Citizens United
The Hill: Overturning Citizens United would be a disaster for free speech
Steve Simpson
Citizens United was based on core First Amendment principles: the right to think and speak your mind, to associate with others and to use your own resources to make yourself heard. Overturning it would be a disaster for free speech.
To see why, start with the facts of Citizens United. The law at issue prevented a nonprofit from distributing a film that opposed Clinton when she last ran for president. The government admitted during the case that the law could be applied to books as well. Central to the very idea of free speech is that it protects the right to criticize government. Yet the result of campaign finance laws is to restrict speech precisely because its subject is politics.
That’s unavoidable given the way the laws function. The purpose of campaign finance laws is to limit the amount of money people can spend to influence politics. But because the chief way to influence politics is to speak to voters and candidates, this necessarily means limiting political speech.
Tax Financed Campaigns
New York Post: Queens woman arrested for forging campaign donations
Rebecca Rosenberg and Carl Campanile
A young Queens politico who ran for City Council in 2015 was arrested Tuesday for faking donations to get 6-for-1 matching taxpayer funds for her losing campaign, authorities said.
Celia Dosamantes, 25, allegedly forged 32 contribution cards totaling $3,255, then filed the documents with the Campaign Finance Board in an attempt to get matching funds of nearly $19,530 from the city, officials said.
CFB allegedly caught Dosamantes red-handed during a compliance visit last summer, according to assistant district attorney Nicholas Leddy.
“Forged contribution cards were recovered from a folder defendant attempted to conceal in her lap,” the prosecutor said in Manhattan Supreme Court…
Sacramento Bee: Bill would empower small campaign donors over special interests, megadonors
Emily Rusch
Senate Bill 1107, authored by Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, permits counties, cities and the state to use public funds to establish their own campaign finance solutions. A 28-year-old law bans the use of public funds for political campaigns, and that ban is holding California back from considering promising solutions that are being adopted in other states.
Under a small-donor empowerment system, candidates who voluntarily opt in and agree to turn down large contributions would receive limited public matching funds for each small contribution they secure. Combined with refundable tax credits for small contributions, these programs can encourage candidates to raise funds from a broad swath of their constituents and increase civic participation.
We know the small-donor empowerment model works because it’s already working in local elections in places like New York.
Independent Groups
Tampa Bay Times: Complaint accuses Murphy of ‘stealthily coordinating’ with super PACs
Kristen M. Clark
For example — as the Tampa Bay Times’ Alex Leary previously reported — Murphy in March posted on his campaign website a nearly 6-minute, silent video of “b-roll” that was ripe for outside advertisers to download and use. (This summer, Murphy’s website also had a document highlighting Murphy’s positions and offering attacks on Murphy’s then-primary opponent, Alan Grayson.)
FACT noted that in July Murphy published a page on his website stating: “Florida Democrats, especially those from Tampa to Orlando, deserve to know that President (Barack) Obama endorsed Patrick Murphy.” Shortly thereafter, two super PACs supporting Murphy — the national Senate Majority PAC and the Murphy-centric Floridians for a Strong Middle Class — each ran an identical TV ad touting Obama’s endorsement.
Private Giving
ABC Denver: Exclusive: Clinton charities ignore law requiring them to disclose millions from foreign donors
Mark Greenblatt
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has the power to force the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Health Access Initiative to publicly disclose the names of foreign governments and the millions they donate each year to the charities but he’s not doing it, a Scripps News investigation has found.
Schneiderman’s failure to require compliance with New York law and written instructions from his own office keeps the public in the dark about whether the foreign governments that gave money to the Clinton charities also had special access to Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, experts in private foundation law say. New York state has long required more transparency from non-profits operating within its borders than many other regulators.
A Scripps Washington Bureau review of tax returns and regulatory filings found that year after year the Clinton charities have ignored New York law and related instructions.
Corporate Speech
Fortune: Goldman Sachs Bans Employees from Donating to Trump
Lucinda Shen
Goldman Sachs has enacted a set of rules that bans the firm’s top employees from contributing to certain campaigns, including the Trump-Pence ticket…
In the memo, a copy of which was obtained by Fortune, Goldman specifically mentions the Trump-Pence campaign as an example of one Goldman partners can no longer support. Among the type of donations that are banned, according to the memo, are, “Any federal candidate who is a sitting state or local official (e.g., governor running for president or vice president, such as the Trump/Pence ticket, or mayor running for Congress), including their Political Action Committees (PACs).”
At the same time, the rules do not restrict donations to Clinton-Kaine. Kaine is a U.S. Senator for Virginia, and not considered a local official under Goldman’s rules.
Influence
Wall Street Journal: Calendar Shows Hillary Clinton Meetings With Foundation Donors
Peter Nicholas and James V. Grimaldi
Hillary Clinton as secretary of state attended high-profile events and functions where donors to her family’s charitable foundation were in attendance, calendar records show.
Records for a six-month stretch in 2011 show her attending a foundation plenary session in New York in September, when she was interviewed by her daughter, Chelsea. Three weeks later, she attended what was billed as a Clinton Foundation dinner in Los Angeles. The following day, she was scheduled to attend a brunch at the home of media billionaire Haim Saban, whose family foundation has given more than $10 million to the Clinton Foundation.
The calendar says she and her husband were to “mix and mingle with guests.”
NBC News: Clinton Campaign Takes Advantage of a Surrogate Gap
Alex Seitz-Wald and Ali Vitali
A flood of well-known Democrats are hitting the campaign trail to bolster a stubbornly unpopular Hillary Clinton as she seeks to close the deal with voters, demonstrating her advantage of being able to deploy many more surrogates than GOP nominee Donald Trump has at his disposal.
As Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, seek to cover the ground in key battleground states, Michelle Obama — the most popular political figure in the country — will join the trail by making her first campaign appearance for Clinton next week in Northern Virginia. Sen. Elizabeth Warren will return to the stump Friday in Philadelphia.
Candidates and Campaigns
The Guardian: Trump’s ‘rigged election’ rhetoric could inspire voter intimidation, say experts
Peter Stone
Donald Trump’s claims that if he loses in November it will be due to a “rigged” election have sparked strong bipartisan criticism from election lawyers, donors and a former member of Congress who warn that the Republican candidate’s words are dangerous, fueling doubts about the election’s legitimacy and potentially leading to voter intimidation.
As his poll numbers have weakened and his high-decibel spats with critics escalated, Trump has raised the specter of rigged elections and suggested that if he loses it might well be because of voter fraud…
Several election lawyers and analysts are disturbed by Trump’s combustible use of language.
ABC News: Trump Supporter Booby-Traps Yard Sign to Thwart Thieves
Michael Edison Hayden
A Donald Trump supporter from Indiana has gone to great lengths to protect his yard sign showing his pride in the real estate mogul’s campaign — booby-trapping it in an attempt to thwart thieves, according to a report.
Designing a trap reminiscent of something from the movie “Home Alone,” or “Goonies,” the man, Phillip, who asked ABC affiliate RTV6 not to use his last name, surrounded his Trump sign with fishing wire and string painted green to match the color of the surrounding grass.
After the first attempt, he also set up a camera to record people who come close to it, the report said.
The man said that the device caught two alleged thieves in the past month.
Huffington Post: Corrupt Politician From ‘The Wire’ Says Donald Trump Is Just Like Him
Todd Van Luling
The actor claims he specifically predicted Donald Trump’s staying power because the former reality TV star reminded him of Sen. Davis, who seemingly couldn’t be stopped time and again on “The Wire.”
“I would see some of the things he was doing,” said Whitlock. “Some of the stuff kind of resembled Clay Davis from ‘The Wire.’ Some of the things that would come out of his mouth, I said, ‘You know, he’s going to be around for a while. At least until Nov. 8.’”
The States
Vermont Watchdog: Bernie Sanders’ fundraising help not ‘express advocacy,’ AG says
Bruce Parker
A fundraising email from Bernie Sanders that netted $80,000 for a state senatorial candidate did not violate campaign finance laws because it could not be interpreted as an appeal to vote for the candidate, according to Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell.
“The email does not meet the Courts’ test primarily because its central and sole purpose was to raise funds for particular candidates, not to request that its readers vote a particular way or for a particular candidate,” Sorrell said in a statement Tuesday….
However, the statement from the attorney general admits that “some state laws and the federal election laws do include provisions that regulate solicitations like the Sanders email.” It notes that federal election law “requires disclaimers as to the source of solicitation mailings.”
Miami Herald: Campaign-finance rules heading to Miami-Dade commission. Then court.
Douglas Hanks
The two sides fighting over a campaign-finance ballot initiative expect to battle Wednesday before Miami-Dade commissioners. But the real showdown may come the next day in court.
A union-backed group is pressing Miami-Dade leaders to reserve a spot on November’s ballot for the item, with the Elections Department saying Tuesday night that organizers have enough petition signatures to put the question before voters.
The proposal would ban county contractors and their lobbyists from supporting candidates for county office. Commissioners are slated to take up the question during their regular twice-a-month meeting Wednesday, but a thicket of legal and procedural challenges could scuttle the proposal before the 13-member board gets a chance to vote on the matter.
Columbia Daily Tribune: McCaskill backs campaign limits, hints at independent effort to help pass ballot measure
Rudi Keller
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill on Thursday said she’s ready to help any way she can to pass campaign finance limits for Missouri, on the ballot Nov. 8 as Amendment 2.
The proposal to limit donations to candidates and political party committees and ban donations from corporations and labor unions was proposed by an initiative petition financed by Fred Sauer, a conservative activist who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for governor in 2012. At a fundraiser for state Rep. Stephen Webber’s bid for state Senate, McCaskill, a Democrat, made a pitch to pass Amendment 2.
WMUR Manchester: Charge of illegal campaign coordination called ‘frivolous,’ ‘unfounded,’ ‘baseless nonsense’
John DiStaso
The Save the Children Action Network is operating out of the Concord office of a consulting/lobbying firm owned by Republican candidate for governor Jeanie Forrester’s chief campaign strategist and a Democratic supporter of, and contributor to, Democratic candidate Colin Van Ostern.
The group has endorsed Forrester and Van Ostern in their respective party primaries, and records show the group has spent more than $305,000 on mailers promoting their candidacies. The disclaimers on the mailers say they are “not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”
Girard has claimed in a complaint to the Attorney General’s Office that the endorsements of Forrester and Van Ostern, and the mailers on their behalf, are evidence of illegal coordination between Save the Children and consultants Michael Dennehy and Jim Bouley…
