CCP
Media Watch: Hey, NY Times, A Corporation is a Corporation No Matter its Function
By Sarah LeeJust a fun — and yet the implications are serious, make no mistake about that, because it goes to the heart of free speech and who’s deemed worthy to have it by some of our intellectual betters in the media — a little post to leave with you all as we head into the holiday weekend. Monday, we here at CCP tweeted this piece from The Washington Post on Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s speech to Federalist Society members, in which he discussed, among other things, the Citizens United ruling and its relationship to media corporations. It seems that the esteemed editors at The New York Times were also reading because they turned out this piece of thinly-veiled paranoia a day later. From the piece:
Independent groups
The Economist: A morning-after constitutional?
IF, AS the saying goes, “a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality”, then perhaps an advocate of stricter campaign-finance laws is a newly elected congressman or senator who has weathered months of negative ads funded by third-party groups freed from spending limits or disclosure requirements. That, at least, is the hope of many both inside and outside Congress.
Wall Street Journal: Politicking From the Pulpit and the Tax Man
By David SkeelThe anti-electioneering provision prohibits any section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization from endorsing or opposing—”including [by] the publishing or distributing of statements”—any candidate for public office. The law has an odd history, dating back to 1954, when it had little or nothing to do with religion.
NPR: How NYC’s Bloomberg Influenced Calif. Rep. Race
By Peter OverbyMany SuperPACs and other outside groups are still tending their wounds after spending millions of dollars in the presidential and senate campaigns with little to show for it. But New York Mayor Michael Boomberg’s SuperPAC helped to defeat a seven-term incumbent in a district outside L.A.
Washington Post: The Influence Industry: Advocates at odds over how to tighten campaign finance rules
By TW FarnamAfter record spending on the 2012 election, many advocates for tighter regulation of money in politics are agitating for a big overhaul of campaign finance rules. They just can’t seem to agree on what that overhaul should include.
Candidates and parties
NY Times: A Broken Election System
EditorialWhile President Obama was delivering his victory speech in the early hours of Wednesday, Nov. 7, people were still standing in line in Florida to vote. Thousands had waited hours to vote in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, some in the cold, some giving up wages to do so. In a spontaneous aside — “by the way, we have to fix that” — the president acknowledged the unnecessary hardship of casting a vote in the United States and established a goal that he now has an obligation to address.
Lobbying and ethics
The Hill: With second term assured, Obama aides eye jobs as lobbyists on K Street
By Kevin BogardusWith President Obama’s reelection a done deal, headhunters are expecting worn-out administration aides to look for new jobs in the influence industry.
Roll Call: K Street Files: On a Mission, Lobbying Power to the People
By Janie Lorber and Kate AckleyAttention, soon-to-be-former members and staff: There’s a new K Street headhunter in town.
