FEC
Fox News: FEC opening door to Internet regulation – again?
Adam Shaw
The commission also split 3-3 in a recent case that asked if the Internet exemption also exempts a webcast of a discussion with political candidates that provides a link to contribute to candidates. The Republicans said it was exempt; the Democrats disagreed.
Goodman, a Republican, said the decisions are likely to have a chilling effect on free speech.
“Political speakers who are careful about what they do, and who are advised by lawyers, may be chilled from communicating on the Internet, in the light of a 3-3 divide on the commission,” he said. “There is definitely a chilling effect.”…
Goodman said while the 3-3 split on the commission stalls any Internet regulatory push, he warned that if legislation in Congress passes to make the body a five-person body, it could give the Democrats the majority they need.
“If the commission were to be reconstituted, I believe we’re looking at full-blown regulation of political speech on the Internet,” he warned.
Medium: Citizens United, Foreign Money, and Your Voice
Ann Ravel
There are serious concerns about how foreign money may influence elections in the United States, at the federal, state and local level. My fellow commissioners at the Federal Election Commission should share those concerns. And I suspect many Americans feel the same way, too. That’s why I would like to hear directly from you before the FEC meeting in September where this will be discussed. After you read this, send me your thoughts by emailing CommissionerRavel@fec.gov. The FEC’s job, because we exist in the public interest, is to hear from the public.
Free Speech
USA Today: Free speech of the 21st century
Glenn Harlan Reynolds
But as the technical barriers to self-expression have dropped, the social barriers seem to have increased. A few decades ago, both left and right believed in free speech. Students at Berkeley and elsewhere protested to demand free speech rights, and a national consensus arose that the answer to ideas one dislikes is not suppression, but more speech.
That’s not so much the case today. As Kimberley Strassel notes in her new book, The Intimidation Game, it’s now open season on free speech, at least when it’s expressing the wrong views.
President Obama himself presumed to lecture the Supreme Court on the wrongness of the Citizens United decision, though that decision was really about the government’s power to punish filmmakers for making a documentary that was critical of Hillary Clinton — the sort of thing that one would think was at the core of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. If you can’t make a film criticizing a powerful politician, what does free speech really mean?
Salon: “Dangerous precedent for free speech”: NJ Gov. Chris Christie signs law punishing boycotts of Israel
Ben Norton
It requires the New Jersey government to identify companies that support a boycott of Israel, raising fears that it would create a “blacklist” of institutions that back the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement.
Under the new law, the State Investment Council, which manages more than $80 billion in pension assets, is legally obligated to divest from these blacklisted companies.
Legal groups say the legislation is likely unconstitutional.
Independent Groups
Maplight: “Dark Money” Groups More Likely to Sponsor Attack Ads
Frank Bass
Although they accounted for a small percentage of ads aired during the 2016 primary season, “dark money” groups have eclipsed super PACs as the entities most likely to use negative advertising, according to the analysis. A bare majority of super PAC-sponsored ads were negative.
The archive data show that nonprofit organizations paid for more than 4,000 airings of ads that were unambiguously negative or positive — less than 3 percent of all the spots aired in the 23 markets…
Super PACs, which can also accept unlimited contributions but must report them to the Federal Election Commission, paid for more than 33,000 airings of ads. More than a third of the spots that aired were negative, and many targeted Donald Trump.
Dangers of Disclosure
Politico: Identity thieves target Dems’ big donors after DNC hack
Dan Spinelli, Edward-Isaac Dovere and Gabriel Debenedetti
“All my shit was hacked,” said a major donor, who has given to the Democrats for years. “Now, I’ve got to have LifeLock on my 6-year-old daughter’s Social Security number.”
“I already got a call that someone was trying to use my Social Security number,” said Eric Schoenberg, a top DNC donor and adjunct professor at the Wharton School of Business, who said a person applied for an online loan with his information. “The answer is: Nobody is safe.”
In conversations with nearly two dozen top DNC donors and DNC officials, POLITICO found the same set of concerns and complaints repeatedly: Donors are seeing hackers attempt to use their personal financial information, they’re being harassed online, they’re anxious about the continuing fallout of the data breach and they’re angry that the DNC did not better protect their most sensitive data.
IRS
Washington Times: IRS vows action on tea party applications long held up by targeting
Stephen Dinan
Under pressure from the federal courts, the IRS did an abrupt about-face this week and said it will finally begin processing some of the tea party applications it has blocked for years — but the agency still refuses to say what the new process will be.
The Texas Patriots Tea Party, which first applied for tax-exempt status more than four years ago and has been blocked ever since, received a notice from the Justice Department on Tuesday saying it is finally going to see some action.
But the department’s attorney, Joseph A. Sergi, said he didn’t have any more details to provide, leaving it unclear whether the agency will move quickly, what sorts of standards it will impose and whether it will require another round of questions for the groups to answer.
Shareholder Activism
Harvard Law School Forum: Political Contributions and Lobbying Proposals
Yafit Cohn
Each year from 2012 through 2015, between 65 and 92 political contributions/lobbying proposals were submitted to a vote at Russell 3000 companies. During the 2016 proxy season, 66 such proposals were submitted to a vote thus far. While roughly consistent with the 71 proposals that reached a vote in 2015, this number is significantly lower than the 92 proposals that reached a vote in 2014. Despite the relatively high number of political contributions/lobbying proposals submitted each year, the vast majority (98.9%) of these proposals have failed since 2012. Consistent with historic results, the vast majority of political contributions/lobbying proposals failed during 2016, with only one such proposal—submitted to Fluor Corporation—garnering majority support.
Campaign Finance Enforcement
Los Angeles Times: Rep. Ami Bera’s father sentenced to prison for funneling money to his son’s campaigns
John Myers and Sophia Bollag
Babulal Bera, a retired chemical engineer who emigrated from India and watched his oldest son win election to the U.S. House of Representatives, was sentenced Thursday to one year and one day in federal prison for organizing a money-laundering scheme that helped fund two of his son’s campaigns.
It was a sentence that defense attorneys for Bera, 83, argued was too severe, but one U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley said was appropriate…
The issue of Babulal Bera’s guilt was hardly ever in doubt, as the congressman’s father quickly pleaded guilty to the crimes in May, telling the judge through an interpreter: “I have, in fact, done the crime.”
Instead, the focus of debate this summer was whether the elder Bera should go to prison. Prosecutors insisted in a court filing last week that a one-year sentence was appropriate because of the seriousness of the crimes. They rejected defense arguments that the case was merely one of a father getting caught up in the excitement of helping his son achieve a longtime dream.
Influence
NBC News: Exposed! Naked Donald Trump Statues Pop Up in Cities Across U.S.
Associated Press and NBC News
It’s Donald Trump like he’s never been seen before.
Life-size naked statues of the Republican presidential nominee greeted passers-by in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Cleveland on Thursday. They are the brainchild of an activist collective called INDECLINE, which has spoken out against Trump before.
In a statement, the collective said the hope is that Trump “is never installed in the most powerful political and military position in the world… It is through these sculptures that we leave behind the physical and metaphorical embodiment of the ghastly soul of one of America’s most infamous and reviled politicians”
Washington Free Beacon: Clinton to Spend Rest of August Fundraising With Celebrities, Wealthy People
Morgan Chalfant
Clinton will appear next week at eight fundraisers over three days in California, including one at the home of famed professional basketball player Magic Johnson in Beverly Hills. Co-hosts for the event also include Bob Iger, the chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks Animation and a major Democratic donor.
One of the California fundraisers, in the wealthy Laguna Beach area, will cost guests $33,400 each to attend. Another event in Northern California will cost each couple $100,000 to gain entry.
CNN obtained invitations showing that Clinton will also appear at a fundraiser next Tuesday at the home of actor Leonardo DiCaprio, an event that will be co-hosted by talent manager Scooter Braun and actor Tobey Maguire.
Candidates and Campaigns
Wall Street Journal: Trump Shake-Up Reflects Hedge-Fund Manager’s Growing Influence
Rebecca Ballhaus
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s latest staff shake-up reflects the growing behind-the-scenes influence of a wealthy backer relatively new in the nominee’s orbit: billionaire hedge-fund manager Robert Mercer.
Mr. Mercer, co-chief executive of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, has longstanding ties to both people elevated to top posts in the campaign on Wednesday.
He and his daughter, Rebekah, had recommended both Breitbart News chairman Stephen Bannon and Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway, who already worked for the campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.
New York Times: How One Family’s Deep Pockets Helped Reshape Donald Trump’s Campaign
Nicholas Confessore
Over more than half a decade, Ms. Mercer’s father, the New York investor Robert Mercer, has carved an idiosyncratic path through conservative politics, spending tens of millions of dollars to outflank his own party’s consultant class and unnerve its established powers…
Many of them are now connected, one way or another, to Mr. Trump’s presidential bid. Mr. Trump’s new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, is a veteran Republican pollster who previously oversaw a super PAC financed by the Mercers. Mr. Bannon oversaw Breitbart, an outlet that has often amplified Mr. Trump’s message and attacked his perceived enemies. Mr. Mercer reportedly invested $10 million in Breitbart several years ago, and most likely still has a stake.
The States
Baltimore Sun: Grass roots group eyes launch of ‘citizen-funded’ campaign system
Fatimah Waseem
Fair Elections Howard, a grass roots group formed by major advocacy organizations like Common Cause and Maryland Public Interest Research Group, is behind a community-wide push for a new publicly funded campaign system that matches small campaign donations using public funds and aims to limit the influence of special interest money…
The system would cost roughly $2.6 million for an election cycle with the maximum number of candidates running, according to estimates by Maryland PIRG. Candidates would be able to opt into the system.
