Today is the second anniversary of the release of the TIGTA report detailing the inappropriate IRS targeting of conservative organizations. Check out CCP’s new condensed timeline of the events surrounding the scandal.
In the News
Hartford Courant: Don’t Limit Election Free Speech
By Scott BlackburnPutting aside the clear legal problems, taxing something necessarily means you will get less of it, and what do campaign donations “buy”? Political speech! Does Connecticut really want less of that? Less discussion of candidates for office, and less information for voters? As Americans, we should not try to limit, in any way, our First Amendment free expression principles.
NPR’s To the Point: Sugar Daddies, Super PAC’s and Winning the White House
The US Supreme Court has taken the lid off political spending, so presidential candidates are lining up billionaires to finance next year’s campaigns. It’s not just the South Carolina and New Hampshire primaries any more. There’s the “Adelson primary” and the “Koch primary” facetiously named for Republican mega-donors. Hillary Clinton is cozying up to super-rich Democrats. That’s giving enormous power to a tiny group of billionaires – a Florida car dealer, a New York hedge fund operator and others. What do they want — what will they get — for their money?Features CCP Chairman Bradley A. Smith
CCP
Tax-Financed Campaigns and Corruption in New York: The Wrong Treatment for the Right Diagnosis
By Luke WachobWhat would tax-financed campaigns do to lessen the power held by the “three men in a room?” Nothing. Torres-Spelliscy offers only the vague hope that under tax-financed campaigns, legislatures will finally be filled with the “right” people who will, despite decades of history to the contrary, solve the endemic problems.Not only is this a pipe dream (more on that in a moment), it ignores the repeated pattern of corruption in the state’s most powerful offices. Skelos and Silver were not aberrations; they were continuations of a long history of corruption in the state Legislature. And if the problem is the system and not the individuals, then electing the “right” people without reforming the Legislature they inhabit is a recipe for further corruption and a waste of taxpayer dollars. At best, Torres-Spelliscy is confusing reforming campaigns with reforming the Legislature. At worst, she is exploiting a rash of corruption arrests to push an unrelated policy agenda.But even if we naively believed that electing new people would solve New York’s problems, tax-financed campaigns fail to accomplish even that. Torres-Spelliscy cites no evidence to her claim that “a better and more diverse group of candidates” would result from such a program. On the contrary, the nation’s leading program evaluator, the Government Accountability Office, conducted an extensive study of tax-financed campaign programs in Arizona and Maine and found “[t]here were no statistically significant differences observed for … contestedness (number of candidates per race) and incumbent reelection rates” in both states’ programs.CCP’s own research further challenges the claim that tax-financed campaigns produce more diverse legislatures. Our studies of state-level tax-financing programs found that they do not decrease the dominance of citizens elected from business and law backgrounds in legislatures, and do not increase the percentage of women elected to state legislatures. Rather than reshaping the makeup of the legislature, taxpayers are simply left footing the bill for politicians who would have run anyway. Furthermore, there is also evidence that legislators do not substantially change their views after receiving government funding for their campaigns.
Two Years Later: A Condensed Timeline of the IRS Political Targeting Scandal
FEC
CNS News: FEC Panelists: ‘Dismantle Economic System’ & ‘Impose Quotas’ to Get More Women in Politics
By Rudy TakalaComplaining about what they agreed was a lack of women’s participation in American politics, panelists on a forum held at the Federal Election Commission headquarters (FEC) in Washington on Tuesday suggested a number of solutions.The solutions ranged from “dismantling” the economic system to public financing of campaigns and imposing quotas to increase the number of elected female politicians.The forum, hosted by FEC Chairwoman Ann Ravel, has been the subject of controversy in recent weeks. Though it was paid for by the independent agency and hosted in FEC facilities, the Democratic commissioner was the sole organizer of the event and selected all of the panelists herself
Free Speech
Wall Street Journal: Drug firms challenge FDA over free speech
By Ed SilvermanTo what extent should drug makers be allowed to distribute information about unapproved uses for their medicines?The question has been widely debated after a federal appeals court three years ago overturned the criminal conviction of a sales rep for promoting so-called off-label uses of a drug. The court ruled his actions constituted protected speech, since the information was truthful and not misleading.
Wisconsin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tax-funded legal costs top $1 million over John Doe probe targeting Scott Walker campaign
By Patrick Marley, Tom Kertscher and Dave UmhoeferFigures recently released by Walker’s office show state taxpayers have paid $1.1 million to cover the legal costs.That tally covers defending against the lawsuits, but does not include the costs of conducting the investigation itself. Prosecutors and law enforcement have never detailed those expenses.The legal fees could climb because the litigation is ongoing. The state Supreme Court is considering three cases, and a group that is being probed has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a fourth case.
Washington Post: Special prosecutor intent on pursuing investigation in possible illegal coordination by Scott Walker campaign, but major legal hurdles remain
By Matea Gold and Jenna Johnson“Admittedly, there are gaps in the investigation,” Schmitz wrote on March 31 in a 275-page brief released by the court Wednesday. “No charges have yet been filed, nor could they be filed at this point. The issue is whether the known facts bear investigation and inquiry. The Special Prosecutor submits that they do.”Attorneys for Walker’s campaign vigorously disputed that in separate briefs, arguing that coordination rules do not apply because the independent groups ran so-called “issue ads” that were not explicitly political. And they maintained that candidates can raise money for outside groups without officially coordinating with them, pointing that officials including President Obama have helped raise funds for independent organizations.Schmitz’s arguments constitute “a novel, unreasonable, incredibly broad and sweeping construction of Wisconsin campaign finance statutes and regulations,” wrote Steven Biskupic and Michelle Jacobs, attorneys for the Walker campaign, identified in the filings as “Unnamed Movant No. 1.”
Corporate Governance
Reuters: Non-profit sues U.S. SEC to force political disclosures rules
By Sarah N. LynchMay 13 A newly created non-profit organization sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday in an effort to force the agency to adopt rules requiring companies to disclose political contributions.The Campaign for Accountability said it was formed to use “research, litigation and communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life.”The SEC has been under mounting pressure from liberal groups, as well as a handful of law professors, to enact rules requiring companies to tell investors about campaign contributions.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
Washington Post: Why Jeb Bush was an official 2016 candidate for just three seconds Wednesday
By Jose A. DelRealFormer Florida governor Jeb Bush basically admitted that he’s running for president during a huddle with reporters Wednesday in Nevada — before abruptly backtracking to qualify his remarks with a big, awkward “…if I run.”The accidental almost-declaration came after The Post’s Ed O’Keefe asked Bush, “Is there any way you would have done things differently than your brother [George W. Bush]?” And Bush’s response was notably clumsy.“I’m running for president in 2016 and the focus is going to be about how we — if I run, how we create high, sustained economic growth where more people have a chance at earned success.”
CPI: Hillary Clinton: the ‘Citizens United’ candidate
By Dave LevinthalCompounding Clinton’s campaign cash intrigue is her incongruent record of supporting measures that would curb the influence of big money in politics.She served as a co-sponsor of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2001 and voted for the bill that ultimately passed in 2002. She’s called for public financing of campaigns, saying in 2007, “when I’m president, I’m going to see if there is a way to do just that.” But she also helped usher in the demise of the existing presidential public financing system during her presidential run in 2008. She’s also enduredmore than a couple campaign finance scandals during her political career.The Center for Public Integrity spoke with three people who’ve closely intersected with Clinton in recent years — either as friend or foe — and who offer insight into the effect a potential Clinton candidacy is already having on the nation’s never-ending debate over the way elections are funded…
Politico: Judge sets September deadline on Clinton office records
By Josh GersteinA federal judge is giving the State Department until September to comply with a conservative group’s request for records relating to correspondence between top aides to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, as well as a consulting business involving former Clinton staffers.At a hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan said he felt both sides in the case—the government and the Citizens United organization—were not being flexible enough in hammering out a path forward in the Freedom of Information Act dispute.
Politico: Obama Foundation girds for Clinton-like scrutiny
By Josh GersteinOn the campaign trail eight years ago, candidate Barack Obama was delighted to tweak rival Hillary Clinton by highlighting how unfettered fundraising for her husband’s presidential library could undermine trust in government.Now, Obama faces his own daunting task, trying to raise $500 million or more to build his own presidential library on the south side of Chicago, while keeping his promise to make detailed disclosures and avoid ethical issues that arise when public officials take large donations for personal causes.The announcement Tuesday that the library will be built at one of two sites in Obama’s hometown will escalate fundraising efforts that got off to a slow start when the Obama Foundation was set up early last year. The foundation has tapped longtime Obama fundraiser Julianna Smoot to oversee fundraising, and the group’s first tax form is expected to be made public early next week.
Lobbying and Ethics
Washington Post: 10 members of Congress took trip secretly funded by foreign government
By Scott Higham, Steven Rich and Alice CritesLawmakers and their staff members received hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of travel expenses, silk scarves, crystal tea sets and Azerbaijani rugs valued at $2,500 to $10,000, according to the ethics report. Airfare for the lawmakers and some of their spouses cost $112,899, travel invoices show.The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, known as SOCAR, allegedly funneled $750,000 through nonprofit corporations based in the United States to conceal the source of the funding for the conference in the former Soviet nation, according to the 70-page report by the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent investigative arm of the House.
