In the News
Wall Street Journal: Faux Campaign Finance Reform
By Jason L. RileyThe political theater in the U.S. Senate Monday was worthy of an Obie Award, as Democrats once again tried—and once again failed—to pass a bill designed to silence their opponents.
Mother Jones: Republicans to Secret Donors: We’ve Got Your Back (Yet Again)
By Andy KrollDavid Keating, president of the Center for Competitive Politics, which opposes more regulation of political money, said the bill overreached because it would also compel disclosure for nonpolitical ads. “There are plenty of ads that are lobbying related,” Keating told Politico. “You would have to go through all the red tape for those. It’s being billed as an election disclosure bill, but it covers way more than that.”
Independent groups
NY Times, Blog: The Super PAC That Aims to End Super PACs
By Michael ShearJonathan Soros has started a new Super PAC aimed at lessening the impact of Super PACs. He wants to use the $5 million to $8 million he plans on raising for negative ads aiming at politicians who oppose campaign finance reform.
Huffington Post: Could Citizens United Be Good for Marriage Equality?
By Jackie GardinaThe U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision that Citizens United applies with equal force to state and local elections could open the door even wider for corporations to play a significant role in the marriage-equality debate. In the November election four states — Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington — will allow voters to decide whether their gay and lesbian citizens can marry. Corporations can now provide unlimited financial resources to support such initiatives, as well as the candidates who support or reject them, and ultimately influence the outcome.
NY Times: How Much Has Citizens United Changed the Political Game?
By Matt Bai“A hundred million dollars is nothing,” the venture capitalist Andy Rappaport told me back in the summer of 2004. This was at a moment when wealthy liberals like George Soros and Peter Lewis were looking to influence national politics by financing their own voter-turnout machine and TV ads and by creating an investment fund for start-ups. Rappaport’s statement struck me as an expression of supreme hubris. In American politics at that time, $100 million really meant something.
Washington Post: As DISCLOSE Act stalls, Super PAC reserves $6 million in ad time for House races
By Paul KaneOne Republican group has reserved $6 million in television advertising time for the fall election season to help more than a dozen House GOP candidates, and about half the money will come from the nonprofit side of the organization that is not required to disclose its donors.
USA Today: Pro-Romney super PAC raises $20M in June
By Catalina Camia and Fredreka SchoutenAn independent group supporting Mitt Romney raised a whopping $20 million last month, the most ever for a super PAC in a single month.
Disclosure
NY Times: The Power of Anonymity
EditorialTwo years ago, Congress came within a single Republican vote in the Senate of following the Supreme Court’s advice to require broad disclosure of campaign finance donors. The justices wanted voters to be able to decide for themselves “whether elected officials are ‘in the pocket’ of so-called moneyed interests.”
Washington Post: How did senators vote on the DISCLOSE Act?
By Ed O’KeefeThe Senate failed Monday to advance legislation that would require independent groups to disclose the names of contributors who give more than $10,000 to independent groups for use in political campaigns.
Bloomberg: Senate Republicans Block Campaign Donor Disclosure Bill
By Jonathan D. SalantWhile a majority of Senate lawmakers voted in favor of advancing the bill, the 53-45 vote was short of the 60 votes needed to overcome Republican opposition. After the measure was blocked yesterday, Senate Democrats debated the legislation into the evening and renewed their efforts today.
Associated Press: Senate GOP block campaign spending disclosure bill
Senate Republicans blocked Democratic-backed legislation requiring organizations pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into campaign ads to disclose their top donors and the amounts they spend.
The Hill: Secret donations hurt our elections, democracy
By Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)The story of our American democracy has been the fight to make sure that every citizen’s voice is heard; that each of us can claim equal ownership of the government we’ve formed together. But the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has threatened that fundamental notion by allowing secretive special interests to make limitless and secret campaign donations, secret donations then give them an unfair advantage over the average voter.
Huffington Post: The People’s Testimony
By MELISSA MARK-VIVERITONext Tuesday, the United States Senate is holding hearings on three resolutions that would amend the Constitution and overturn Citizens United v. FEC. This Supreme Court ruling, which was handed down in January of 2010, equated corporate political contributions with freedom of speech, opening the floodgates to unlimited corporate spending to influence elections.
Candidates and parties
USA Today: New ads allege Romney is hiding something in tax returns
By Aamer MadhaniThe Obama campaign unveiled “Makes You Wonder,” a television spot that notes Romney paid less than 15% in taxes on $43 million in income in 2010 and 2011. Romney has released his 2010 return and 2011 estimate, but has thus far refused to release earlier years.
Bloomberg: Republican Leaders, Super-PACs Shape North Carolina House Runoff
By GREGORY GIROUXA runoff election for a House seat today between two North Carolina Republicans is unusual for the intervention of party leaders and outside groups.
