In the News
Washington Post: How a film about Obama’s communist ‘real father’ won at the FEC
David Weigel
In 2014, a progressive activist named Loren Collins filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against Gilbert, arguing that the filmmaker had a responsibility to disclose his donors. The FEC finally weighed in last month, and in a typical 3-3 split decision — by law, the FEC is perpetually split between Democratic and Republican commissioners — Gilbert’s DVD mailing was considered “press,” not subject to donor disclosure, comparable to any political documentary…
In an interview, the victorious Gilbert said that he was clearly “a media entity like Fox News or Michael Moore or The Washington Post.” Collins’s complaint amounted to “liberal fascism,” and he fought it with the legal advice of prominent Washington conservatives Cleta Mitchell, D. Eric Lycan and Bradley Smith.
Wall Street Journal: The Case for a Really Open GOP Convention
Kimberley A. Strassel
Eric O’Keefe is here to say: whoa. The veteran Republican grass-roots activist sees a contested convention as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the delegates of a private political party to assert their power. The results of the GOP primaries are hardly representative of the party’s will, Mr. O’Keefe says, because state parties have been wrecked by domineering state legislatures…
Make no mistake: Mr. O’Keefe isn’t a fan of campaign-finance laws, which he regards as attempts to muzzle speech. Laws limiting political contributions “are created by the politicians, to cripple challengers, who are the equivalent of startup companies,” he says. “Imagine if IBM was the only company in the country, and you had a limit of $1,000 of venture capital to any competitor. You’d never have another business.” Mr. O’Keefe helped found the Center for Competitive Politics to fight against laws impinging on speech rights.
CCP
How to Use Campaign Finance Data to Mislead the Public
Scott Blackburn
Corporations are “distorting our democracy” – at least according to activists Bruce F. Freed and Marian Currinder, writing in U.S. News and World Report. The authors spin the usual tale of untold corporate billions flooding elections in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2010’s Citizens United decision.
But it is just that – a tale. This is a story of how you misuse statistics, misrepresent the facts, and purposefully mislead your readers to confirm preconceived biases. Let’s dig in to the details – as we do, remember that Freed and Currinder’s contention is that after Citizens United, money spent by corporations is fundamentally changing how our democracy operates.
Free Speech
Bloomberg: Subpoenaed Into Silence on Global Warming
Megan McArdle
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is getting subpoenaed by the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands to cough up its communications regarding climate change. The scope of the subpoena is quite broad, covering the period from 1997 to 2007, and includes, according to CEI, “a decade’s worth of communications, emails, statements, drafts, and other documents regarding CEI’s work on climate change and energy policy, including private donor information.”…
The enemies of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and ExxonMobil should hold their applause. In a liberal democracy, every guerrilla tactic your side invents will eventually be used against you. Imagine a coalition of Republican attorneys general announcing an investigation of companies that have threatened state boycotts over gay-rights issues, and you may get a sense of why this is not such a good precedent to set.
The rule of law, and our norms about free speech, represent a sort of truce between both sides. We all agree to let other people talk, because we don’t want to live in a world where we ourselves are not free to speak. Because we do not want to be silenced by an ambitious prosecutor, we should all be vigilant when ambitious prosecutors try to silence anyone else.
Independent Groups
Tampa Bay Times: Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio pushed boundaries of campaign finance with unlimited donations, secrecy
Alex Leary
But more important, the Floridians pushed new boundaries of campaign finance, setting examples likely to be copied by other candidates while leaving behind a string of complaints from watchdog groups contending laws were broken.
“They are pilgrims on the path to destroying the campaign finance system,” said Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, an advocacy group that filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission, the IRS and the Justice Department.
Bloomberg: Washington Watchdog Adjusts to Life With Partisan Roommates
Bill Allison
Annual rankings of the “most corrupt” members of Congress and a bi-annual list of the “worst” governors have stopped. A pipeline of in-depth reports on issues ranging from financial markets to timber-industry lobbying has gone dry. The group walked away from a spat over Hillary Clinton’s treatment of e-mails as secretary of state, even after an Inspector General found that CREW’s public records request had been improperly denied.
Many of those projects, according to CREW, were set aside to reorient its focus toward campaign finance violations by political candidates and the outside groups that support them. The shift also coincided with a leadership change in 2014, when CREW, looking to bring on a new board chair with a strong fundraising base, hired David Brock, a Democratic operative with deep ties to liberal donors.
CNN: GOP megadonors slow to rally behind Cruz
Theodore Schleifer
Republican activists are consolidating behind Ted Cruz. Republican megadonors aren’t — yet.
The Texas senator — more than ever before — is the most viable alternative to Donald Trump based on the delegate count. But he is still striving to move major donors off the anti-Trump sidelines and into the pro-Cruz fold, even after his big Wisconsin win Tuesday.
FEC
Washington Post: FEC deadlocked on allegation that Gingrich used 2012 campaign to sell books
Matea Gold
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich will not face a Federal Election Commission investigation into allegations that he broke federal law by using his 2012 presidential campaign to promote books that he and his wife wrote, documents released Friday show.
As part of an agreement with the FEC finalized Feb. 23, the veteran Republican party leader will shut down his 2012 committee, Newt 2012, in the next few months. The campaign still owes nearly $4 million to more than 100 vendors, who are now unlikely to see full payment.
CPI: Federal Election Commission dismisses complaint against rapper
Michael Beckel
A divided Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint against rapper Pras Michel, a co-founder of the Fugees who funded a pro-Barack Obama super PAC in 2012.
A complaint filed last year by two campaign finance reform advocacy groups alleged that Michel had violated federal law by giving money to super PAC Black Men Vote through his company — known as SPM Holdings LLC — without disclosing that he was the source of the funds.
CRP: No issue too small to create a standoff at the FEC
Will Tucker
For the constantly sniping trios of Republicans and Democrats on Federal Election Commission, any molehill can be made a mountain — even a question of whether to use the word “a” or “the” in regulations.
What was supposed to be a routine clean-up of language in campaign finance regulations turned political this week as FEC Commissioner Lee Goodman objected to suggested edits regarding the disclosure of independent expenditures in calendar years without elections. The highly unusual result was two drafts of “technical amendments,” or changes to the regs that don’t include substantive policy changes, uploaded to the FEC’s agenda for a public meeting on April 14.
Corporate Speech
Huffington Post: Not Your Father’s Lobbyist: The Value of Public Affairs Communications
Guy Golan
Yet, regulating corporate speech such as lobbying may prove short-sighted. While some multinational corporations have certainly tainted their own reputations through public misbehavior and unethical communication practices, others have demonstrated the beneficial role that corporations can play in shaping public debate over important issues in society.
In recent years, corporations such as Johnson & Johnson, Patagonia, and Starbucks have been at the forefront of advocating for important social causes including human rights, marriage equality, environmental issues, and even campaign finance reform.
While some may question the sincerity of corporate social marketing, we should recognize that corporations have the potential to play a critical role in democracy through responsible and transparent public affairs activities.
IRS
Washington Times: IRS sued for refusing to release secret ‘church investigations’ procedures
Bradford Richardson
Government watchdog groups have filed a motion in federal court to compel the IRS to reveal how it determines when to initiate “church investigations” after accusing the tax-collecting agency of “stonewalling” efforts to bring to light its procedures.
The motion, filed jointly Friday by the Alliance Defending Freedom and Judicial Watch, came in response to a legal settlement struck in 2014 with an atheist organization, which said the IRS had “resolved the signature authority issue necessary to initiate church examinations.”
The States
Wall Street Journal: Mayor Bill de Blasio Defends Fundraising as Probe Widens
Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Josh Dawsey
The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan is scrutinizing the activities of two businessmen who are a focus of a federal probe into the New York Police Department and who served on the mayor’s inaugural committee, the people said. One of the businessmen held a fundraiser at his home for the Campaign for One New York, a nonprofit supporting the mayor’s agenda and run by his allies, and another bundled more than $40,000 in contributions to Mr. de Blasio’s 2013 campaign, records show.
Federal investigators are interested in whether major donors to the Campaign for One New York—including real-estate developers and unions—received special treatment from Mr. de Blasio’s administration, the people said. The investigators are looking at whether donations were made in exchange for some kind of official act, the people said.
Billings Gazette: Montana campaign finance ruling could have ‘ramifications nationwide’
James DeHaven
Meanwhile, the first phase of Wittich’s case may have already rattled some Montana legislative candidates.
Those candidates are allowed to give money to corporations in exchange for reportable campaign services, but are not allowed to receive contributions from any non- or for-profit corporate entity.
Such services — if unreported, coordinated with or underpaid for by the candidate — could count as an illegal in-kind corporate campaign contribution under state law.
Columbus Dispatch: Bill aims to modernize campaign-finance reporting in Ohio
Jim Siegel
The Cincinnati-area Republican hopes to simplify some of Ohio’s “silly” campaign finance laws and pull local candidates into modern times, where they file electronic finance reports that are easily accessible.
Becker has introduced a multifaceted campaign finance bill that, among other things, would no longer require candidates who raise less than $2,000 to file a report and eliminates the need to list the date of a fundraising event, along with the date of a contribution.
“We have a lot of silly, diminutive reporting that has no value. It just creates complications,” Becker said.
Yellowhammer News: Proposed Alabama constitutional amendment would reveal ‘dark money’ donors
Jordan LaPorta
Alabama State Senator Arthur Orr (R-Decator) wants to put the question of ‘dark money’ regulation to the voters. His bill, SB 356, proposes an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama requiring the state to regulate the disclosure of the raising and spending of money that may influence elections and governmental actions…
“We’ve seen them pop up here in the last several years and the public has the right to know whose money is this. These groups that are now engaging in electioneering,” Orr said in an interview. “If they’re going to engage in electioneering activities in Alabama, I believe the public has a right to know who the donors are.”
