In the News
OC Register: Maligning legacy of Citizens United v. FEC
By Bradley A. SmithMoney is a key ingredient in all First Amendment freedoms, especially in modern political campaigns. Just as no one would react to a law limiting how much can be spent building churches or publishing newspapers by saying, “money isn’t religion” or “money isn’t press,” no one should dismiss the free speech implications of regulating campaign finance.The need for campaign finance laws such as the one struck down in Citizens United is overstated because elections cannot be bought. Wealthy self-funding candidates have a history of losing; think of Mark Jacobs, Meg Whitman, or Linda McMahon. In fact, USA Today reported that just 14 of 69 candidates who spent at least $1 million on their own campaigns were victorious in 2010 and 2012.Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor learned the hard way that money alone is not enough to win. He was dispatched in the 2014 primaries by a candidate he outspent 26:1.Unusual? Not as much as you might think. In a 2013 review of the scholarly research on effects of campaign spending, University of Missouri Professor Jeff Milyo found that outspending your opponent has “negligible effects” on competitive House races.
Flash Report: Campaign Finance Law Gives Your Address to the North Koreans –
By Scott BlackburnSadly, if the North Koreans wanted to obtain the personal information of Sony workers in order to threaten them, they had no need to hack the company. As a consequence of bad campaign finance regulations, much of that data is readily available online.That’s right. If you have given just $200 to any federal candidate in any election, you already surrendered your name, address, and employer to the Federal Election Commission, who then posted that information online where anyone can access it.This is how we know that Sony Pictures President Doug Belgrad lives at 828 North Barksdale Dr. in Beverly Hills; He gave $1,000 to New Jersey Senator Cory Booker in 2013. Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton wisely gave only his office address (31151 Franklin Boulevard in the Hornstrum building, Office 6700) when he donated $20,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in May of this year. But when his wife, Jamie Alter, gave $833 in 2010 to former Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln, she used her home address – 902 North Bayside in Los Angeles. And both Mr. Lynton and Mrs. Alter used their Connecticut address (542 Nestleigh Way, Hendersen, CT) for still other donations.
Independent Groups
NY Times: Political Donors Grumble Over Fees Paid to Consultants
By Nicholas ConfessoreA constellation of left-leaning nonprofits and “super PACs” are raising tens of millions of dollars to pave the way for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign — and nearly all of them have paid Mary Pat Bonner a cut.Over the past several years, the groups, which include American Bridge 21st Century, Media Matters, and the super PAC Ready for Hillary, have paid Ms. Bonner’s consulting firm in excess of $6 million to help them cultivate wealthy donors and raise money, according to tax filings and campaign disclosures.Ms. Bonner’s contracts give her firm a commission, typically 12.5 percent, on any money she brings in from her network of rich Democrats and liberals.
SCOTUS/Judiciary
Washington Times: Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Georgetown students: ‘Our system is being polluted by money’
By Jessica Chasmar“I think our system is being polluted by money,” she told students Wednesday at Georgetown University Law Center, The Guardian reported.Justice Ginsburg said the situation is even worse because it affects state and local judges who run for election in 39 states, The Associated Press reported.She said, however, that she is optimistic that “sensible restrictions” on campaign financing will one day be in place, quoting her late husband Martin Ginsburg: “The true symbol of the United States is not the eagle, it’s the pendulum — when it swings too far in one direction, it will swing back,” The Guardian reported.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
The Hill: Liberal group files complaint against Bush
By Jonathan EasleyThe filing points to Bush’s Facebook announcement from December, when he announced that he’d actively explore a presidential run and would form a political action committee to “facilitate conversations with citizens across America to discuss the most critical challenges facing our exceptional nation.”“That is simply not the function of a leadership PAC — it is exploratory activity,” ADLF argues. “Leadership PACs are to be used by candidates and officeholders to raise money to support other candidates, not to supplant the functions of an exploratory or campaign committee.”In addition, the group argues that Bush is a de facto presidential candidate but that he’s failed to register as a candidate for office.“Donor pledge forms for Mr. Bush’s leadership PAC indicate that the PAC is encouraging bundlers to raise large sums of money — exceeding $500,000 — to contribute to the leadership PAC,” the filing reads. “There is no legitimate non-campaign purpose for such a large fundraising effort.”
Washington Post: For Rand Paul, a rude awakening to the rigors of a national campaign
By David A. Fahrenthold and Matea GoldIf Paul runs for president, there will be more weeks like this one. Paul will have to get better at projecting competence and confidence in uncomfortable situations. If he doesn’t, his moment might never come.“He obviously is a guy who’s only run one race for office. So we’ll have to see how good his own political skills are,” said David Boaz, an executive vice president at the libertarian Cato Institute. After this rocky week, Boaz added, the best consolation for Paul is that we all may forget this ever happened.“We’re still a year away from anybody voting,” he said. “If you’re going to make stumbles, better to do it now than the month before Iowa.”
Wall Street Journal: 2016 Election: Who’s Winning the T-Shirt Primary?
By Reid J. Epstein and Brian McGillSales of unofficial campaign merchandise are, of course, hardly the most scientific barometer of who is likely to emerge from the next 16 months of presidential primary campaigning.But the CafePress data, which runs from Jan. 2014 through the end of Jan. 2015, is one piece of evidence to show grass-roots interest in the 2016 candidates. With the exception of the scads of trinkets sold by Ready for Hillary, the PAC backing a 2016 Clinton campaign, there is next to no campaign merchandise for sale from the candidates or committees backing them.Here’s how the potential candidates measure up, in ascending order of popularity.
State and Local
California –– Wall Street Journal: California Firm Plays Outsize Role in State’s Democratic Circles
By Alejandro LazoSCN has emerged in recent years as the go-to consulting firm for Democrats in deeply blue California. The firm, led by strategists Averell “Ace” Smith, Sean Clegg and Dan Newman, is one of a number of high-profile, for-profit companies that play an outsize role in the political life of the nation’s largest states.Last month, in the early stages of the race to succeed Ms. Boxer, SCN quietly helped establish Kamala D. Harris, the state’s attorney general, as a leading contender. Two of SCN’s younger clients, Ms. Harris and Gavin Newsom, California’s lieutenant governor and a former mayor of San Francisco, had long been viewed as the mostly likely candidates to run for Ms. Boxer’s seat.
New York –– NY Times: Malcolm Smith, Ex-New York Senate Chief, Is Convicted of Corruption
By Tanzania VegaMr. Smith, 57, a Democrat from Queens, had been accused of conspiring to pay Daniel J. Halloran III, a former Republican city councilman from Queens, and three Republican county leaders, including Vincent Tabone, 48, and Joseph J. Savino, thousands of dollars in an effort to run for mayor of New York City on the Republican ballot in 2013.“As the jury unanimously found, the give-and-take of the political process should not be the giving and taking of bribes, which is what Malcolm Smith and Vincent Tabone tried to make it,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “Smith gave, and Tabone took, a $25,000 cash bribe to permit Smith to run for New York City mayor as a Republican.”
