Independent Groups
Daily Caller: Liberal nonprofit that pressed Shulman to target conservatives houses his wife’s group
By Patrick HowleyIn 2012, Common Cause urged Shulman and fellow embattled IRS official Lois Lerner, director of the agency’s tax-exempt organizations division, to investigate the Koch Brothers’ attempted takeover of the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute.
“Common Cause respectfully requests that the Internal Revenue Service initiate an investigation into whether attempts by Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch, shareholders of the Cato Institute, to take control of and manipulate the Cato Institute for partisan political purposes expose a flaw in the Cato Institute’s structure that jeopardizes its tax exempt status under 26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3),” Common Cause president Bob Edgar wrote in a letter to Shulman and fellow IRS official Lois Lerner dated March 9, 2012.
Continues: Common Cause provides office space to the progressive campaign-finance reform organization Public Campaign which employs Shulman’s wife Susan L. Andersen as a senior program advisor.
Washington Post: IRS ‘BOLOs’ raise new questions about political targeting uproar
By Josh HicksInternal Revenue Service documents showing that the agency might have scrutinized politically liberal groups before it inappropriately targeted conservative ones intensified debate on Capitol Hill last week, leaving the agency and its watchdog scrambling to explain themselves.
SCOTUS/Judiciary
Huffington Post: The Supreme Court’s Libertarian Moment?
By Ilya ShapiroThe casual observer of the Supreme Court must have been quite confused last week. First, the Court punted on an affirmative action case, making it harder to use race in college admissions decisions without prohibiting the practice altogether. It then won plaudits from conservatives by striking down key parts of the Voting Rights Act — but disappointed many of them the very next day by gutting the Defense of Marriage Act.
Disclosure
Free Beacon: Treasury Department IG Refused FOIA on Austan Goolsbee Investigation
By CJ Ciaramella“With regard to your request for documents pertaining to a third party, TIGTA can neither admit nor deny the existence of responsive records,” said in its response. “Your request seeks access to the types of documents for which there is no public interest that outweighs the privacy interests established and protected by the FOIA (5 U.S.C. §§ 552(b)(7)(C) and (b)(6)).”Former White House Council of Economic Advisers chairman Austan Goolsbee sparked a mini-scandal in 2010 when he told reporters during a background press briefing that Koch Industries—the company of libertarian philanthropists Charles and David Koch—paid no income taxes.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns and Parties
NY Times: Campaign Ad Cash Lures Buyers to Swing-State TV Stations
By Brian StelterThe increasingly expensive elections that play out across the country every two years are making stations look like a smart investment, with the revenue piling up each time a candidate says, “I approve this message.”Despite an array of digital alternatives and a rapidly transforming television business, 30-second commercials remain one of the most valuable tools of campaigns and political action committees. As Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of the CBS Corporation, which owns 29 stations, memorably said last year, “Super PACs may be bad for America, but they’re very good for CBS.”
FEC
Perkins Coie: Decoding the Dispute Between the FEC and Its Lawyers Over Sharing Information with DOJ
By Brian SvobodaThe debate over information sharing, which the Commission is expected to take up soon, is important for many reasons. It involves the Commission’s compliance with the notice and confidentiality provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act. It also involves DOJ’s access to information that might help it avoid doubtful prosecutions by consulting the administrative agency responsible for interpreting and enforcing an increasingly complex statute on a day-to-day basis.
NY Times: Sabotage at the Election Commission
EditorialThe three Republicans on the commission appear ready to take advantage of a temporary vacancy on the three-member Democratic side to push through 3-to-2 votes for a wholesale retreat from existing regulations.Note: The FEC cannot do advisory opinions, enforcement actions, or regulations without four votes.
State and Local
Virginia –– Washington Post: For months, Cuccinelli didn’t know of McDonnell allegations, campaign says
By Rosalind S. Helderman
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II’s staff purposely shielded him from allegations of improper behavior by Gov. Robert F. McDonnell for five months last year, knowing the attorney general was friendly with a key donor at the center of those accusations, according to new information released by Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial campaign. Cuccinelli (R) had stayed at the home of Star Scientific Inc. chief executive Jonnie R. Williams Sr. shortly after he took office in 2010, so Cuccinelli’s deputy “walled off” Cuccinelli from a separate criminal investigation into whether a chef at the governor’s mansion had embezzled food, campaign officials said.
Virginia –– Washington Post: As Cuccinelli campaigns, some big GOP donors keep wallets closed for now
By Ben Pershing“I’m not giving nobody another dime,” Johnson recently told The Washington Post. “I’ve spent way too much money on politicians. . . . It’s like throwing money down a toilet.”
Wisconsin –– Journal Sentinel: Ousted bus union officials allegedly tried to pad anti-Scott Walker hours
By Daniel BiceThe ATU would reimburse the local for 100% of the costs for Milwaukee-area staffers to work on the campaign to try to remove Walker last year. The Republican governor defeated Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat, in the June 2012 recall contest.It is being alleged that top officials with the local labor group then jacked up the number of hours reported to the union’s international headquarters.For instance, one insider said, if a staffer worked 15 hours during a week on the Walker recall, local officials submitted paperwork suggesting the person had put in, say, 30 hours, thereby bringing in more money to the local.
