In the News
Salt Lake Tribune: Utah gives in to First Amendment lawsuit
Christopher Smart
Allen Dickerson, an attorney for the Center for Competitive Politics, which represented the plaintiffs, warned the law would have a chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech.
“Utah’s law is so overbroad that our clients were concerned that participating in any public debate could destroy the privacy of their donors, many of whom believe that their donations to charitable organizations should be done in private,” Dickerson said in news release.
Under the settlement, the state will not enforce the law against nonprofit groups “engaging in constitutionally protected political advocacy and political issues advocacy,” according to the plaintiffs’ statement. “The state agreed that doing so would be unconstitutional, unless those organizations are political action committees or political issues committees.”
CCP
Doublespeak in Reformland
Luke Wachob
The release says, in part, “The rise of ’secret money’ and unlimited outside spending by unaccountable Super PACs is eroding the public’s trust in our elections. Meanwhile, the Federal Election Commission – the agency in charge of upholding the laws that govern our elections – is hobbled by its partisan composition.” (Bolding mine.)
This is an astonishing bit of doublespeak. The FEC is, of course, comprised of six members, three Democrats and three Republicans. Its structure is purposely bipartisan, designed in response to the corrupt abuse of campaign finance laws by Richard Nixon’s Justice Department against the President’s critics and political opponents.
What the press release really means to say is, “the FEC is hobbled by its bipartisan composition.” That is, advocates of tighter control of speech are frustrated that the Commission’s structure forces them to convince both Democrats and Republicans that their proposals are worthwhile and constitutional.
Independent Speech
New York Times: Political Art in a Fractious Election Year
Randy Kennedy
Mr. Thomas and Mr. Gottesman explore a similar conviction in a joint project that will be hinted at during the Republican convention but gain more visibility in the fall leading up to the election. Called “For Freedoms,” a riff on Norman Rockwell’s all-American series “Four Freedoms,” the conceptual art project is a nonpartisan “super PAC” that has raised about $100,000. It plans to place works by contemporary artists in spaces typically reserved for advertisements — billboards, transit stations, bus stops — in cities around the country.
The works, by artists like Alec Soth, Carrie Mae Weems, Fred Tomaselli and Pablo Helguera, are for the most part not politically pointed but suggestive and open-ended.
FEC
Washington Examiner: Lawmakers launch assault on campaign finance law
Rudy Takala
A bipartisan group of lawmakers and congressional candidates has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission seeking to prevent big donors from having an outsized influence on the electoral process…
“I think most people understand that money influences politics to a degree that we need to limit it, and we need to address it,” said John Howe, a former Minnesota state senator now running for Congress. “We’re not challenging anybody’s free speech. If you want to spend a billion dollars in your name and spend it, that’s fine. But when you give it to a third party organization, and we don’t know whose money it is, and it’s used in such a way that it corrupts the political system, we need to address it.”
Vice Presidential Nominee
The Hill: Pence pick sparks hope for Trump fundraising
Jonathan Swan
But while he won’t move the Kochs, Pence will likely recruit other donors into Trump’s corner, top GOP fundraising sources say.
“For fundraising absolutely it helps. He’s got great relationships. People will take his calls,” said Lisa Spies, a senior fundraiser for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign who in 2010 helped then-Congressman Pence expand his national fundraising network.
“I think people will give because they like Mike Pence,” she added. “But they’re not going to give as much as they would’ve because they dislike Donald Trump.”
Mother Jones: Pence Isn’t Going to Solve Trump’s Money Problems
Russ Choma
But Pence? He isn’t exactly a star with the party’s regular fundraisers and donors—the people who have always been the backbone of GOP financial support. It’s true that Pence has ties to both the political empire of the conservative billionaire Koch brothers and some tea party grassroots organizations. But if Trump thought he could tap into those connections to fuel his presidential campaign, he might have been mistaken.
Over the course of his career, Pence’s biggest source of campaign cash has been the Republican Governors Association, which has put more than $2.6 million into supporting his gubernatorial aspirations.
Public Opinion
LSE U.S. Centre: Voters are not blindly cynical about money in politics
Todd Donovan
Recent years have seen growing concern over the role of money in politics, with many Americans seemingly believing that campaign money represents quid pro quo corruption. But in new research which uses survey experiments, Todd Donovan finds that people think about campaign money is based on both its source and the amount; Democrats and Republicans see donations to their own party as honest, and to the other, as dishonest. They also found that when money is seen to be spent on negative campaign ads, respondents were more likely to view it as corrupt compared to spending on ads in general.
Foreign Contributions
NPR: Citizens United Muddles What Is Legal In Trump’s Foreign Money Case
Peter Overby
Under federal law, it’s illegal for candidates to solicit or accept contributions from non-citizens. The only exception is for green-card holders. But that bright-line definition of what’s legal is clouded by changes in the law, in particular the 2010 Supreme Court ruling known as Citizens United.
It’s a far cry from from 20 years ago, when allegations of foreign money shook President Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign. The Democratic National Committee had been aggressively raising money for “issue ads” against Republican nominee Bob Dole. The Clintons even had donors and prospective donors to the White House, for coffee or for overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom.
Corruption
Washington Free Beacon: Corrine Brown’s Legal Defense Fund Accepted Prohibited Contributions From Lobbyists
Joe Schoffstall
Brown and her chief of staff, Elias “Ronnie” Simmons, were indicted last week on 24 counts of fraud stemming from a sham foundation established by the congresswoman…
The Washington Free Beacon obtained records of the Corrine Brown Legal Defense Trust, which was established in 2010. Funds in the trust have already been used to aid Brown’s legal battle. The attorneys representing Brown against the charges, William Sheppard and Elizabeth White from the Jacksonville, Fla.-based firm Sheppard, White, Kachergus & DeMaggio, received $20,000 in legal fees from the account last August.
A review of the records shows that Brown’s legal fund has received $5,750 in donations from three registered lobbyists, which is prohibited by House ethics rules.
Influence
Politico: Rep. Whitfield violated House rules over wife’s lobbying
Heather Caygle
“Specifically, the Committee finds that Representative Ed Whitfield failed to prohibit lobbying contacts between his staff and his wife, Constance Harriman, and dispensed special privileges to Ms. Harriman, but that he did not violate the rule against improperly using his position for his own interest,” the committee wrote in its report.
Still, the committee report sharply criticized Whitfield for his actions, which included numerous meetings between his staff and his wife’s group, the Humane Society Legislative Fund, and even resulted in Whitfield introducing a bill to prevent soring at horse shows, an issue the Humane Society supports.
Candidates and Campaigns
Wall Street Journal: Hillary Clinton to Pledge Making Campaign-Finance Overhaul a Priority
Colleen McCain Nelson
Hillary Clinton on Saturday will pledge to make an overhaul of the campaign-finance system an urgent priority, as she announces plans to introduce a constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling during the first 30 days of her administration.
The presumptive Democratic nominee has made her opposition to the Supreme Court decision lifting restrictions on corporate and union political expenditures a prominent feature in her campaign. And on Saturday, Mrs. Clinton will sketch out how she will approach the issue as president, with a release of a video detailing her plans, a campaign official said.
Washington Post: Clinton will push constitutional amendment to ‘overturn Citizens United’
David Weigel
Hillary Clinton will call for a constitutional amendment to “overturn Citizens United” in her first 30 days as president and plans to make that announcement today to progressive activists at the annual Netroots Nation conference.
“I will also appoint Supreme Court justices who understand that this decision was a disaster for our democracy,” Clinton will say in a video message, scheduled to run near the end of today’s final keynote session. “I will fight for other progressive reforms, including small-dollar matching and disclosure requirements. I hope some of the brilliant minds in this room will seek out cases to challenge Citizens United in the courts.”
Washington Post: Sixty mega-donors gave 30 percent of the money raised by Donald Trump and the Republican Party
Matea Gold
Sixty mega-donors gave at least $100,000 each to a joint committee raising funds for Donald Trump and the Republican Party, together pouring in $15.4 million from late May until the end of June, new campaign finance records show…
Most of the money they donate is allotted for the RNC, which received a $10.1 million transfer from the committee. But not all of that money can be used freely. More than $4 million was earmarked for the party’s convention and legal accounts — funds that cannot be used to pay for the RNC’s political efforts on the ground. An additional $1.5 million was raised for the RNC’s “headquarters” account, which party officials plan to use to help finance field offices around the country.
The States
Yuma Sun: Foes of new ‘dark money’ law halting repeal effort
Howard Fischer
Rep. Ken Clark, D-Phoenix, said Friday he will not be able to get the required 75,321 valid signatures by the Aug. 5 deadline.
In fact, Clark said his approximately 300 volunteers have so far collected only about 20,000 names on petitions. And of that, he said a preliminary review shows only about 16,000 are valid.
Clark said the defeat came down to money — specifically, the lack of it.
“The general public understands that dark money is bad,’’ he said. “But we were not able to convince the larger money donors to come in and help up pay for petition gatherers.’’
And Clark said that, as popular as he believes the issue is, an all-volunteer effort was bound to fail.
