In the News
Houston Chronicle: Ethics commission boosts disclosure requirements for ‘dark money’ groups
David Saleh Rauf
David Keating, president of the Center for Competitive Politics, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, said the commission’s new rule will help clear up what he described as a confusing area of Texas law. However, he said, the commission’s functional equivalence test creates a subjective playing field.
“Regulators can have unreasonable interpretations,” he said. “People need to be able to make an ad and not worry about these subjective factors.”
Citizens United
USA Today: Saturday Night Live donates to Hillary campaign
Jonah Goldberg
Again, Saturday Night Live, has the same first amendment rights as The New York Times, The Washington Post and this newspaper. But you know who else has the same free speech rights as the mainstream media? You and me — and George Soros, Charles and David Koch, and every other citizen of the United States.
And that’s why the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United was correct. In that decision, the Court held that everyone has the right to get their views and opinions out into the public conversation.
In the arguments before the court, the Obama administration took the position that the government could even ban books during election season if those books amounted to “express advocacy” for a candidate, even if that advocacy took the form of a single mention of a candidate.
The court rejected that argument and President Obama, along with most liberals, have never forgiven the justices. Hillary Clinton is so opposed to the ruling, she has made amending the First Amendment a cornerstone of her campaign.
Supreme Court
Los Angeles Times: High court to decide free-speech limits in political retribution case
David Savage
The Supreme Court said Thursday it will decide an important question on the rights of the nation’s 22 million public employees: How far do free-speech rights go in protecting a public employee who is demoted or fired over his or her perceived political affiliations?
In the past, the court has said public employees have 1st Amendment rights, including the right to speak out on public issues. But lower courts are split on whether these employees are always protected from political retaliation.
The justices agreed to hear an appeal from a New Jersey police detective who was demoted to walking a beat after he was seen putting into his car a large campaign sign that supported a candidate who was trying to oust the mayor of Paterson.
Independent Groups
Columbus Dispatch: Super-PAC rules are super-vague
Darrel Rowland
Another factor uniquely benefitting the Kasich team: Bruce Berke, a New Hampshire lobbyist who ran Kasich’s abortive 2000 presidential campaign in the Granite State, has been closely advising the 2016 effort in his home state but has no formal role with either the campaign or the super-PAC — meaning he is able to communicate with both.
Numerous commentators contend that many 2016 hopefuls delayed their formal candidacy declarations so they would have more time to openly coordinate with their super-PACs — even though people such as Bush and Kasich presumably knew for weeks ahead of their official announcements that they were running for president.
The official campaigns and super-PACs can even use the same campaign fundraiser, as long as he or she is an “independent” consultant and not formally on the payroll of either group.
“No doubt the candidates (especially Bush and Kasich) have been pushing the envelope on what coordination means,” Hasen said.
Los Angeles Times: Super PACs stretch the rules that prohibit coordination with presidential campaigns
Joseph Tanfani and Seema Mehta
One Democratic commissioner at the FEC said that she is “very concerned” about the growing influence of super PACs and frustrated about the inability of her agency to do anything about it.
“These super PACS are more and more operating as arms of the campaigns,” said Ellen Weintraub, a former campaign finance lawyer. “I just find it hard to reconcile the notion that there’s no potential for corruption with super PACs raising and spending unlimited amounts of money.”…
At the same time, the early crashes of the campaigns of Rick Perry and Scott Walker have provided vivid examples of the limitations of super PACs. Both men attracted billionaire donors and well-funded super PACs, but had to quit when their campaigns ran out of money.
FEC
CPI: Center for Public Integrity sues FEC for security study
CPI Staff
For the second time in three months, the Center for Public Integrity has filed a federal lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission for refusing to release documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
In July, Center for Public Integrity senior political reporter Dave Levinthal filed a FOIA request seeking a study the agency commissioned to detail the decay in the security and management of its computer systems and networks.
The taxpayer-funded study, which cost $199,500 to produce, followed Center for Public Integrity reporting that revealed how Chinese hackers successfully infiltrated the FEC’s computer systems in October 2013.
Candidates and Campaigns
Washington Post: How Hillary Clinton kept her wealthy friends close while at State Department
Tom Hamburger
The e-mails that mention donors — numbering a few dozen out of the thousands of pages of messages released so far — do not show that financial supporters were able to alter policy decisions. But the dynamic points to one of the unusual aspects of Clinton’s record at State. Because she and her family have raised so much money over the years from wealthy individuals and major corporations — for political campaigns as well as the sprawling global charity founded by her husband, former president Bill Clinton — her public business as secretary inevitably brought her in contact with private interests that helped boost her family’s philanthropy and income.
Washington Post: Larry Lessig raises $1 million for 2016 bid
Matea Gold
So far, he is barely registering in the polls in which he has been included. A Suffolk University/USA Today poll last month showed Lessig with .47%, tied with Webb.
Lessig has complained that polling organizations are not offering him as a choice when surveying voters.
“Were I actually included on every poll, I would easily make the debates,” he wrote in Politico last week.
The Atlantic: The Fringe Candidates Running for President
Kevin Hogan
On the outskirts of the political mainstream, in the cavernous recesses of American democracy, lie the solitary fringe presidential aspirants: more than 1,200 of them.
They’re people from forgotten little towns; people passionate about an issue; people who want to be heard; people with quirky lifestyles and even quirkier beliefs. “I am running as an independent candidate for the presidency, as I believe that the two-party system is no longer working for our country,” said Missouri resident Dale Hoinoski, a retired Marine who sports an anti-mustache, modified Amish beard. The unabashed Christian vows to “stop abortions,” keep the “Feds” out of education, and institute a program using marijuana oil to fuel American vehicles.
The States
Wisconsin Watchdog: Judge orders GAB to turn over emails with liberal groups
M.D. Kittle
The GAB last month had argued against the release to the conservative targets of the unconstitutional John Doe investigation.
But Waukesha County Judge Lee Dreyfus Jr. on Friday declared the GAB’s communications to and from the left-leaning groups, although shielded from public consumption at this point, must be turned over to the conservative plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the agency.
Long-time political activist Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth are suing the accountability board, alleging the political speech regulator overstepped its authority in driving the John Doe – at taxpayers’ expense.
Burlington Free Press: Vermont GOP questions neutrality of election official
April Burbank
The chairman of the Vermont Republican Party called for a Vermont elections worker to be sidelined Friday because of what he called “clear bias” in the official’s online comments…
“Notwithstanding whether it’s appropriate for a member of your elections staff to be commenting on overtly partisan blogs, as an administrator of elections and election law, Vermonters have a right to expect that Mr. Isabelle will be neutral and nonpartisan in all public conduct and engagement,” Sunderland wrote.
Sunderland went on to request that Isabelle have “no administrative obligations, input or influence in elections in which the political parties, unions or candidates for governor may have an interest.”
Huffington Post: Money in Politics in California: Let the Voters Have Their say
Tom Donnelly
Count California voters among the discontented. In response to Citizens United, tens of thousands of Californians signed a petition asking the state legislature to place a measure on the ballot testing voter support for a constitutional amendment overturning the decision. Prior to the 2014 election, the state legislature did just that. However, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association challenged the measure as violating the California State Constitution.
The California Supreme Court then removed the measure — Proposition 49 — from the ballot in a 5-1 vote, pending full briefing and oral argument. On Tuesday, the California Supreme Court will finally hear argument in that case, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association v. Padilla.
