Independent groups
WSJ: Campaigns Drop Clues to PACs
By Patrick O’ConnorFederal election law forbids candidates to plot strategy directly with super PACs. So they are laying out a simple trail of clues to help these well-funded outside allies amplify their messages.
National Journal, Influence Alley: Are We About to Witness Watergate the Sequel?
By John Aloysius FarrellLast month marked the 40th anniversary of the infamous Watergate break-in. On the night of May 28, 1972 a team of burglars from President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign entered Democratic National Committee headquarters on the sixth floor of the Watergate office building, rifled through files and desk drawers, and bugged telephones. One of the bugs didn’t work. So the burglars returned on June 17 to replace it. That was the night they were caught.
SCOTUS/Judiciary
CBS: Discord at Supreme Court is deep, and personal
By Jan CrawfordDiscord at the Supreme Court is deep and personal after Chief Justice John Roberts’ surprise decision to side with the liberal justices in upholding a large portion of the president’s health care plan. This discord is going to affect this Court for a long time – and no one has any idea how it will be resolved.
Disclosure
USA Today: Disclose Act is un-American
By Mitch McConnellI have spent nearly my entire career defending the First Amendment from Democratic and Republican attempts to undermine it. And I have yet to encounter a serious attempt to limit our freedom of speech that doesn’t sound good at first blush. And that’s what is happening with the so-called Disclose Act.
USA Today: Disclose secret campaign finance
EditorialEverybody’s watching what’s expected to be by far the most expensive presidential campaign in history, and not without a dose of horror. Freed by the Supreme Court from spending limits, all manner of special interests are opening the spigots to buy influence.
NY Times: Tax-Exempt Groups Shield Political Gifts of Businesses
By MIKE McINTIRE and NICHOLAS CONFESSOREAmerican Electric Power, one of the country’s largest utilities, gave $1 million last November to the Founding Fund, a new tax-exempt group that intends to raise most of its money from corporations and push for limited government.
NY Times: Democrats to Ask for Curbs on Donor-Shielding Groups
By JONATHAN WEISMANThe Democratic Party’s Senate campaign arm will file a formal complaint on Monday with the Federal Election Commission against three of the Republicans’ biggest campaign groups, accusing them of willful violations of federal election law and asking that their electioneering be stopped.
Candidates and parties
Washington Post: Campaign ads flood into swing states for a summertime blitz
By Dan EggenThere will be no summer idyll for voters in swing states, who will be deluged with tens of millions of dollars in political ads over the next month as part of an intensifying broadcast war through the Olympic Games.
STATE and LOCAL
Illinois –– Chicago Tribune: Quinn signs super PAC campaign finance law
By Ray LongGov. Pat Quinn signed a bill Friday that lifts the state’s campaign contribution limits to candidates once big money starts flowing into a state or local political contest, a move one watchdog group decried as effectively ending limits in any major race.
