IRS
Fox Business: Senate Finance Working to Release IRS Targeting Report
Elizabeth MacDonald
Sources close to the matter at the Senate Finance Committee say the committee is planning to meet in a private, closed session in the next two weeks to finally wrap up its bipartisan report on its two-year probe into the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups before the presidential and mid-term elections.
Both the top Republican and Democrat on the panel, chair Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), have said that they want to release the report before the Senate goes on its recess on August 7, but have yet to set a date for the closed meeting. The committee needs to keep the session closed in order to protect taxpayer information, sources tell FOX Business Network.
Providence Journal: IRS and speech
Editorial
According to a memo recounting the meeting, revealed through a Freedom of Information Act request by Judicial Watch, the participants tried to come up with “several possible theories to bring criminal charges under FEC [Federal Election Commission] law.” That is to say, the IRS (and Justice Department), it appears, were not content to merely gum up the works when groups tried to obtain the tax-exempt status; they actually hoped to put the groups’ leaders in jail.
Certainly, citizens must heed campaign finance and tax laws or face the consequences. But those in government must be careful not train their power against citizens simply for advancing ideas they oppose.
Bloomberg: President Obama Challenges IRS Scandal Narrative
Peter J. Reilly
So the latest in the interminable IRS scandal now on Day 804 by TaxProf Count is that President Obama has said in an interview with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show that there is no scandal involving the targeting of conservatives…
There is one thing that I noticed that is subtle, but I think a big deal. Stewart did not ask the President about the IRS (His main focus was the Veterans Administration). The President picked the IRS to use as an example. In less than two minutes he denied the primary scandal narrative, called for more resources for the IRS and called for corporate tax reform.
Wisconsin John Doe
Wall Street Journal: The Wisconsin Targets Tell Their Story
Collin Levy
His business partner, Deborah Jordahl, says that while her own home was being searched and her children were roused in the dark by law enforcement, prosecutors were searching her office without her knowledge. “Earlier this year I learned . . . David Budde, the lead investigator for Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, was searching our office in Madison. My partner and I were never notified of the search of our office,” Ms. Jordahl says, “and the prosecutors never provided us with a copy of the warrant or an inventory of what was taken.” (Mr. Budde did not respond to a request for comment.)
Meantime, she says, “my business partner and I had to figure out how to function without our equipment or records, and without the ability to disclose our situation to anyone… You live under a cloud of suspicion.”
Wisconsin Watchdog: GAB rewrites abusive history with myths
Eric O’keefe
In an attempt to limit the damage to its viability, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) has issued two press releases since the state Supreme Court ruled last Thursday to terminate the agency’s secret investigation of conservatives.
The releases contain a single truthful sentence: “The Legislature expected and intended the Government Accountability Board to operate in a professional, unbiased, and nonpartisan manner.”
The rest is myth-making.
Campaign Finance
Roll Call: Campaign Finance Loophole Inserted in Spending Bill
Tamar Hallerman
Senate appropriators folded into a draft spending bill a provision long sought by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that would relax campaign finance coordination rules between candidates and the political parties.
This marks the second time in less than a year that lawmakers have sought major changes to campaign finance regulations through must-pass appropriations measures. But with work on spending bills stalled on both sides of the Capitol due to larger disagreements over sequestration, the potential for getting looser campaign regulations enacted into law this time is still unclear.
The provision would effectively consolidate power within the national parties including the Republican and Democratic committees raising money for House and Senate candidates. GOP appropriators tucked the provision into the $20.56 billion fiscal 2016 Financial Services spending bill the full committee is slated to mark up Thursday.
Los Angeles Times: Lift the ceiling on campaign donations
Doyle McManus
There’s no simple solution to the campaign spending problem — at least, no solution that wins support in both parties. Obama and Clinton have endorsed a constitutional amendment reimposing limits on donations, but constitutional amendments are very hard to pass.
I find myself drawn reluctantly toward de-regulation: Lift the ceilings on donations; as a practical matter, they’re already gone. But make the donors identify themselves, and make the candidates take responsibility for their fundraising and their expenditures. That wouldn’t be pretty, but it could hardly be worse than what we have now.
Huffington Post: Politicians Spend Half Their Time Fundraising – And A Growing Group of Former Politicians Has Had Enough
Nick Penniman
The next election is expected to cost $10 billion, which is more than the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections-combined. It’s more than the individual state budgets of Vermont, South Dakota, Delaware, New Hampshire, Mississippi, Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Maine, Iowa, Rhode Island, Nevada, Wyoming, Alaska, and Nebraska. Imagine how much time our members of Congress, plus the presidential candidates, will spend trying to assemble that amount of money.
Public Opinion
Politico: Americans uneasy with new campaign finance rules
Nick Gass
Just one in 10 Americans feels that the post-Citizens United campaign fundraising climate has improved the presidential election process, according to a new Monmouth University survey out Wednesday…
Just a little more than one in four Americans (28 percent) said that the current climate makes it more likely that a qualified candidate with lower name recognition would be able to capture voters’ attention and stay in the race. On the other hand, 27 percent said that the brave new world of campaign finance rules make it less likely that a lesser-known candidate would able to withstand a cash onslaught. But a plurality of 34 percent said that the new funding environment has no impact on a qualified candidate.
Candidates and Campaigns
Seven Days: Sanders’ Shifting Stance on Super PACs
Paul Heintz
But Sanders isn’t being entirely straight when he says he doesn’t have a super PAC. By law, such entities can’t directly coordinate with the candidates they back, so many are run by close confidantes and former aides well acquainted with the candidates’ strategy and message.
Such is the case with Collective Actions PAC, which is operated by Rep. Chris Pearson (P-Burlington), who previously served as Sanders’ campaign coordinator and press assistant. Founded in January 2014 as Draft Bernie, the PAC maintains the Run Bernie Run Facebook and Twitter accounts and, according to its website, plans to invest in online advertising.
Miami Herald: Another campaign-finance complaint filed against Jeb Bush
Alex Leary
Campaign finance watchdog groups today sent another complaint to the Justice Department, arguing Jeb Bush is violating law for his involvement with a Super PAC run by longtime advisor Mike Murphy.
“Bush is doing precisely what the 2002 law prohibits: establishing and, through his agents, directly or in directly controlling an entity that is raising and spending non federal funds,” reads a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch from the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21.
The States
Arizona Republic: Dark-money group subject of new investigation
Mary Jo Pitzl
The Citizens Clean Elections Commission is investigating whether a political non-profit must disclose its donors. This is the second time this month the same non-profit has come under state scrutiny.
At issue is whether Veterans for a Strong America was expressly advocating for the defeat of Christine Jones in last year’s GOP primary election for governor. If so, the group is operating as an independent-expenditure committee and must publicly disclose its donors and its expenditures.
