Executive Abuse
Wall Street Journal: A Climate Courtroom Crusade Scorches Due Process
Philip Hamburger
Six months ago, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued a subpoena demanding that Exxon Mobil turn over records concerning its research on climate change. In March, Mr. Schneiderman took the predictable next step, announcing that a coalition of attorneys general will hold fossil fuel companies accountable. “The First Amendment, ladies and gentlemen, does not give you the right to commit fraud,” he said.
The threat to scientific inquiry and political speech is obvious. Not so widely recognized is the underlying violation of due process. Start with the fact that Mr. Schneiderman and the other attorneys general have relied, as their opening move, on a nonjudicial subpoena to force the disclosure of information.
Independent Groups
CPI: News media give free ride to anti-Donald Trump video
Cady Zuvich
The stinging anti-Trump attack, created by pro-Clinton hybrid super PAC Correct the Record, aired nationally numerous times this week on network news programs, including those on Fox News and CNN. It even earned “breaking news” billing on “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon,” garnering a 20-minute dissection by Lemon, chief political correspondent Dana Bash and various political pundits.
What’s notable about this anti-Trump Web video — indistinguishable in production quality from the hundreds of thousands of political ads blanketing U.S. airwaves — is that Correct the Record is getting its airtime for free via these news programs, instead of paying to air them during commercial breaks. Correct the Record therefore avoids the five-figure costs typical to reserve such an ad spot.
Politico: Unions prepare super PAC to take down Trump
Brian Mahoney and Kenneth P. Vogel
The super PAC is engineered by top officials at the AFL-CIO and three major public employee unions: the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the American Federation of Teachers; and the National Education Association. The Service Employees International Union considered joining the PAC but has since opted out.
Unions may opt in for $1 million, sources say. The PAC’s organizers aim to raise about $50 million by soliciting money from unions and liberal donors outside the labor movement.
Influence
The Guardian: Facebook news selection is in hands of editors not algorithms, documents show
Sam Thielman
The documents, given to the Guardian, come amid growing concerns over how Facebook decides what is news for its users. This week the company was accused of an editorial bias against conservative news organizations, prompting calls for a congressional inquiry from the US Senate commerce committee chair, John Thune.
The boilerplate about its news operations provided to customers by the company suggests that much of its news gathering is determined by machines: “The topics you see are based on a number of factors including engagement, timeliness, Pages you’ve liked and your location,” says a page devoted to the question “How does Facebook determine what topics are trending?”
But the documents show that the company relies heavily on the intervention of a small editorial team to determine what makes its “trending module” headlines – the list of news topics that shows up on the side of the browser window on Facebook’s desktop version. The company backed away from a pure-algorithm approach in 2014 after criticism that it had not included enough coverage of unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, in users’ feeds.
Time: Clinton Cash: A Scathing Broadside Aimed at Persuading Liberals
Philip Elliot
Environmentalists. Anti-nuke activists. Gay-rights advocates. Good-government folks. They’re all going to find themselves increasingly uncomfortable over claims that the likely Democratic nominee, in the film’s words, takes cash from the “darkest, worst corners of the world.”
The 60-minute indictment of the Clintons will soon find its way to an awful lot of televisions ahead of November’s elections. Based on a heavily researched book by the same name, Clinton Cash is careful in laying out a series of facts that are mostly true, though both the book and the movie sometimes draws connections and conclusions that aren’t as solid as their evidence.
FEC
Atlantic: The Donors Who Love Bernie Sanders A Little Too Much
Russell Berman
For months, the Federal Election Commission has been writing to the Sanders campaign with warnings that hundreds of his donors have exceeded the $2,700 contribution limit and that hundreds more may be foreign nationals illegally giving Sanders money. The most recent, and by far the longest, letter came on Tuesday and flagged more than 1,500 questionable donors…
One factor leading to excessive donations could be that the Sanders website, like most campaigns, puts little apparent effort into making donors aware of the rules or screening for excessive contributions. A person clicking the ‘Contribute’ button that appears as soon as someone pops onto the site would have no way of knowing they couldn’t give more than $2,700. That is likely by design, Biersack said. “To make it possible to raise lots of money, especially on the Internet, you want to make it as quick and clean as you can,” he told me. “If people have to go through 15 steps in order to do it, by step 13 they’re going to quit. So that’s the balancing act.”
IRS
Wall Street Journal: Is Your Political Donation Tax Deductible?
Laura Saunders
Do you plan to donate? If so, consider the tax and disclosure implications. “Many people think a donation to any good cause should be deductible, but that’s not true,” says Troy Lewis, a CPA who practices in Draper, Utah.
In addition, the type and amount of the donation also affects whether it must be disclosed publicly or to the Internal Revenue Service.
Donors’ confusion about these issues is understandable, because political giving is governed by a crazy quilt of laws. The Federal Election Commission administers rules about contributions to federal campaigns, parties and certain political-action committees, or PACs. The FEC also oversees so-called super PACs, which aren’t allowed to contribute to candidates or coordinate with them.
Candidates and Campaigns
TC Palm: California man who broke campaign finance laws donated to Patrick Murphy
Isadora Rangel
The Murphys are not involved in that criminal case, but their connections to Babulal Bera and son U.S. Rep. Ami Bera smack of legally skirting donation limits — whether intentional or not — by essentially swapping maximum amounts.
The Murphys and Beras donated $5,200 to their own sons’ campaigns in 2013, the maximum allowable amount at the time. About a month later, Murphy’s mother, Leslie, contributed $5,200 to Bera’s campaign, and 14 days later each of Bera’s parents donated $5,200 to Murphy’s campaign, federal records show.
Tampa Bay Times: David Jolly pushes to ban lobbyists’ political donations like $16K he gave when registered
Michael Auslen
In a debate two weeks ago with U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, Jolly said lobbyists should not be allowed to give money to members of Congress that they’re trying to persuade on behalf of clients.
“If you’re a registered lobbyist who has declared you are lobbying the banking committee, then you can’t contribute to anybody who sits on the banking committee,” he said. “We could do that by an act of Congress today.”
From 2007 to 2011, federal election records show Jolly personally gave $16,050 to members of the House and Senate appropriations committees. At the same time, he advocated for various clients…
Politico: Trump campaign eyes #NeverTrump blacklist
Kenneth P. Vogel and Ben Schreckinger
As Trump moves to work in closer concert with the Republican National Committee apparatus, some campaign aides and allies are pushing him to block lucrative party contracts from consultants who worked to keep him from winning the nomination, according to four sources familiar with the discussions.
“The Never Trump vendors and supporters shouldn’t be in striking distance of the RNC, any of its committees or anyone working on behalf of Donald Trump,” said a Trump campaign official.
The States
Hartford Courant: How Come Public Money For Candidates Untouched?
Kevin Rennie
This year, after raising the same qualifying amounts, Senate candidates will receive $95,710, House candidates $28,150. This seems like the opposite of shared sacrifice. The legislature could impose some of that new economic reality we keep hearing about. I would get rid of the program, but that’s not going to happen. The state political class is addicted to it and addictions are tough to break.
Instead, the legislature could increase the amount a candidate needs to raise to qualify for the bounty. It could also increase the amount a candidate is allowed to accept from an individual contributor. I’m not going out on a limb by saying no one is going to purchase a legislator with a $250 campaign contribution. We ought to be able to think better of them than does the law.
New York Times: Cuomo Campaign’s Role in Scrutinized Senate Races Comes Into Focus
William K. Rashbaum
A senior aide to the governor, Joseph Percoco, took part in some of the earliest organizational and planning sessions with a top de Blasio administration official and campaign lawyers for the mayor and the governor, the materials reviewed by The Times show.
Mr. Percoco also received central legal and operational documents on how the fund-raising effort would be carried out. Three weeks before the election, he corresponded with Emma Wolfe, one of the mayor’s closest advisers, about the procedures for paying for hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign advertisements and mailings for Democratic candidates in targeted races, according to the materials.
Los Angeles Times: State Senate suspends rule barring political fundraising during budget season
Patrick McGreevy
The vote was 24-8 to suspend rules that were adopted two years ago as part of an effort by the Senate to regain public trust after three of its members were charged with crimes. The suspension is in effect for this legislative year.
“After careful review, the Rules Committee has determined that the restrictions are too limiting to apply unilaterally to only one legislative house,” De León said in a floor speech in which he asked for the rules to be suspended. “I do so with reluctance as a well as regret.”
Arkansas Times: Rutledge again rejects ethics amendment; sponsor says he’ll have to sue to petition
Max Brantley
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge today again rejected the form of a proposed constitutional amendment to tighten ethics and campaign finance laws for public officials.
But did approve a popular name, with changes, but rejected the ballot title submitted by Little Rock lawyer David Couch, who’s working on behalf a so-far-unidentified coalition of people interested in stronger ethics laws.
