New from the Institute for Free Speech
Pandemic Gives Incumbents Yet Another Advantage Over Challengers
By Tiffany Donnelly
In a healthy democracy, it’s essential for politics to be competitive. What better way to hold government officials accountable than to vote them out of office and elect those with better ideas? When it comes to campaigning though, Orwell said it best: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” It’s no secret that incumbents enjoy a multitude of advantages, which is why Congressional reelection rates are typically near 90%. Incumbents benefit from increased name recognition, a database of past contributors, an intact campaign organization, existing digital infrastructures, and an enormous financial advantage, among other assets, while challengers commonly start from scratch and often struggle to find an audience.
The Courts
Gizmodo: Judge Orders FCC to Hand Over IP Addresses Linked to Fake Net Neutrality Comments
By Dell Cameron
A Manhattan federal judge has ruled the Federal Communications Commission must provide two reporters access to server logs that may provide new insight into the allegations of fraud stemming from agency’s 2017 net neutrality rollback.
A pair of New York Times reporters-Nicholas Confessore and Gabriel Dance-sued the FCC under the Freedom of Information Act after it refused their request to view copies of the logs. The logs will show, among other details, the originating IP addresses behind the millions of public comments sent to the agency ahead of the December 2017 net neutrality vote.
The FCC attempted to quash the paper’s request but failed to persuade District Judge Lorna Schofield, who wrote that, despite the privacy concerns raised by the agency, releasing the logs may help clarify whether fraudulent activity interfered with the comment period, as well as whether the agency’s decision-making process is “vulnerable to corruption.”
The FCC argued in court that making the millions of IP addresses contained in the logs publicly accessible would constitute an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” And while Schofield didn’t entirely disagree, she said the agency had failed to adequately spell out how anyone would be harmed by the disclosure.
Right to Protest
Star Advertiser: Police arrest 3 protesters, cite another 5 at ‘reopen Hawaii’ rally in front of State Capitol
By Andrew Gomes
Three people were arrested today during a rally at the Hawaii State Capitol to protest local government restrictions aimed at stopping COVID-19.
Organizers of the rally, which began at noon and was promoted online at change.org, called the restrictions an “illegal lockdown.” In addition to the arrests, five people were issued citations for violating emergency rules, according to the Honolulu Police Department.
About 200 participants demonstrated on the mauka pedestrian entryway of the Capitol with signs containing messages that included “Open Hawaii Be Akamai” and “Tyranny is nonessential.”
Honolulu Police Department officers moved in after a half-hour to enforce an emergency order from Gov. David Ige that prohibits gathering in public places.
Independent Groups
Politico: The bizarro tale of a phantom super PAC – and our sleuthing to find it
By Zach Montellaro
A new super PAC made a splashy entrance onto the Senate battleground scene last week, reporting millions in spending backing Democrats in key races. There’s just one problem: The ads don’t exist.
The group, Americans for Progressive Action USA, filed campaign finance reports showing more than $2.5 million in advertising and associated costs across a half-dozen Senate races last week. But six ad makers and advertising platforms listed in the filings said they’ve never heard of the super PAC and have no records of doing business with it.
Online Speech Platforms
Slate: Reddit’s Intriguing Approach to Political Advertising Transparency
By Spandana Singh
Misinformation is rampant on internet platforms, both in user posts and in advertising, and Reddit is no exception. But when it comes to advertising, platform users expect content to be vetted and truthful. As the 2020 election nears, internet platforms are facing renewed pressure to provide transparency and accountability around political advertising on their services, to help safeguard the electoral process.
Reddit is the latest platform to try to respond to these demands. On April 13, the company launched a political ads transparency hub and introduced a set of unique changes to its political advertising policies, removing many of the traditional divisions between advertisers and users on social media platforms.
National Review: Biased Big Tech Firms Must Pick Between Their Split Personalities
By Deroy Murdock
Big Tech companies should make up their minds. Are they public fora, open to one and all, that faithfully carry an infinite spectrum of messages – much as AT&T phone lines transmit liberal, moderate, and conservative robocalls during election season? Or are they private institutions, exclusively for those with whom they agree – much as Mother Jones peddles the Left and National Review promotes the Right?
Either approach is fine and honorable. But Facebook, Google, YouTube, and their ilk should not do both – especially while morphing into the private/exclusive model, and savoring government protection to boot.
Fundraising
Wall Street Journal: Companies Skip Convention Donations Amid Coronavirus, Partisan Tensions
By John McCormick and Emily Glazer
More than a dozen companies that wrote large checks to the 2016 political conventions aren’t planning to participate this year or are still deciding, people familiar with the matter said. Some local companies, often expected to support such events in their areas, are holding back, too.
Fundraisers trying to gather the roughly $70 million each party has targeted to help pay for their festivities say they are operating in a difficult environment, amid heavy partisan tensions and as the coronavirus pandemic clobbers company finances and creates uncertainty about how many people will gather for the nominating events.
“Anybody who tells you that there has been no impact to their fundraising, since the advent of this public-health crisis, would be lying,” said Joe Solmonese, chief executive of the Democratic convention.
Politico: Cash-starved candidates trade swanky cocktail hours for $5K Zoom meetings
By Elena Schneider and Theodoric Meyer
The $5,000 Zoom fundraiser is now a thing.
With cocktail-hour events at swanky Washington restaurants on hiatus, cash-starved candidates are being forced to get creative: Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) is hosting a midday “guided meditation” virtual fundraiser later this month, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO. Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) provided attendees of his first online fundraiser with samples of bourbon from his family’s distillery.
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), lacking his own distillery, opted for the next best thing: He plans to have wine shipped to donors’ homes in time for a web-based wine tasting fundraiser.
“Virtual fundraising with alcohol,” Riggleman said, “isn’t such a bad thing.”
The events show that even with coronavirus bearing down, the money machine of electoral politics is still cranking – albeit at a distinctly lower gear and in dramatically different form. Candidates are having to adapt in real time to not only the stilted nature of online interaction but to the sensitivity of asking for money in the midst of a nosediving economy. And receipts are expected to be noticeably down.
Candidates and Campaigns
Washington Post: What this year’s election campaign will look like online
By Editorial Board
American politics has long run on door-knocking, rally-throwing, baby-kissing and all manner of other activities that have suddenly become unsafe in the age of the novel coronavirus. Candidates depend than ever on a realm that was created for mass connection: the Internet.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden is confined to his basement, where he produces podcasts and glitchy town halls via video-conference tool Zoom. But it’s not easy to compete with the freewheeling show his rival’s reelection team churns out daily, replete with right-wing Web-winning heroes such as sister act Diamond & Silk. That’s not to mention President Trump’s ready-made platform in the White House briefings, which guarantees him a national audience.
The States
The Oregonian: Gov. Kate Brown quietly takes lead role on Oregon campaign finance measure
By Hillary Borrud
Gov. Kate Brown is using her well-funded political action committee to back a November ballot measure that would amend the state Constitution to allow limits on money in politics.
On April 30, the campaign to pass the constitutional amendment reported that the governor’s political action committee provided $8,333 in “management services,” according to state campaign finance records.
That the governor would use some of her roughly $1 million in political cash-on-hand to push for the donation caps isn’t the only irony: She’s was doing so even as the state Supreme Court ruled April 23 that campaign contribution limits do not violate free speech protections in the Oregon Constitution. In the opinion, justices upended decades of legal precedent that halted or prevented donation caps from taking effect.
Still, the strict limits on political money that voters passed in 2006 are not being enforced. On Friday, Secretary of State Bev Clarno’s administration announced Oregon political candidates can continue to accept huge contributions.
Buffalo News: Kevin Stocker’s new TV ads: For lawyer or Assembly candidate?
By Robert J. McCarthy
Kevin T. Stocker has joined the legions of lawyers airing their own legal services ads, portraying himself in new television spots as a “fighter … for the rights of hard working families.”
The Kenmore attorney touts his court battles against Tonawanda Coke and a Tonawanda crematory “that were polluting our community.” He rails against “corrupt party bosses” and elected officials taking donations from polluters, with actors portraying bosses and politicians.
But Stocker is not only a lawyer, he’s also a candidate for the State Assembly competing in the June 23 Democratic primary for the 140th District seat. His ads may end by urging viewers to “call attorney Kevin Stocker,” but they also mirror the same messages he emphasizes in his campaign.
Now, after inquiries by The Buffalo News, his Democratic primary opponent is questioning whether Stocker is skirting election laws that require disclosure of funds spent on political ads and their filing with the Board of Elections. Endorsed Democrat Bill Conrad, a Tonawanda Town Board member, charges Stocker’s legal ads are “clearly political,” and says he will soon file a complaint with the Board of Elections.
