In the News
VOA News: ‘Dark Money’ Campaign Contributions Headed for Record High
By Masood Farivar
In the decade since the Supreme Court decision known as Citizens United, dark money groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have reported nearly $1 billion in direct spending on U.S. elections to the Federal Election Commission, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
While that’s a small fraction of the overall spending on U.S. elections, critics say it has enabled wealthy donors to influence the outcome of elections while keeping voters in the dark about their role.
“This is a growing problem, and millions of dollars are going to be flowing into super PACs in the weeks ahead before Election Day,” said Michael Beckel, research director for Issue One, a Washington-based group that monitors the role of money in politics. “Some of that money could be coming from mysterious sources that the public has no idea who it is,” he told VOA.
Conservative defenders of anonymous spending dismiss claims of nefarious intent and say that disclosing the names of individual donors could subject them to political intimidation and harassment.
When organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Planned Parenthood give money to super PACs, they say, voters know that the funds come from their members and backers.
“So the idea that this is something that the American people know nothing about and don’t know who’s trying to influence them, I think is often quite false,” said Bradley A. Smith, a former Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission who now heads the Institute for Free Speech, a conservative group that opposes campaign finance restrictions.
The Courts
Associated Press: Cowboys for Trump resists reveal of financial contributors
By Morgan Lee
The support group Cowboys for Trump and its founder Couy Griffin are resisting pressure to disclose financial contributors in what could be a test case of a 2019 New Mexico state law that requires greater disclosures of independent political spending.
Griffin, an Otero County commissioner, is battling state campaign finance regulators in federal court…
“If our donors and supporters are unmasked and their names are known, then New Mexico is notorious for political hits,” Griffin said. “Their names would be slandered, and they would be attacked for supporting a conservative political movement in New Mexico.”
The New Mexico secretary of state’s office says fines are accruing as Cowboys for Trump ignores an arbitration order to register with the state as a political committee and to disclose contributions and expenditures since January 2019.
Griffin in June filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court “to vindicate right of freedom of speech and association to organize and vocally support the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.”
The lawsuit describes Cowboys for Trump as an educational initiative that doesn’t spend money in support or in opposition to any candidate for office. It accuses Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver of overstepping her authority and preempting federal campaign finance regulations…
On Friday, the New Mexico State Ethics Commission that shares enforcement authority of the state campaign reporting act declined to wade into the matter, voting unanimously against filing its own civil suit. A proposal to further investigate by subpoena was defeated on a 4-2 vote of the commission.
Times-News: Judge gives county time to change protest rules
By Isaac Groves
A federal judge is giving Alamance County “a short period of time” to make new rules giving protesters access to the grounds of the Alamance County Historic Courthouse though maybe not to the county’s Confederate monument.
“A short delay before entry of an injunction is appropriate to allow the defendants time to plan,” wrote Federal Judge Catherine Eagles in an order Friday Aug. 7.
Eagles admits banning all protesters from the courthouse grounds probably violates their First Amendment rights. But her order denies the request for a temporary restraining order against Alamance County and the Sheriff’s Office…
She also wanted the plaintiffs – the Alamance Branch of the NAACP and the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights Under Law representing it – to be more specific about what protesters should have access to. People have demonstrated on the courthouse grounds and steps for years, but, according to Eagles, the monument, surrounded by a decorative chain fence and flowers, is different.
“There is no evidence in the record that the monument itself or the flower beds are a public forum,” Eagles wrote.
Nonprofits
Washington Post: New York’s lawsuit to dissolve the NRA is outrageous
By Henry Olsen
New York Attorney General Letitia James’s announcement on Thursday that she is filing a lawsuit to dissolve the National Rifle Association is beyond belief. At best, it is a purely political stunt, seeking relief that she knows no court will ever give; at worst, it is an improper use of legal power to advance partisan ends and silence an effective opponent. Neither is consistent with the rule of law…
The NRA…filed its own federal lawsuit claiming James’s action was politically motivated…
None of [the allegations]…justifies destroying the organization itself…If the same set of facts had arisen within a liberal nonprofit such as the Sierra Club or the Ford Foundation, there is no way that James would be seeking to shut the organization entirely. It is hard not to conclude that she is seeking that remedy in this case because of what the NRA is – one of the most influential players on the right and the leading group standing in the way of gun-control advocates…
What the left never seems to get is that the NRA and other conservative groups get their political power from the people. If the NRA were dissolved, gun owners and manufacturers would simply turn to another, better-run entity to advance their cause. Gun Owners of America is already a strong competitor to the NRA and would likely flourish if its larger ally were removed. James is at best playing a game of political whack-a-mole, and that’s always a fool’s errand.
Washington Post: The NRA is a cesspool. That doesn’t mean it should be dissolved.
By Ruth Marcus
I loathe the National Rifle Association…
And yet, I worry that New York Attorney General Letitia James has gone too far in her bid to dissolve the organization. Even assuming that the facts laid out in the state’s lawsuit against the NRA are true – and I believe every word about chief executive Wayne LaPierre’s jaw-dropping greed – the right remedy is fixing the NRA, not dismantling it.
The NRA has a First Amendment right to its misguided understanding of the Second. Forcing its dissolution has disturbing implications – made even more disturbing by the fact that the attorney general seeking that step is a Democrat who vowed during her campaign to “take on the NRA” and labeled it a “terrorist organization.” In this country, we don’t go after entities because of what they advocate.
James’s lawsuit against the NRA does not mention ideology, even if it strains credulity to think that James would have gone after the ACLU or Planned Parenthood with equal zeal if there were similar facts. Still, the facts as alleged are jaw-dropping – and, if you were a donor who dug deep in defense of gun rights, should be enraging.
Political Parties
Sludge: Corporate Lobbyists Vote To Keep Corporate Lobbyists In the DNC
By David Moore
Last week, a proposal to reduce corporate influence over the Democratic Party was hastily rejected during a virtual meeting of the Democratic National Convention Rules Committee by a vote of 105 to 45, with eight abstentions. The resolution, which would have changed the DNC Charter to permanently bar corporate PAC donations and ban corporate lobbyists from serving on the party organization, was introduced by Brent Welder, a Kansas City area attorney and delegate appointed by the Bernie Sanders campaign.
Several of the Rules Committee appointees who voted against Welder’s resolution have backgrounds in corporate lobbying. Sludge found at least ten current corporate lobbyists and one major former lobbyist-as well as three corporate consultants, four corporate lawyers, and five corporate executives-among the members who voted against the proposal.
“If you are a lobbyist for a for-profit corporation, you shouldn’t serve on the DNC,” Welder told Sludge. “I guarantee you that 99.9% of Democrats in America agree with that, and only the place you find people who disagree with it are in the leadership of DNC.” …
Welder…said that he was approached by the Biden campaign through an intermediary and pressured to withdraw his measures.
“I was informed before the meeting that of all the amendments put forth, the Biden campaign was most upset about those two amendments, and urged me to withdraw them, which I politely declined to do,” Welder said.
Congress
Politico: Ron Johnson subpoenas documents from FBI director
By Betsy Woodruff Swan
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has issued the first subpoena of his Senate probe into the origins of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation: to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The subpoena, which POLITICO reviewed, demands documents but not testimony. Specifically, it asks for “all documents related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation” – the FBI’s counterintelligence probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election…
Johnson also released a lengthy letter detailing the origins of his probe and criticizing the reaction it has garnered from media reports and Democrats. Democrats, Johnson wrote, “have initiated a coordinated disinformation campaign and effort to personally attack” himself and Finance Committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), whose office has worked with.
The letter specifically addresses a recent Washington Post op-ed from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). In the op-ed, Blumenthal said Johnson’s investigation risked turning Congress into “a forum for debunked conspiracy theories peddled by Kremlin proxies.”
Politico: Ethics Committee finds Rashida Tlaib violations were ‘bad timing’ not ‘ill intent’
By Max Cohen
The House Ethics Committee found Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) violated campaign finance rules by receiving a campaign salary when she was no longer a congressional candidate – but that she did not have “ill intent” in her actions.
The committee concluded that receiving a portion of her salary from campaign funds following the 2018 general election ran afoul of the Federal Election Campaign Act, according to a report released Friday…
The Ethics Committee ordered that Tlaib pay back her campaign the $10,800 that she improperly received when she was no longer a candidate. Apart from the reimbursement and the issuing of the report, the committee said it would take no further action.
Online Speech Platforms
NBC News: Sensitive to claims of bias, Facebook relaxed misinformation rules for conservative pages
By Olivia Solon
Facebook has allowed conservative news outlets and personalities to repeatedly spread false information without facing any of the company’s stated penalties, according to leaked materials reviewed by NBC News.
According to internal discussions from the last six months, Facebook has relaxed its rules so that conservative pages, including those run by Breitbart, former Fox News personalities Diamond and Silk, the nonprofit media outlet PragerU and the pundit Charlie Kirk, were not penalized for violations of the company’s misinformation policies.
Wall Street Journal: Tech, Financial Firms Eye Ways to Save TikTok’s U.S. Operations From Ban
By Georgia Wells, Rolfe Winkler, and Cara Lombardo
Several investment and technology firms are exploring a potential deal for the U.S. operations of TikTok, which is facing a Trump administration ban, but they each would have to surmount hurdles at least as high as the Chinese social-media platform’s main suitor, Microsoft Corp.
Twitter Inc. has had preliminary talks about a potential combination with TikTok in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. It is unclear whether Twitter will pursue a deal, which would face significant challenges and almost certainly need help from other investors, given Twitter’s size.
Candidates and Campaigns
Roll Call: What just happened in Tennessee’s Democratic Senate primary?
By Chris Cioffi
While Tennessee voters were watching the hotly contested and sometimes ugly Republican Senate primary, a major upset was taking place on the Democratic ticket.
Army veteran James Mackler, the presumed front-runner who raised over $2.1 million and was endorsed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, finished third in a five-way field with 24 percent behind lawyer Robin Kimbrough at 27 percent and winner Marquita Bradshaw, who got 36 percent after raising a fraction of his total.
“With less than $25,000, we beat a million-dollar budget because people lent their resources and worked their networks,” Bradshaw said Thursday night in an impromptu press conference outside her home. “Grassroot organizing along with the proper budget is going to flip this U.S. Senate seat and make history.”
Bradshaw is an environmental activist and organizer…
When Bradshaw entered the race, the campaign was told it “didn’t have a place here,” she said, but she took an activist’s approach.
“We called everybody we knew, they called everybody they knew. It’s organizing, building a network of people working together,” she said…
Mackler’s campaign, which had more than $615,000 on hand after spending $1.5 million through July 17, did not respond to a request for comment.
The States
The Stranger: Facebook Fails to Dodge Washington State Campaign Finance Lawsuit
By Chase Burns
Back in April, which seems like ten years ago, Washington state sued Facebook for “repeatedly” and “openly” violating the state’s transparency requirements that apply to political ads sold on Facebook.
This was the second time in two years that Washington state filed suit against Facebook for violating campaign finance law, in a case that originally grew out of reporting by The Stranger’s Eli Sanders.
In the latest suit, Attorney General Bob Ferguson argued that Facebook has unabashedly continued to violate Washington law, which uniquely requires all political ad-sellers to make significant disclosures about who’s paying for political ads that target state and local elections, as well as details about the reach of those ads…
On Friday, a King County Superior Court judge denied Facebook’s attempt to dismiss Ferguson’s latest campaign finance lawsuit. Ferguson celebrated the move.
“Today we defeated Facebook’s attempt to avoid its legal responsibility to Washington voters,” Ferguson said on Friday. “Whether you’re a tech giant or a community newspaper, those who sell political ads must follow our campaign finance law. Washingtonians have a right to know who’s behind the ads seeking to influence their vote.”
Better Government Association: Top Legislators Blowing Past Limits in Illinois Campaign Finance Reform Law
By Sandy Bergo and Chuck Neubauer
In 2009, with yet another governor ensnared in scandal, Illinois’ Democratic legislative leaders authored a package of laws they promised would begin to reform Illinois’ culture of corruption.
One of the biggest items in the legislative package would finally establish statewide limits on campaign contributions, a measure Illinois was one of the last states to adopt.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, who sponsored the legislation, hailed it as a way to “help restore public confidence in Illinois government.” State Sen. Don Harmon, the Democratic sponsor in the Senate, praised it for enacting “historic contribution caps, real disclosure requirements and strict enforcement measures.”
But years later, Madigan and Harmon are using a controversial loophole written into the reform bill to raise millions of dollars above the limits the legislation set…
“They completely gamed it,” said Cynthia Canary, former executive director of the organization now called Reform for Illinois, who helped negotiate the decade-old reform measure.
At the time, the law limited individual campaign contributions to $5,000 per politician, corporate and union contributions to $10,000 and contributions from political action committees to $50,000.
New Mexico In Depth: Ethics complaint alleges group failed to disclose donors, and suggests connection to prominent lobbyist
By Bryan Metzger
Over the course of May and early June this year, a new group called the “Council for a Competitive New Mexico” (CCNM) spent over $130,000 on a media campaign supporting a group of incumbent state senators, most of whom would go on to lose as part of a progressive wave in June’s Democratic primary.
The media campaign included several negative mailers and automated phone-calls against candidates opposing the incumbents while the public was left in the dark about who organized the group and who funded the media campaign.
Now, an ethics complaint filed this week with the Secretary of State’s office alleges that CCNM broke New Mexico’s election code by not disclosing its donors…
At the core of Holquin’s complaint is a new state law that triggers certain groups to disclose publicly and quickly who the donors are that paid for their electioneering activities if the costs are larger than a state-prescribed threshold.
Cleveland.com: An ‘epidemic of virtue’ hits Ohio Statehouse following corruption charges: Thomas Suddes
By Thomas Suddes
Since last month’s federal round-up, members of Ohio’s House and Senate have introduced nine bills to rewrite or repeal HB 6 or, purportedly, strengthen Ohio’s campaign finance laws…
The main beneficiaries of campaign finance reporting “reforms” are the lawyers candidates must hire to unscramble the campaign reporting laws’ gobbledygook…
What does need reforming is Ohio’s laughable lobbying law. Its “disclosures” tell Ohioans nothing about how much money, or what California Assembly Speaker Jesse “Big Daddy” Unruh called the mother’s milk of politics, really sloshes around Ohio’s Statehouse…
[B]ecause of how the legislature wrote Ohio’s lobbying law, lobbying ‘expenditures’ do “not include … compensation paid to [lobbyists] engaged by an employer.”
