CCP
Actions Speak Louder than Words
By Luke Wachob
Yet perhaps we’re witnessing a change of heart from the administration and its allies, if the website of the 501(c)(4) group setup to advocate the President’s policies, Organizing for Action, is any indication. OFA has posted the names of its donors to a virtual “Donor Wall” to thank them for their contributions. Except that’s not quite accurate. OFA has actually posted only the first name and last initial of its contributors.
It might seem curious to scrub the last name of a person you’re trying to recognize. After all, our presidential memorials are not named the Abraham L or the Thomas J or the George W. The Super Bowl being played in a few weeks will not be to determine who wins the Vince L Trophy.
We here at CCP, however, understand OFA’s decision to keep their donors’ information private. Public disclosure exposes supporters of the President’s agenda to an unnecessary and significant risk of harassment. But while we at CCP harp on this reality, the President’s rhetoric and the administration’s behavior have demonstrated just the opposite. A donor wall thanking undisclosed contributors to a 501(c)(4) organization just doesn’t square with the President publicly describing (c)(4)’s that don’t publicly disclose their donors as a “threat to our democracy.”
Independent Groups
Wall Street Journal: Rep. Camp Seeks to Halt IRS Curbs on Some Groups’ Political Activities
By John D. McKinnon
The Obama administration’s plan to rein in politicking by some tax-exempt organizations drew a challenge from an influential House Republican.
Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R., Mich.) introduced legislation on Tuesday that would put a one-year hold on the Obama administration’s proposed regulations.
In a statement, Mr. Camp said it’s premature for the administration to try to tighten the rules on tax-exempt organizations that engage in political activity, particularly when congressional investigations are still looking into allegations the Internal Revenue Service mistreated some grassroots conservative groups under the existing rules.
Wall Street Journal: Criminal Charges Not Expected in IRS Probe
By Devlin Barrett
The FBI explored a number of possible violations, including those involving statutes within the IRS code that prohibit the misuse or improper disclosure of taxpayer information. Another area examined was whether any IRS officials lied about what happened and the reasons for it. The people familiar with the probe wouldn’t say who was interviewed.
The probe has been freighted with political suspicions. Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who has represented about a dozen groups that faced such IRS questioning, said the FBI has yet to contact her clients over the issue. “As far as I can tell, nobody has actually done an investigation. This has been a big, bureaucratic, former-Soviet-Union-type investigation, which means that there was no investigation,” she said. “This is a deplorable abuse of the public trust, but I am not surprised.”
Washington Post: A rising tide of dark money
Editorial
The shady transfers and mysterious groups found in the last election cycle are more typical of drug runners or tax evaders. The donors to the conservative network are not such nefarious people, but why then do they use the same tactics? What do they fear from disclosure of their political investments? Are they ashamed of their positions or their candidates, or of their role in supporting them? Voters know that these donors are trying to hide something, and that only creates more suspicion and cynicism. The Koch brothers and others with great fortunes are adults, and if they want to participate in campaigns, they should stand up for what they believe in and do it in the open.
Note: Sometimes people who don’t want more disclosure feel this way because they don’t want to give more ammunition to people who attempt to conflate their actions with drug smugglers and tax evaders. Another reason is because donating money to an organization or politician isn’t a blanket endorsement of everything done by the group or campaign, despite Ms. Maddow’s opinion.
New Jersey –– Ashbury Park Press: Curb the freedoms of Citizens United
There are those who insist that this is all just an expression of free speech and should not be discouraged. But the spending from outside groups is essentially unregulated, with no limits and minimal disclosure requirements, a far cry from the more restrictive state laws. Those laws exist for a reason, to try to at least reduce the influence of money and big donors on elections. The only caveat for the outside groups is that they don’t directly coordinate their spending with candidates, but it’s easy to imagine plenty of behind-the-scenes winks and nods that help the cause indirectly.
More Soft Money Hard Law: Campaign Finance, Polarization and the Case of the Lost Car Keys
By Bob Bauer
The American Political Science Association Task Force report on political polarization,Negotiating Agreement in Politics (2013) includes a discussion of the role of campaign spending. The co-authors of this analysis, Michael Barber and Nolan McCarty, write that the role is small. But they suggest that there is more work to be done, raising the question of whether some spur to polarization might come from the rising importance to candidates of ideologically motivated individual donors.
Before turning to that question, it is worth noting what else the co-authors have to say about the impact of money. They refer to the research that shows the “weak connection” between contributions and roll call votes, and between campaign spending and election outcomes. One would not know this from standard media coverage of the issue. This is not to say, of course, that money in politics does not present important public policy issues. But one is reminded once again that much of what passes for a telling critique of campaign finance in America is weakly or inconsistently supported by social science research.
Demos: PRESIDENT MILES RAPOPORT LEAVING DEMOS TO LEAD COMMON CAUSE
Miles Rapoport, who led Demos through a period of extraordinary growth as President, will step down on March 10th to become the President and CEO of Common Cause, a grassroots organization dedicated to restoring the core values of American democracy.
Disclosure
Center for Responsive Politics: Budget Deals a Blow to More Campaign Finance Transparency
By Russ Choma
There was pushback from conservatives, including 20 Republican senators, and critics argued that it would unfairly target the business community. In fact, it would have applied to unions as well, but the proposal stayed in draft form and never became an actual executive order.
It may never, if the budget bill is passed. Buried a third of the way through the text (p. 576 of more than 1,500) is language that would prohibit any of the funds approved in the budget from being used to require disclosure by those seeking government contracts, their officers, directors or affiliates, to candidates or committees or for independent expenditures or electioneering communications. (This would not, of course, negate pre-existing laws that require disclosure of most campaign contributions, though not donations to tax-exempt political nonprofits.)
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
The Hill: Gillespie Senate run tests stigma of ‘lobbyist’ label
Democrats are aiming to hobble the Senate candidacy of Ed Gillespie by wrapping him in the “Scarlet L” of a Washington lobbyist.
The Republican strategist’s name was once attached to one of K Street’s most storied firms — Quinn Gillespie & Associates (QGA) — and he will likely disclose any clients that he has at his new outfit, Ed Gillespie Strategies, when announces a run for Senate in Virginia against Democrat Mark Warner.
State and Local
New York –– NBC: Fundraiser for NY Congressman Arrested in Campaign Finance Scheme
A fundraiser for Staten Island congressman Michael Grimm has been arrested in connection with an alleged campaign finance scheme, authorities say.
Diana Durand was arrested by the FBI Friday, accused of using straw donors to allegedly funnel more than $10,000 into the Grimm campaign. She also allegedly lied to federal agents when questioned about the scheme and her alleged violations of the $4,800 campaign limits, officials said.
Washington –– Seattle Pi: Food industry lobby challenges state disclosure law as unconstitutional
By Joel Connelly
It is challenging the constitutionality of making the association register as a political committee before requesting and receiving contributions to oppose Initiative 522.
The association is even challenging a provision of Washington’s law that required the association to secure $10 donations from 10 separately registered Washington voters as part of its political committee, before plowing money into the No on 522 campaign.
