In the News
Huffington Post: No, Commissioner Weintraub, the FEC Can’t Circumvent Citizens United
Allen Dickerson
In an opinion piece published yesterday in The New York Times, Ellen Weintraub, a member of the Federal Election Commission, suggests a way to “blunt the impact” of Citizens United v. FEC. There are reasons to question the propriety of a federal officer attempting to “blunt” a First Amendment ruling against her agency, and I am unaware of another federal entity whose commissioners routinely take to the pages of major newspapers to decry binding Supreme Court precedent. But no matter how attractive you find her proposed “zero-tolerance standard,” under which any corporation with even a single foreign shareholder could be barred from any political activity, her proposal relies on a number of fatal legal errors.
Intercept: Foreign Money Is Flowing Into U.S. Elections, Alito’s Lying Lips Notwithstanding
Jon Schwarz
Bradley Smith, a former FEC commissioner and one of the main intellectual forces behind the ongoing deregulation of the U.S. campaign financing system, disagrees strenuously with Weintraub.
First, as Smith accurately points out, Citizens United has to date resulted in comparatively small amounts of direct political spending by corporations. According to the Washington Post, $68 million, or 12 percent, of the $549 million raised by Super PACs for the 2016 election has come from companies’ treasuries. (This is separate from the much larger amounts raised by regular corporate PACs, but they were legal before Citizens United.)
Add the hundreds of millions raised in regulated increments from Americans by candidates and party committees, and it’s clear that the quantity of cash coming from foreign sources is a tiny percentage of the total in the U.S. political systemSecond, Smith again correctly says, foreign nationals already had many means pre-Citizens United to influence the U.S. political system, including lobbying the government, owning newspapers, and contributing to think tanks.
Third, he asserts, the FEC already has rules that forbid foreign nationals from making any of the decisions about where to direct political spending, directly or indirectly.
The Media
FiveThirtyEight: How Trump Hacked The Media
Nate Silver
Sunday marked the 286th day of Trump’s campaign, which began June 16. From the start, he’s been a media phenomenon. According to The New York Times, Trump has received the equivalent of $1.9 billion in television coverage while having spent only $10 million on paid advertising. By contrast, Trump’s Republican rivals combined have received slightly less than $1.2 billion worth of television coverage, meaning that Trump has been the subject of the clear majority (62 percent) of candidate-focused TV coverage of the Republican race.
There’s a perception that Trump has dominated television coverage more than coverage in print or digital media outlets, but it’s not clear that’s true. A study we conducted in December found that 54 percent of newspaper stories about the Republican candidates were about Trump, not that far from his share of TV coverage.
Independent Groups
Politico: Pro-Kasich super PAC hits ‘lyin’ Ted’
Nick Gass
The super PAC backing Ohio Gov. John Kasich is taking a page from Donald Trump in its latest ad, referring to Ted Cruz as “Lyin’ Ted.”
“Many just call him Lyin’ Ted,” a narrator intones at the start of the ad from New Day for America, which features only an image of Cruz’s face with a growing nose of lies.
The Hill: Planned Parenthood PAC immediately runs ad of Trump’s abortion remark
Peter Sullivan
The Planned Parenthood Federal PAC and Priorities USA, a super-PAC backing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, are teaming up to bash GOP front-runner Donald Trump on abortion.
A new ad from the groups shows a clip of Trump’s controversial remark on Wednesday that “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who have abortions if the procedure is banned.
MTV: The Tale Of The Filthy Moose: The Joke Super PAC The FEC Didn’t Think Was Very Funny
Jaime Fuller
There were, in fact, unintended consequences. Although it is impossibly easy to start a super PAC — as Colbert PAC and its army of clones make clear — it is somewhat more arduous to keep up with the paperwork required by such a decision. Norman and Vail are unfamiliar with campaign finance law, as they have yet to obtain high school diplomas, and as such were unaware that you still have to file reports for a super PAC — even a super PAC that appears to have ghosted on the election cycle entirely.
In February, Norman and Vail received a scary-looking letter from the FEC, informing them that they would be fined if they failed to send the required end-of-the-year report, documenting all the money they did not raise or spend.
FEC
Los Angeles Times: The Federal Election Commission is worse than useless
Editorial Board
The first page in any handbook for creating a government regulatory commission would lay out something fairly obvious: There has to be an odd number of members. Anything else could wind up looking a little like the current post-Scalia Supreme Court, which has issued several rulings that haven’t settled anything at all because the justices have evenly split. Decisions with any actual staying power must wait until another member is confirmed and ties can be broken.
What if the regulatory commission’s membership is effectively controlled by the two biggest political parties, with each faction holding half the seats? And what if the commission’s job is to enforce campaign finance laws? Then it’s not really a regulatory and enforcement commission at all, but simply another arena for the eternal duel between Republicans and Democrats. As if we didn’t already have enough of those.
Dangers of Disclosure
NPR: Hillary Clinton And Donations From Fossil Fuel Companies
Peter Overby
It was a rare moment on the campaign trail with the normally calm and collected Hillary Clinton: at a rally at a college campus in New York, Clinton can be seen on video chewing out a Greenpeace activist who challenged her over “fossil fuel money in your campaign.” It’s hardly the first time Clinton has heard this, with its implication that dirty energy has got her on a string…
“The truth is that Secretary Clinton has relied heavily on funds from lobbyists working for the oil, gas and coal industry,” said Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs.
The Center for Responsive Politics, parsing Federal Election Commission reports, finds that workers in the oil and gas industries have given Clinton $307,561 so far – compared to, say, $21 million from the securities and investment industry, or $14.4 million from lawyers and law firms.
Activism
Roll Call: Protests Seek to Prod Congress on Political Money, Supreme Court
Kate Ackley
Activists from more than 100 progressive groups are mobilizing for demonstrations around the Capitol to prod Congress to pass legislation overhauling the campaign finance system, expand voting rights protections and to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court.
Organizers with the AFL-CIO, Public Citizen and People for the American Way plan rallies, protests, a sit-in and other acts of civil disobedience in coming weeks.
Though the Republican-controlled Senate and House are almost certain not to embrace any part of the protesters’ agenda, the events are designed to stoke interest in the left’s priorities during a volatile year in politics.
The States
Central Kentucky News: Judge tosses Kentucky’s ban on corporate campaign donations
Associated Press
U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove ruled on Thursday that Kentucky Registry of Election Finance officials cannot enforce the state’s constitutional prohibition on corporate contributions, finding the disparate treatment of corporations and unincorporated organizations violates the Constitutional right to equal protection under the law.
The Goldwater Institute, a conservative think-tank, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Florida-based company Protect My Check, which advocates for “right-to-work” laws. The company argued that unions are allowed to make contributions to push their side of the political issue, but they were forbidden from responding in kind.
Arizona Capital Times: Ducey signs campaign finance bill assailed by critics as pro-dark money
Jeremy Duda
Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill that completely rewrites Arizona’s campaign finance laws, including a provision that critics say will open the state up to more dark money in elections.
Secretary of State Michele Reagan pushed SB1516 with the stated goal of simplifying Arizona’s outdated campaign finance statutes. Most of the bill’s provisions have been noncontroversial.
But several key parts of the law have raised the ire of legislative Democrats and others would make it far more difficult for state elections officials to crack down on nonprofit groups…
