcement division at the Federal Election Commission, who said Mr. Paul is likely “hedging his bets.” He said that while it is possible for presidential candidates to raise money for re-election bids, too, they typically “mothball” fundraising for their congressional campaigns. “I suppose he will not only ask voters to support both campaigns through the joint committee but also to vote for him twice,” he added.
Politico: Rand Paul unveils populist, anti-establishment slogan
By Mike AllenSen. Rand Paul gave POLITICO a sneak peek at the slogan he will unveil at his presidential campaign announcement on Tuesday: “Defeat the Washington machine. Unleash the American dream.”The slogan, beneath the RAND PAC logo of a torch flame, will set the tone as the Kentucky Republican kicks off a five-day, five-state announcement tour — starting in Kentucky and then going to New Hampshire, South Carolina, Iowa and Nevada (plus a Friday night fundraiser in Newport Beach, Calif.).The slogan is designed to evoke populist, anti-establishment themes that would work in both the primaries and the general election.
CPI: 12 things to know about Rand Paul
By Michael BeckelOn the 2016 campaign trail, Paul, an ophthalmologist and son of the libertarian-leaning former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul, is hoping to tap into the grassroots energy that helped catapult him onto the national stage in the first place.Cash is a key to Paul’s success in what’s certain to be a crowded Republican primary field. Here’s more about the financial history of this outsider-turned-insider who wants his next home to be the White House.
NY Times: Ron Paul Is Expected to Play Little Role in Rand Paul’s Campaign
By Jeremy W. PetersLOUISVILLE, Ky. — He was one of the most energizing forces in the Republican primaries in 2008 and 2012, an improbable hero whose speeches drew libertarians and college students by the hundreds and sometimes thousands.But don’t expect to see much of Ron Paul in his son’s presidential campaign.On Tuesday, when Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is expected to announce his candidacy for the 2016 Republican nomination at a rally here, his father, Ron, the former Texas congressman, will have a silent role. The elder Mr. Paul, who is known for eagerly commenting on the crisis of the moment, has been much quieter lately. Last week, he was declining all interview requests.
LA Times: Presidential candidates-to-be make the most of fundraising rule-bending
By Evan HalperThe timing, like most things in politics, is driven by money. April marks the start of a sprint to raise as much of it as possible for an official candidacy before the summer reporting deadline, which lands as televised primary debates are about to get underway. Candidates who fail to show that the early big money is flowing into campaign accounts could quickly falter.One big exception is Jeb Bush.Although he is perhaps the least coy of the pre-candidates about his plans to run — and among the most aggressive fundraisers — his announcement may not come for a while.
