Independent Groups
New York Times: Big-Donor Money Has Not Worked in the 2016 Campaign. Yet.
Editorial Board
No matter who comes out on top on Super Tuesday, this round of presidential primaries has been turning conventional notions about campaign finance upside down. For the time being.
It would be soothing to think that the primary season’s bizarre twists and turns have shown the limits of the influence big money can have on the conduct and success of a political campaign. Jeb Bush blew through more than $100 million in campaign and “super PAC” money, and still dropped out early. Remember Scott Walker? Big backers didn’t help him. Chris Christie ran out of money about the same time he ran out of mojo. Donald Trump says he’s self-financing his campaign, a ploy that also involves leasing his plane and office space to himself…
So what’s the problem? The general election.
USA Today: Trump demands ad retraction
Fredreka Schouten
GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Monday afternoon called for the retraction of “misleading” ads about his now-closed real-estate investment school.
“Donald J. Trump is requesting the immediate retraction of the ads created by American Future Fund, which clearly was unlawfully coordinated with lightweight Senator Marco Rubio on these misleading commercials,” according to a statement issued by the campaign. “The ads feature three individuals who are part of a lawsuit against Trump University, an educational program that has a 98% approval rating from all attendees. These individuals provided written praise of their experience in school surveys.”
The group producing the ads, American Future Fund, has no plans to retreat.
Politico: Donors ask GOP consulting firm to research independent presidential bid
Scott Bland
“All this research has to happen before March 16, when inevitably Trump is the nominee, so that we have a plan in place,” a source familiar with the discussions said. March 16 is the day after the GOP primary in Florida, a winner-take-all contest that Marco Rubio supporters have identified as a must-win to stop Trump’s early momentum.
“It’s critical some serious attention is given to this,” the source said.
The document, stamped “confidential,” was authored by staff at Data Targeting, a Republican firm based in Gainesville, Fla. The memo notes that “it is possible to mount an independent candidacy but [it] will require immediate action on the part of this core of key funding and strategic players.”
New York Times: A.F.L.-C.I.O. Prepares to Create Its Own ‘Super PAC’ to Get Voters to the Polls
Noam Scheiber
The A.F.L.-C.I.O., the federation of unions representing nearly 10 million workers, is preparing plans for a “super PAC” that would raise tens of millions of dollars and focus on grass-roots efforts to mobilize voters.
The director of the federation’s campaigns department, David Boundy, recently presented the proposal in San Diego, where officials from the federation and its member unions gathered for its winter meeting last week.
According to three people who sat in on at least one of Mr. Boundy’s presentations, the proposal calls for a separately funded entity that would raise money from unions, and potentially from progressive donors as well.
Dangers of Disclosure
New York Times: Goldman Sachs Puts Worker Linked to Donald Trump on Leave
Susanne Craig and David W. Chen
A financial adviser who was recently highlighted in an article in The New York Times as the only Goldman Sachs employee to contribute to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign has been placed on administrative leave, according to people familiar with the matter.
The employee, Luke Thorburn, made two donations, totaling $534.58, to Mr. Trump’s campaign in September, according to Federal Election Commission records. He also trademarked the phrase “Make Christianity Great Again,” according to public records.
Free Speech
Washington Post: The albatross of a Trump endorsement
George F. Will
Trump, the thin-skinned tough guy, resembles a campus crybaby who has wandered out of his “safe space.” It is not news that he has neither respect for nor knowledge of the Constitution, and he probably is unaware that he would have to “open up” many Supreme Court First Amendment rulings in order to achieve his aim. His obvious aim is to chill free speech, for the comfort of the political class, of which he is now a gaudy ornament.
But at least Trump has, at last, found one thing to admire from the era of America’s Founding. Unfortunately, but predictably, it is one of the worst things done then — the Sedition Act of 1798.
FEC
Campaigns and Elections: New FEC Chair Aims for Efficiency Not Upheaval
Alex Lederman
Petersen, 45, is just weeks into his term as chairman of the FEC, but unlike his Democratic predecessor Ann Ravel, the Republican doesn’t have a stated interest in shaking up the agency, and he doesn’t think that’s such a bad thing.
“If at the end of the year we can look back and say we made a number of meaningful updates to our policies, forms and regulations, and we efficiently moved through our enforcement docket and our advisory opinion docket,” Petersen told C&E in an interview at his Washington office, “then I think we can look back on the year and say ‘That wasn’t a bad year.’”
No ambitious overhauls. No major changes. No 20-point plan. Petersen is just aiming for a year that’s not “bad.”
The Media
Hollywood Reporter: Leslie Moonves on Donald Trump: “It May Not Be Good for America, but It’s Damn Good for CBS”
Paul Bond
Leslie Moonves can appreciate a Donald Trump candidacy.
Not that the CBS executive chairman and CEO might vote for the Republican presidential frontrunner, but he likes the ad money Trump and his competitors are bringing to the network.
“It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS,” he said of the presidential race.
Washington Post: John Oliver slams Trump, a.k.a. Donald ‘Drumpf,’ for 22 brutal minutes
Justin Moyer
Over 22 minutes, Oliver revived many popular criticisms of Trump. The candidate has no clear policy positions and overstates his net worth, Oliver alleged; he uses his wealth to promote himself as a credible candidate, though wealth does not equal political greatness; his campaign is not self-funded, despite his claims; he is racist. Yet, Oliver said, Trump can no longer be dismissed.
“Donald Trump is America’s back mole,” Oliver said. “It may have seemed harmless a year ago, but now that it’s gotten frighteningly bigger, it’s gotten hard to ignore it.”
Candidates and Campaigns
Five Thirty Eight: Who’s On Track For The Nomination?
Aaron Bycoffe and David Wasserman
Tracking a candidate’s progress requires more than straight delegate counts. We’ve estimated how many delegates each candidate would need in each primary contest to win the nomination. See who’s on track and who’s falling behind.
New York Times: Bernie Sanders Collects $36 Million in February as Fund-Raising Successes Continue
Nicholas Confessore
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont raised more than $36 million in February and was hoping to hit the $40 million mark by the end of the day on Monday, his campaign announced…
Mr. Sanders’s announcement on Monday appeared intended to jolt the enthusiasm of his supporters after a dismal loss on Saturday in South Carolina, where Mrs. Clinton won in a landslide with an overwhelming proportion of black voters, suggesting trouble for Mr. Sanders in the Southern states that dominate this week’s “Super Tuesday” contests.
Dallas Morning News: Donald Trump’s strength in Texas can’t be measured in dollars
Brandi Grissom
Judging by the money Ted Cruz has raked in from Texas donors, conventional wisdom would predict that he will run away with the Lone Star Republican presidential primary Tuesday. And Donald Trump, the bombastic front-runner for the GOP nomination, would come in somewhere around dead last.
But if the past two months of primaries have shown political observers — and presidential candidates — anything, it’s that conventional wisdom does not apply to The Donald.
Federal campaign finance reports show that Trump, the real estate mogul who has the Republican establishment on its heels, has raised just more than 1 percent of the amount Cruz has taken in from Texans. In any other election year, that would serve as a helpful indicator of how election night would turn out.
The States
ABC News: Mayors, Governors Using “Dark Money” Groups Raise Questions
Jonathan Lemire, Associated Press
New York City’s campaign finance laws don’t allow corporations to give money directly to people running for city office, but that hasn’t been a hurdle for some companies trying to influence public policy.
They have poured cash into two nonprofit groups affiliated with the city’s Democratic mayor, Bill de Blasio, which have used the money to produce glossy advertisements promoting his agenda, produced by the same political consultants who worked on his election campaign.
Similar nonprofits are proliferating across the country, many of which are backed by “dark money” given by undisclosed donors. Those supporting de Blasio do eventually disclose their donors, but good government groups — one of which last week called for New York City officials to investigate the arrangement — still worry that such organizations contribute to a culture of influence peddling and evade the intent of laws seeking to limit the influence of special interests on elections.
KUNM Albuquerque: Governor Signs Campaign Finance Open Data Bill
Gwyneth Doland
The measure (HB 105), co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Smith, R-Tijeras, and Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuqerque, requires lobbyists to report each time they spend more than $100 to influence elected officials.
It had the support of groups like Common Cause who said it represents an incremental improvement to the disclosure of money in politics.
The bill also forces candidates and contributors to file their reports online and changes the way that information is handled by the Secretary of State’s office, making it easier to catch unintentional mistakes—or illegal activity.
Arizona Republic: Plotting a dirt nap for Clean Elections
EJ Montini
“It’s different this year,” said Tom Collins, executive director of the Clean Elections Commission, “in that the Secretary of State has engaged in a scorched earth series of political, legal and now legislative attacks on an independent commission that wants to enforce campaign finance laws in the manner the citizens voted for.”
Secretary Reagan previously noted the commission’s “noble intentions” but found it troubling the commission wants to “rein in groups if they corrupt our election system.”
Tennesseean: Ethics bureau investigating if Sumner Sentinel is PAC
Dessislava Yankova
Officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance are researching whether a Sumner County publication is acting as a political action committee, which could violate campaign ethics…
Although the Sumner Sentinel says its operators’ intent is to publish four times a year, three issues have published since October 2014.
On its website, the publication is described as “a group of citizens focused on bringing transparency and accountability to local government through publications, advocacy opportunities and online forums. Sumner Sentinel is organized to empower citizens with knowledge to become catalysts of change in their community.”
