In the News
Star-Tribune: Conservative Wyoming group battles Federal Election Commission over election law
By KYLE ROERINK
Free Speech was trying to avoid forming a political action committee — a FEC-approved group that’s required to disclose the names of its donors and limited in how it can solicit funds and spend money. By requiring groups to register, Free Speech claims the FEC imposes a burden on First Amendment rights.
Registering as a PAC requires legal counsel and election experts, said Brad Smith, a former FEC commissioner and chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics, a Washington think tank dedicated to defending the First Amendment.
“A lot of small groups that get caught up in bureaucracy spend a few hundred bucks on yard signs and radio ads and they get tangled in regulations,” he said.
Independent Groups
Wall Street Journal: Political Donors Chase Funding Alternative
By THOMAS CATAN
With the Obama administration moving to curb campaign activity by certain nonprofit groups, lawyers are scouring the tax code for other financial vehicles that would allow political donors to continue to spend money on elections while remaining anonymous.
One option gaining attention: Creating or using taxable, for-profit businesses for political purposes. But that idea is already raising questions about whether donors would be operating genuine companies, or merely running campaign groups in disguise.
Another possibility drawing interest, election lawyers say, is for donors to organize themselves as trade associations, akin to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which doesn’t have to disclose donor names.
NY Times: Tangled Role in G.O.P. War Over Tea Party
By Eric Lipton
WASHINGTON — In the year since he stepped down from Congress, Steven C. LaTourette, a Republican from Ohio, has emerged as one of the top generals in the establishment Republicans’ war against the Tea Party.
It is a role that has benefited the Main Street Partnership, a corporate-backed advocacy group he runs, and its effort to raise millions of dollars to protect centrist Republicans from Tea Party challengers. It has also helped draw clients to a separate lobbying office Mr. LaTourette and his wife have set up across the street from the Capitol.
But this blitz of activity has led to complaints from Mr. LaTourette’s political opponents that under the guise of defending the Republican Party from extremists, he is profiting from his continued presence in the Washington spotlight. In addition, Mr. LaTourette’s activities have raised questions about whether, in his dual roles, the former congressman violated the federal statute that prohibits lawmakers from lobbying on Capitol Hill for a year after leaving office.
AP: Outside money can be key factor in 2014 elections
WASHINGTON (AP) — Terry McAuliffe’s successful campaign for governor in Virginia might provide a playbook for fellow Democrats in 2014 — and a warning for Republicans.
Outside money makes a difference.
A really big difference.
Roll Call: New Super PAC Registers With Bitcoin Receiving Addresses
By Kent Cooper
A new super PAC has registered at the Federal Election Commission listing Bitcoin receiving addresses as its depositories, something that the FEC has not yet approved for use.
Treasurer Richard Wagner registered Bitcoin Voters Political Action Committee with the FEC on January 2nd. Wagner and the PAC are based in Madison, Wisconsin.
Disclosure
Washington Post: Koch statement to The Washington Post concerning brothers’ ties to donor network
Robert Tappan, a spokesman for Koch Industries and Charles and David Koch, provided a statement to The Washington Post when asked about the Kochs’ support for a network of politically active nonprofit groups. Here is his response, in its entirety:
“Koch’s involvement in political and public policy activities is at the core of fundamental liberties protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. This type of activity is undertaken by individual donors and organizations on all ends of the political spectrum — on the left, the middle, and the right. In many situations, the law does not compel disclosure of donors to various causes and organizations. As you are aware, the Center for American Progress (CAP), founded by John Podesta, has not disclosed over 90 percent of its donors, including individual donors, even in the face of concerns about a potential conflict-of-interest, given Mr. Podesta’s new role as White House Special Advisor.
“As demonstrated by the IRS’ concerted and systematic targeting of conservatives and free-market 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) organizations that began in 2010, the Administration and its allies have targeted organizations with which they disagree politically. They have done this to stifle free speech, and harass and intimidate these individuals and groups, under the guise of ‘transparency.’ Forcing private citizens and lawful organizations to disclose what they support and to whom they contribute actually has a ‘chilling’ effect on free speech — a grave concern that was noted in the Federalist papers and has been recognized since then by the Supreme Court.
Washington Post: Koch-backed political network, designed to shield donors, raised $400 million in 2012
By Matea Gold
The resources and the breadth of the organization make it singular in American politics: an operation conducted outside the campaign finance system, employing an array of groups aimed at stopping what its financiers view as government overreach. Members of the coalition target different constituencies but together have mounted attacks on the new health-care law, federal spending and environmental regulations.
Key players in the Koch-backed network have already begun engaging in the 2014 midterm elections, hiring new staff members to expand operations and strafing House and Senate Democrats with hard-hitting ads over their support for the Affordable Care Act.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
LA Times: Gator hunt? Dog sledding? Campaign fundraisers get creative
By Richard Simon
WASHINGTON — Forget the chicken dinner, the rubbery staple of the political fundraising circuit.
Go alligator hunting with Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) on a Louisiana Bayou Weekend for a campaign donation of $5,000.
Or spend a weekend in Hayward, Wis., for the Lumberjack World Championships, featuring hometown Republican congressman and former lumberjack champion Sean P. Duffy, for a donation of $1,000 per person or $2,000 per political action committee.
Roll Call: Unpopular Obama’s New Gig in 2014: Fundraiser in Chief
By Kyle Trygstad
Barack Obama’s 2014 campaign footprint is expected in some ways to mirror the last president’s second midterm slump — heavy on fundraising, light on swing-state campaigning.
In 2006, President George W. Bush served as a financial juggernaut for his party, but his public rallies in the final stretch were confined to friendly GOP territory. Campaigns in competitive contests had to weigh the benefit of a fundraising and turnout boost against a potential hit in the polls for appearing with an unpopular president.
Lobbying and Ethics
Politico: Lobbyists cash in on do-nothing Congress
By ANNA PALMER and BYRON TAU
Even with early projections that 2014 will be the year to “go small,” K Street still isn’t expecting the bottom to fall out of the lobbying industry.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that some of the signals of cooperation are out there,” Don Pongrace, head of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s government affairs operation, said of the year ahead. “Washington will always create issues for clients on which they will need to have firms such as ours assist them; where those issues arise and how they can be addressed will fluctuate somewhat, but they are always there.”
