CCP
And More Doublespeak in Reformland: On Reversing SpeechNow.org
Brad Smith
We like to think that Mr. Howe is just ill-informed rather than engaged in intentional doublespeak aimed at misleading people about the nature of his lawsuit. Probably the “reformers” have told him that “this is just about disclosure”** – that’s a favorite line. They quite likely even wrote the quote that is attributed to him. But maybe not.
Let’s be clear: Overturning SpeechNow.org v. FEC, which is the aim of this lawsuit, is about limiting the ability of citizens to come together and speak in support of or opposition to candidates for office. Beyond the simple fact of expanding freedom, SpeechNow.org has benefited our democracy, opened up the political system, forced entrenched incumbents to defend their records where, in the past, they could have skated by, and given life to many candidates who, in the past, would not have had the resources to launch a viable campaign.
As Mr. Howe’s portion of the complaint notes, he doesn’t like being “attacked,” (an odd fear, since Super PACs actually tend to be more positive than negative). But “attacked,” when used by a politician, is too often a synonym for simply being criticized or having one’s record discussed in unfavorable terms.
“Dark Money”
Inside Sources: Is Money Corrupting U.S. Politics? No
Hans A. Von Spakovsky
The myth of “dark money” supposedly corrupting our politics is just that — a myth. First of all, the amount spent on direct political ads by nonpolitical nonprofits like the NRA or Planned Parenthood is a tiny percentage of total election spending. Of the more than $7 billion spent in the 2012 election, the FEC reports that only $300 million was spent by nonpolitical organizations on independent political expenditures. That is only 4.3 percent of the total.
And do you really need to know who the donors are to the NRA or Planned Parenthood to judge the credibility of an ad they run about a particular candidate? Of course not. The real purpose of those who want to force such organizations to reveal all of their donors is to intimidate and harass contributors whose support is vital to organizations the critics don’t like.
Independent Groups
CNN: Clinton, Democrats try not to get drowned out during GOP convention
Dan Merica
Clinton’s top dollar super PAC, Priorities USA, will also blanket the city in anti-Trump advertising, making sure anyone who gets into a cab in Cleveland gets the question, “Does Donald Trump really speak for you?”
The super PAC has paid for their ad to play in 125 cabs in Cleveland for the entirety of the Republican convention. The spot, which features women and fathers with the daughters wearing Trump shirts and reading some of his more controversial lines about women, will be played an estimated 28,000 times, said the group’s spokesman, Justin Barasky.
Conventions
Philadelphia Inquirer: Turned down by the IRS, Philly’s DNC host committee goes for Plan B
Claudia Vargas
The IRS has turned down the long-running effort by the Democratic convention’s Philadelphia host committee to win a tax exemption.
Word of the decision, a setback for efforts to raise the last of the $60 million needed to help pay for the July 25 to 28 convention, came Friday from its adviser, David L. Cohen.
When the decision came – and why – is less clear. Cohen would say only that the IRS “recently” turned down the application for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)3 of the tax code, which the committee had sought for more than a year.
Cohen, senior executive vice president of Comcast Corp., said the IRS viewed some of the committee’s work as too much like political activity to win 501(c)3 status. He declined to release the IRS letter notifying the committee, focusing instead on efforts to appeal the decision.
Time: Why We Don’t Know Who’s Funding the Republican Convention
Haley Sweetland Edwards and Chris Wilson
But the new rules also did nothing to close a massive—and lucrative—loophole in convention finance laws, which parties had been quietly exploiting since the 1980s. Namely: FECA rules apply only to the parties’ official convention committees. They don’t apply to so-called “host committees,” which are nominally independent non-profits, based in the cities where the conventions are held.
Unlike the political parties’ official convention committees, host committees can raise as much as they want, from anyone they want—including corporations, unions, trade groups, Super PACs or outside groups. And unlike the political parties’ official convention committees, host committees don’t have to disclose their donors on a quarterly basis. (FEC rules require that host committees submit disclosures sixty days after the last day of the convention, and they must be made public at some point after that.)
Slate: The RNC Will Be a First Amendment Disaster
Tabatha Abu El-Haj
While ACLU officials have heralded these changes as a “victory for free speech,” make no mistake: Activists, whatever their political persuasion, will not be able to see any convention delegates—certainly not from the designated parade route, and RNC delegates will not be forced to interact with any of them. Measures like these only reinforce the widespread impression that our political leaders are inaccessible and uninterested in the experiences of the ordinary Americans. What the ACLU managed to secure for those demonstrators who have received permits was permission to protest marginally closer for marginally longer.
Fortune: Wall Street Opts to Steer Clear of Trump’s Republican Convention
Cyrus Sanati
Wall Street is keeping a low profile at this year’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, which officially begins on Monday afternoon. While many bankers and bank executives will undoubtedly be popping in and out for a meeting or two, the actual banks and their logos will be hard to find.
Sources inside the banks are telling Fortune the primary reason for the banks’ silence is, of course, Donald Trump. The presumptive Republican presidential candidate’s harsh rhetoric has soured his image with Wall Street, these people said.
FEC
Bloomberg BNA: FEC Deadlocked on ‘Willful’ Violation by Ex-Rep. Schmidt
Kenneth P. Doyle
Staff attorneys for the Federal Election Commission concluded former Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) “knowingly and willfully violated” campaign finance law by accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free legal services. The FEC commissioners, however, deadlocked 3-3 in a party-line vote on whether to approve the staff conclusion…
Schmidt was put on notice in consultations with the House Ethics Committee that accepting free legal services from a nonprofit corporation in connection with an election was illegal, the FEC counsel’s report said. Yet, even after being notified, Schmidt and her campaign continued to rely on the free legal services in a defamation lawsuit in which she was seeking $6 million in damages.
U.S. News and World Report: Could ‘Pokemon Go’ Break Election Laws?
Rachel Dicker
In the real world, campaign ads at polling places must conform to strict regulations in certain states. But would it be legal in the digital world? It’s not immediately clear.
“If a campaign tries to lure people into the polling place where they would see a campaign advertisement, that could be considered electioneering,” says Richard Hasen of the University of California, Irvine School of Law.
Former FEC Chairman Michael Toner of Wiley Rein LLP disagreed, saying that personal devices are considered private space, and therefore not subject to electioneering laws. He explains that though “Pokemon Go” lures are mapped to a physical location, the technological world is still considered private space as it is a choice to access the application.
“Reform”
Huffington Post: How The Flaw In Elections Foisted Prohibition On America
Ted Wachtel
That’s particularly true for the most influential minority group in America — the one percent of Americans who own 43 percent of all U.S. wealth. While too few in number to swing an election, the wealthy fund expensive advertising campaigns that persuade the so-called “low information voters” to choose a candidate for what are often superficial reasons…
Sadly, the idea that an informed electorate will decide elections with thoughtful decision-making is a myth. That’s why a growing number of political scientists are looking to Athens, the original democracy, which selected 90 percent of its public officials by lottery. As strange as it might sound, it deserves serious consideration. Known as sortition or lottocracy, it would completely remove money from the selection process and ensure, by mathematical probability, that our legislatures would be truly representative of the citizenry.
SEC
Bloomberg: Trump VP Pick Raises Legal Questions for Some Wall Street Donors
Zachary Mider
But since Pence is the sitting Indiana governor, his selection may also raise complex legal questions for some Trump supporters who’ve managed money for the state, including the billionaires Wilbur Ross, Stephen Feinberg, and Tom Barrack.
All three run private-equity firms that are listed as vendors in the Indiana Public Retirement System’s 2015 annual report. A Securities and Exchange Commission rule sets limits on contributions to political candidates who control investment decisions, either directly or indirectly.
The “pay to play” rule was put in place in 2010 after a series of scandals in which money managers were accused of trying to improperly influence state officials to win investment management business, including by arranging political contributions.
Influence
Buzzfeed: Julian Castro Found To Have Violated Hatch Act In Katie Couric Interview
Adrian Carrasquillo
A report prepared by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has found that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity while acting in their official capacity, a source with knowledge of the report told BuzzFeed News.
Castro, the OSC found, violated the Hatch Act during an April interview with Yahoo’s Katie Couric.
In that interview, Castro discussed a new HUD policy to expand internet access to children and the difficulty of attaining housing loans. Couric then moved to the topic of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Observer: Latest Guccifer 2.0 Leak Reaffirms Primaries Were Rigged for Clinton
Michael Sainato
The memo is just one of several documents released by Guccifer 2.0 proving the Democratic National Committee rigged the system for Clinton. Before the primaries began, DNC strategies were developed with Clinton in mind as the presidential nominee. The leak affirms claims by Bernie Sanders’ supporters that the Democratic primaries were not an election, but rather a coronation for Hillary Clinton.
Because many of the documents implicate mainstream media outlets in their complacency to adhere to the DNC’s strategy, the Guccifer 2.0 hacks have gone largely unreported.
Candidates and Campaigns
Praxis: The Republican Industrial Complex Has Turned Missteps Into Millions
Matthew Sheffield
The ineffectiveness of television advertising and junk mail at actually changing people’s minds has been known for some time in academia and yet if I had to wager, I would bet that most conservative donors, small or large, have never even heard of any of the studies which have proven this.
The sad reality of conservative and libertarian politics is that the generous people who donate their hard-earned cash have been fleeced for years by greedy, incompetent people who have manipulated the system to profit regardless of the policy or electoral outcomes.
In order to prevent center-Right donors from seeing the failures and demanding changes, the Republican Industrial Complex has offered false theories that (depending on who is listening) “the Establishment” or “the far Right” are responsible instead of leaders who could not deliver.
The States
Tampa Bay Times: Keep super PAC cash out of St. Petersburg elections
Darden Rice and Scott Greytak
These problems have come to St. Petersburg’s doorstep, and today we say No More. On Thursday, an ordinance will be introduced that strikes at the heart of Citizens United by abolishing super PACs and by prohibiting spending on St. Petersburg elections by foreign-influenced corporations…
This ordinance draws a line in the sand. It limits contributions to super PACs that spend money in St. Petersburg elections, making sure super PACs won’t be able to bend the system to their self-interested political will. The majority of City Council previously passed on an attempt to cap individual campaign contributions at $500, believing that as long as people can donate to super PACs, an individual contribution cap doesn’t do much to keep big money out of our elections. This ordinance addresses that concern head-on.
Denver Post: Denver campaign finance reform proposal pulled from ballot
Claire Cleveland
A proposed Denver ballot initiative that would reign in big-donor campaign contributions and set up a public financing system for city elections has been withdrawn by its backers.
“The Petitioners Committee has decided not to move forward with our ballot measure for November 2016,” said Elena Nunez, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, a backer of the initiative. “Given the well-funded opposition interests that have emerged, and the resources required for both the legal fight and a fall campaign amidst a crowded and expensive election season, we’ve decided to postpone our ballot measure.”
