CCP
Warren and Whitehouse Deceive on Oil Industry Contributions
Joe Albanese
But for the sake of demonstrating how easy it is to spin a lawmaker’s campaign contributions, let’s give Senators Warren and Whitehouse the same treatment using data again from the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Senators clearly support investigations against Exxon that could lead to lawsuits. Their political opponents could easily argue that this is because of financial influence from the legal sector. After all, Senator Whitehouse received $1.7 million from lawyers and law firms since 2005, which amounts to 14.1% of his $12.3 million total. Senator Warren received $2.3 million from that same group just since 2011. Out of the whopping $50 million she raised in that time, contributions from lawyers and law firms amount to 4.6% of her fundraising haul.
Not only are these absolute amounts and percentages comparable to – or, in Whitehouse’s case, even larger than – Smith and Inhofe’s contributions from the oil and gas industry, they also occur over a much shorter time frame. Using the Senators’ same logic, Warren and Whitehouse must be doing the bidding of big law firms who would benefit from more litigation.
Defenders of the Democratic Senators will find reason to say that this analysis is totally unfair – and that’s exactly the point. Rather than selectively accusing politicians of being corrupted by their campaign contributions, it is much more reasonable to assume that donors give to those whose political beliefs overlap with their best interests.
Harassment
The Hill: Protesters push, spit on Trump donors at Minn. fundraiser
Jonathan Swan
Protesters pushed, verbally harassed and spat on donors attending a Donald Trump fundraiser in Minneapolis on Friday night, the Star Tribune reported.
The Minneapolis Convention Center area became unruly as attendees left after the event, according to the newspaper.
“Some fundraiser attendees were pushed and jostled, spit on and verbally harassed as they left the convention center,” the Star Tribune’s Patrick Condon reported.
Independent Groups
ABC News: Bernie Sanders’ New Political Group Raises Campaign Finance Questions
Jonathan Karl and Benjamin Siegel
The group, called “Our Revolution,” will support progressive policy proposals and politicians across the country. According to its website, the group is operating as a 501(c)(4) organization, a tax status that will allow it to accept unlimited contributions without having to reveal its donors.
But its activities could be limited by campaign regulations because of its ties to Sanders, resulting in a highly unusual — if not unprecedented — political arrangement, according to Paul Ryan, the deputy executive director of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center.
CPI: Super PACs boost Libertarian Gary Johnson’s long-shot presidential bid
Michael Beckel
“America deserves a better option than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton,” proclaims the new ad from Purple PAC, which goes on to call Johnson the “honorable choice,” after touting him as committed to the Constitution, fiscal responsibility and freedom.
For its part, Americans Deserve Better is trying to cast Johnson and Weld as “the adults” in the 2016 presidential race…
Political observers say super PACs could help boost Johnson as a credible alternative to Trump and Clinton.
“We know there are disgruntled partisans on the right and left, so in some ways conditions are ripe for attracting people to vote for Johnson,” said Johanna Dunaway, an associate professor of communication at Texas A&M University.
But, she added: “The buys would have to be quite big to have an effect.”
The Hill: Blame Citizens United for unsavory political consulting
Brian J. Wise
Many wealthy donors on both sides of the aisle have made valiant efforts to develop networks of influence, and many have had limited, targeted success. For the GOP, however, those successes on small policy battles are short-lived, because the structure of the party apparatus lacks the coordination and united power necessary to control the makeup of the party and its policy platform. On the Democratic side, the coordination is much more centralized and unified and, as was seen in the 2016 primary fight, is split in half along the lines of the followers of the two party leaders mentioned above. Contrast this with a Republican party with at least a half dozen factions, and even more donors, vying for control and competing against each other.
FEC
The Hill: FEC to fight fake candidates like ‘Deez Nuts’
Mark Hensch
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) says it will no longer tolerate “unlawfully false or fictitious” political candidates like “Deez Nuts.”
“The Commission has authorized staff to send verification letters to filers listing fictional characters, obscene language, sexual references, celebrities (where this is no indication that the named celebrity submitted the filing), animals, or similarly implausible entities as the name or contact information of the candidate or committee,” the agency said in a statement Thursday.
The FEC said it now has an interim procedure staff to “verify information in filings from the 2016 election cycle that appear to be unlawfully false or fictitious.”
Wisconsin John Doe
Wall Street Journal: Holding Prosecutors Accountable
Readers are familiar with the secret John Doe probe by Democratic prosecutors that targeted conservative groups, using kitchen-sink subpoenas and raiding their homes in pursuit of an illegal theory of campaign-finance coordination. The investigation was shut down by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
But before those outrages, prosecutors did a test run on a Scott Walker aide named Cindy Archer as part of an investigation into Mr. Walker’s associates that began around the time of his first run for Governor. Ms. Archer was never charged, but her career and reputation were damaged.
Ms. Archer has been fighting the politicized harassment in a federal civil-rights action. Her complaint notes that prosecutors violated her First and Fourth Amendment rights when they searched her home without a warrant that narrowly specified what they were looking for. In May federal Judge Lynn Adelman rejected the claim on grounds that prosecutors are immune from lawsuits concerning their official duty.
But prosecutors are not eligible for immunity when a well-established constitutional right has been violated. No government has carte blanche to retaliate against citizens based on their speech.
Corporate Speech
Directors & Boards: Why Corporations Have an Important Role to Play in Political and Social Issues
Tanya Meck and Julie Hootkin
Corporations and their boards are increasingly tackling social issues like climate change, sustainability and diversity. And many CEO’s are publically addressing issues like transgender rights, pay equity and immigration.
With so much dysfunction and partisanship coming out of Washington, Americans are increasingly frustrated with the government’s inability to get things done. As a result, Americans are looking elsewhere for leadership on important issues, and corporations and their leaders increasingly have an opportunity – and a responsibility – to fill that role.
Our annual study1 found that nearly 8 out of 10 Americans (78%) believe corporations should take actions to address important issues facing society; an even greater number (88%) believe that corporations have the power to influence social change.
Congress
Chicago Sun-Times: Opinion: Three ways Congress can muscle-up to your voting rights
Michael Golden and Lawrence Lessig
Just before the national conventions, the House Democratic leadership announced its “By The People” (BTP) legislative package. These reforms, backed by 187 members of the rank-and-file, are designed to “revitalize our nation’s voting laws, restore sanity to the electoral process, and empower everyday Americans to reclaim their voice in the political process.”
…perhaps most importantly, BTP would change the way congressional elections are funded, by leveraging small donations up to $150 with public matching funds at a ratio of 6 to 1— and 9 to 1 for candidates who choose not to accept contributions over $150. The law would force disclosure of the millions of dollars in dark money contributions that currently remain hidden within our system, and replace the gridlocked FEC with a five-member agency possessing increased investigative and enforcement powers. Clinton supports these changes. Silence from her opponent.
The Media
Bloomberg: Ads for Presidential Race Drop 60%, Hurting Local Broadcasters
Gerry Smith
Spending on political advertising during the U.S. presidential election has dropped 60 percent from 2012, a troubling sign for local TV broadcasters that were counting on a windfall…
Spending is down in part because Trump’s campaign has relied instead on getting his message across in a steady stream of media interviews and tweets. There also hasn’t been as much spending by Republican outside groups, such as political action committees, as there was in 2012, Goldstein said. On the Democratic side, the primary season went longer this year than four years ago as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders battled into early summer.
The Hill: What would media say about naked Hillary statues?
Kristin Tate
In a country once rocked for two weeks by the inadvertent appearance of Janet Jackson’s nipple at the Super Bowl, media condemnation of the objectively vulgar statue suddenly proved non-existent. The mood in the national press was rather jubilant and lauding.
The tone of the media wouldn’t concern if bias in its coverage of the presidential election and cultural affairs in America was not already so out of control.
Picture, if you will, a naked statue representation of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, erected (erm…) by cover of night in Times Square and on the boardwalks of Los Angeles, the sculptor’s artistic license given free reign…
It is impossible to quantify the rage that our media would unleash on the nation and heap upon sexist and racist, so-called artists.
Influence
San Diego Union-Tribune: The pay-to-play Clinton Foundation
Editorial Board
Emails released this month have drawn fresh attention to this dynamic. Contrary to Clinton’s promise to President Obama before she was named his secretary of state, the emails show contacts between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department in which a foundation employee, Doug Band, seeks a favor — access to a top U.S. diplomat — for a donor who is a Lebanese billionaire, and is assured by Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, that help is forthcoming. The tone of the exchange indicates how routine the interaction was…
But just because this pattern is what we’ve come to expect doesn’t mean we should come to accept it. Just because her opponent for the White House is awful doesn’t mean Hillary Clinton should escape the harsh judgment her conduct deserves.
CNN: Hillary Clinton fundraises with the stars
Dan Merica
What do Cher, Leonardo DiCaprio, Magic Johnson and Jimmy Buffett all have in common? They’re with her.
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, buoyed by rising poll numbers and a sputtering Donald Trump campaign, are using August to raise tens of millions of dollars in cash before the fall sprint.
Candidates and Campaigns
New York Times: Trump Campaign Doubles Spending, Not Ground Game
Associated Press
Donald Trump’s campaign expenses more than doubled last month, even as the Republican presidential nominee held his payroll to about 70 employees, aired no television advertisements and undertook no significant operational buildout across the country.
Instead, about half of the campaign’s $18.5 million in spending was vacuumed up by Giles-Parscale, a web design and marketing firm new to national politics, Federal Election Commission filings show. It’s a crossover vendor from Trump’s real estate organization…
The big expense came as Trump put a new emphasis on online fundraising, after paying for his primary run mostly out of his own pocket.
Washington Post: Trump campaign has biggest spending month yet, but Clinton dominates financially
Matea Gold and Anu Narayanswamy
The billionaire also trails his Democratic rival when it comes to raising money. July was his best month yet: the Trump campaign and two joint fundraising committees it has with the RNC together pulled in $82 million, officials announced earlier this month. That came close to the $90 million that Clinton raised in conjunction with the Democratic party in July.
However, Trump does not appear to be harvesting as much cash from those joint fundraising efforts as Clinton does. His campaign said that that it raised $64 million with the RNC through online donations and direct mail in July, ostensibly mostly small contributions that would be directed to his committee, rather than the party. But Trump’s campaign reported just $36 million in receipts last month.
The States
Boston Globe: Donors behind charter push keep to the shadows
Michael Levenson
A new $2.3 million ad boosting the expansion of charter schools in Massachusetts lists the campaign’s top five donors on screen, in accordance with state law. But the singularly bland names, including Strong Economy for Growth and Education Reform Now Advocacy, give no hint of who is writing the checks.
Four of the five donors to the procharter committee are nonprofit groups that do not, under state law, have to disclose their funders, allowing the individuals backing the effort to remain anonymous.
