Disclosure Regulation
Los Angeles Times: States can bring political ‘dark money’ into the light
Ann M. Ravel
I’ve advocated repeatedly that the federal government could learn from California. But given the gridlock in Washington, some cities and states — Connecticut, Montana, New York City and Austin, Texas — have seized the lead. Among their reforms: requiring nonprofits that buy political ads to disclose their relevant donors, and for those donors to disclose their donors. Some also require that top donors’ names appear on any advertisement. Some governments require each politically active group to name the individual who controls its election activity, which provides a starting point for uncovering the networks behind meaningless nonprofit names like “Americans for Apple Pie.”
Even California could make its laws stronger. For example, it could enshrine the public’s right to transparency in all campaign spending in the state’s Constitution as a way to advance democratic self-government and protect the integrity of the electoral process. It also could make it much easier for voters to access information about the true sources of campaign money.
Independent Groups
Reuters: ‘Trump Museum’ in Cleveland is a trove of opposition research
Daniel Trotta
The “Trump Museum,” just steps from the Republican National Convention, displays artifacts such as the Trump action figure, the Trump board game and sartorial splendour from the Trump clothing line.
So much Trump is on exhibit that at first glance it may appear to be a campaign office for Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. But this is actually enemy territory, funded by a Democratic Super Pac called American Bridge…
Inside are displays from a year’s worth of opposition research. American Bridge started looking into the Republican presidential hopefuls long before it was clear who would emerge as the winner.
USA Today: ‘Patriotic Millionaire’ protests against rich political donors
Fredreka Schouten
On Monday, however, the 56-year-old New Yorker found himself on the outside of a convention hall – by choice. Pearl, chairman of the group Patriotic Millionaires, joined the masses of protesters gathering in Cleveland on the opening day of the Republican National Convention and took to a makeshift stage to argue that rich guys like him have too much power in elections.
“Some wealthy people are using their wealth to get more political power and using their political power to get more wealth,” Pearl said to a group of about 15 onlookers who listened as he made his case before the microphone at Public Square, one of a handful of protest zones set up around the city during the convention…
As the two men spoke Monday, some people in the small group of onlookers listened closely and applauded lightly but occasionally turned to watch a louder protest unfolding across the square. The competing protesters, armed with a megaphone, bore signs attacking Muslims and exhorted people to “put down your alcohol and pick up the Bible.”
Effect of Campaign Spending
The Hill: Bush’s three delegates cost $50 million each
Jesse Hellman
Jeb Bush’s three delegates at the Republican National Convention cost him and his campaign about $50 million each.
Bush, who ended his presidential campaign in February after a poor showing in South Carolina, had only three delegates vote for him at the Republicans’ nominating convention Tuesday. His campaign and super PAC spent $46 million for each delegate, according to The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel.
Book Review
Philanthropy Roundtable: A Watchdog with Only One Eye (Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money”)
Scott Walter
The strangest element of this book is Mayer’s horror at philanthropists who thus hope to “reorient” the public’s thinking. She seems to imply that it is insidious for donors, and the scholars and institutions they support, to speak to citizens about the fundamental issues of public policy, including regulations and taxes.
That is, unless they are progressive. You see, progressives keep the wealthy “in check,” and progressive think tanks, foundations, and journalists have been driven “by social science, not ideology,” always striving “to deliver the facts free from partisan bias.” Thus by a miraculous coincidence, everyone who has served Mayer’s preferred ideology—now and for the last century—has no political leanings, nor a hint of any bias.
Free Speech
More Soft Money Hard Law: The Question of Intensity: Campaign Finance and the Ginsburg Controversy
Bob Bauer
Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC Irvine School of Law, has maintained a lively defense of Justice Ginsburg’s comments critical of Donald Trump… It’s an interesting and instructive case about how the intensity of feelings about particular issues and candidates tends to drive views of the First Amendment and in particular of the wisdom of campaign finance restrictions. For Chemerinsky, in defending Justice Ginsburg, insists that more political speech is better than less, and he is clearly moved in saying so by what he views as the exceptional importance of the question – – the potential election of Donald Trump – – that Justice Ginsburg was addressing.
This is another application of the test of conviction on political spending issues. To what extent, when the stakes are high, will citizens and activists tolerate being told that they can’t spend however much they want, or operate as freely as they choose, in advancing public policy positions or promoting candidates?
The Courts
Slate: The Real Reason Why Judges Should Keep Quiet About Elections
Richard L. Hasen and Dahlia Lithwick
Campaign regulation opponent Jim Bopp (the man who brought you Citizens United) has filed a cert petition with the high court in Wolfson v. Concannon, arguing among other things that Arizona’s rule forbidding candidates to endorse or oppose candidates other than in their own races violates the First Amendment. Bopp lost that case unanimously before an en banc panel of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges (some liberal and some conservatives), and he should lose at the Supreme Court, too. But Ginsburg’s anti-Trump tirades may ironically give Bopp a better chance of succeeding at the high court by highlighting the issue of the First Amendment rights of judges and judicial candidates.
The court has already weighed in a few times on the question of limiting the political activities of judicial candidates, and Ginsburg herself has been at the forefront of arguing that such limits don’t violate the First Amendment.
Above the Law: The Liberal Argument Against The Supreme Court
Joe Patrice
John Bonifaz shared his former co-author’s (on 1993’s excellent Equal Protection and the Wealth Primary from the Yale Law & Policy Review) belief in an amendment — an idea that, later in the conference, appears to have bitten Hillary Clinton. But Bonifaz outlined some specific, short-term strategies for pursuing Supreme Court action and to take back the offensive in the campaign finance arena.
Remember this gem?
Justice Alito was specifically objecting to President Obama’s assertion that Citizens United authorized foreign actors to dump unlimited money into influencing U.S. elections. Time has vindicated Obama many times over.
Today, Uber is spending huge sums to lobby local governments — huge sums of money it got from its business partner Saudi Arabia. You’d think with all the local ordinances to ban Sharia law, someone would be concerned that a country actually living under that code is spending massive amounts of money to influence local laws. Bonifaz is looking into this and other cases like it to push the courts into facing the contradictions in their jurisprudence.
Convention
Huffington Post: On Campaign Finance, Republicans and Democrats Could Not Be Further Apart
Paul Blumenthal
The platform, released on Monday, clearly states, “We oppose any restrictions or conditions that would discourage citizens from participating in the public square or limit their ability to promote their ideas, such as requiring private organizations to publicly disclose their donors to the government.” It further calls for the repeal of the McCain-Feingold limits on soft money donations to political parties and “raising or repealing contribution limits.”
This is one area where the two parties could not be further apart. The draft copy of the Democratic Party platform calls for constitutional amendments to overturn both the 2010 Citizens United and the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo Supreme Court decisions. It further endorses the creation of a public campaign financing system for congressional elections and the passage of legislation to increase disclosure of outside money.
Influence
Hollywood Reporter: ‘Hillary’s America’: Film Review
Frank Scheck
Dinesh D’Souza better hope that Hillary Clinton doesn’t win the upcoming election. In his new “documentary” co-directed by Bruce Schooley, the conservative filmmaker/author claims that he was incarcerated for a campaign finance law violation not because he did anything wrong — he was only helping out a friend! — but rather because he had incurred the wrath of the Democratic establishment with his previous right-wing film, Obama’s America.
“The Obama administration tried to shut me up,” he whines, later adding, “If you make a film criticizing the most powerful man in the world, expect the empire to strike back.”…
The film — which has already opened to excellent box-office returns in several prime red-state locations — is a vicious cinematic diatribe that makes Michael Moore’s efforts on the other side of the political spectrum look decorous.
Candidates and Campaigns
National Memo: Still No Evidence That Donald Trump Has ‘Self-Funded’ His Campaign
Matt Shuham
And though Donald claims to have converted these loans into outright contributions, there is no evidence that this is the case.
According to Lawrence Noble, general counsel of the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center, Trump must submit public documentation to the FEC at some point recording the conversion of his loans into contributions. Representatives of the FEC said Monday that they still have not received any such documentation from the Trump campaign.
The next FEC filing deadline, July 20, comes one day after Trump is scheduled to become the official Republican nominee for president. On Wednesday, we will have another opportunity to see whether Trump’s loans have been paid off — by himself, or by his supporters.
The Intercept: GOP Platform Calls for Elimination of Almost All Campaign Finance Laws
Jon Schwarz
First, the GOP platform advocates “raising or repealing contribution limits” on donations directly to politicians.
Currently individuals can give only $2,700 per election directly to a candidate. Primaries count as separate elections, so you can give Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s campaigns $5,400 – half for the primary and half for the general elections…
Repealing contribution limits on direct donations to candidates would remove one of the few limits on money in politics that Citizens United left standing. Hedge fund manager Robert Mercer could give $17 million to Republican politicians rather than to Super PACs supporting them, while his fellow hedge fund manager George Soros could give $12 million to Democratic politicians.
The States
Gotham Gazette: De Blasio’s Nonprofits: Were they worth it?
Samar Khurshid
Mayor Bill de Blasio and his allies set up three political nonprofits to advance his progressive agenda, two of which are being shuttered, one of which is virtually defunct, and all of which have caused the mayor headaches.
The Campaign for One New York (originally UPK NYC) and its offshoot, United for Affordable NYC, helped accomplish key local policy goals, but, amid controversy, began the process of shutting down earlier this year. The Progressive Agenda Committee, set up on the national stage, has no employees but has not been declared dead by its creators. That group has had little to show for its efforts.
Months of negative headlines about law enforcement investigations into the Campaign for One New York and possible corruption appear to have contributed to a drop in public opinion of the mayor.
Stanwood Camano News: Six initiatives make deadline to appear on November ballot
SC News Staff
All brought in a substantial pad and are considered likely to make the statewide fall ballot, along with a pair of initiatives to the Legislature. Six initiatives will be an unusually large number for Washington…
Initiative 1464 sponsors arrived with more than 326,000 signatures to create a state-funded campaign finance program.
