In the News
San Antonio Express-News: Sham issues ads or advocacy?
David Saleh Rauf
At issue: an attempt to clarify what type of communications by an outside group is regulated as a political expenditure. It’s taken on new scope in recent years as special interest groups spend money on ads that often blur between issue-based advocacy and aggressive attack-based politicking…
Five campaign finance experts who analyzed the direct mail pieces came to differencing conclusions, but agreed the ads walk a fine line between genuine spots educating voters on issues and potentially violating the state’s attempt to regulate third-party campaign communications by failing to disclose the activity…
“These can definitely be read to be advocating for a candidate to be defeated. There’s no other reason for this,” Noble said. “It’s so easy to avoid using magic words that if these are allowed to slip through then the law pretty much becomes meaningless.”
David Keating, president of the Center for Competitive Politics, a nonprofit based in Washington, disagreed. He said each of the mailers is “hard hitting” but qualify as issue ads because they take a position on matters of public importance.
“They all have advocacy in there. One way of pushing the candidates really hard is to take a big whack at them,” he said. “There are other reasonable interpretations of what they’re trying to accomplish here.”
Citizens United
Verdict: A Specific Proposal That Helps Give Us a Sense of What Getting Rid of Citizens United Might Entail
Vikram David Amar
First is the matter of overturning Citizens United. That case held that corporations and unions enjoyed a First Amendment right to engage in independent partisan expenditures in support of or against candidates for office even in the weeks leading up to a federal election. Note that Citizens United did not involve corporate or union contributions to political campaigns (giving money to candidate for them to spend), but so-called independent expenditures that expressed a view on candidates. If we overturned Citizens United by simply saying (via constitutional amendment), that corporations (and unions) can be subject to (reasonable) independent expenditure limitations, would such limits apply to the New York Times Corporation in the amount of money it spends on editorials in support of or against particular candidates? Even some of its news coverage might be thought to implicitly support or attack particular candidacies. And if we try to protect organizations like the NYT by exempting “media”- or “news”- oriented corporations, won’t other corporations simply spin off corporate media units to engage in this speech? And can any distinction between “media” organizations and other organizations really survive in the age of the Internet and blogging?
Independent Groups
CNN: First on CNN: Cruz super PAC decides attacking Rubio in Florida isn’t worth it
Theodore Schleifer
Super PACs backing Ted Cruz are scrapping a major media buy they once eyed in Florida because Marco Rubio is likely to lose there “all by himself,” the group’s leader says.
Keep the Promise, the main cluster of independent groups backing Cruz, is preparing to spend millions of dollars in a quartet of states that vote on March 15: Missouri, Illinois, Ohio and North Carolina. It is passing entirely on Florida, Rubio’s home state, where he badly trails national front-runner Donald Trump in polls.
Huffington Post: Death By $15 Million Cuts: How A Super PAC Took Down Newt Gingrich
Sam Stein and Jason Cherkis
But while a super PAC may not make a candidate, it can still, if used effectively, upend one. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s struggles in this primary are partly due to the sheer number of ads that super PACs tied to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have run against him.
The best example of the destructive power of a super PAC — an outside group that can accept unlimited donations but can’t legally coordinate with the campaigns it supports — remains Newt Gingrich.
“Reform” Docket
American Prospect: The Campaign-Finance Reform Wish List
Eliza Newlin Carney
A Democratic president would also choose the successor to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (unless Senate Republicans relent and permit President Obama to do so), meaning that a reconstituted high court may actually uphold a now-inevitable constitutional challenge to Citizens United. If Democrats recapture one or more chambers of Congress—as could happen if Trump turns out to be the GOP nominee—a long list of ethics, lobbying, voting, redistricting and campaign reforms might actually be within reach.
All that suggests that it’s not too early for reform advocates to start drawing up their wish lists, and to pose the question: What should a progressive democracy agenda look like?
FEC
More Soft Money Hard Law: The FEC and the Case of the LLC
Bob Bauer
That did not mean, however, that the FEC could not have done something constructive with this episode – – like dismissing this peculiar case for lack of 5 votes to proceed, but clarifying the law or its position, based on the law, that donors cannot form LLCs or other entities to hide the true source of their contributions. Instead news reports suggest that it dithered and then could not act, when the disclosure principle at stake here seems fairly clear. The law provides an ample basis upon which to find –and should there have been any doubt, for the FEC to verify–that a contributor may not set up and then make a contribution through an LLC or other organization for the purpose of concealing her identity.
The Campaign Legal Center filed the original complaint and supplemented it with a letter to the Department Of Justice, calling also for a criminal investigation. CLC somewhat overdid things and that probably didn’t help. It argued the indisputable disclosure point but also suggested that the contributor in forming and funding the LLC to make the contribution had established a “political committee” subject to full registration and reporting requirements. Overkill, one might say.
There are difficult issues facing the FEC in addressing the issues raised by Super PACs. The one presented in this case doesn’t rank very high on the scale of difficulty, and yet, so far, the FEC has managed to look as bad as possible in dealing with it.
Influence
Washington Free Beacon: Clinton Donors, Associates Boost Campaign of Chris Matthews’ Wife
Joe Schoffstall
Kathleen Matthews, who is running for a seat in the House of Representatives in Maryland and is the wife of MSNBC host Chris Matthews, is drawing heavy support from donors who have contributed to Hillary Clinton…
“I am sure Chris Matthews would insist there is no serious conflict of interest when his wife’s donors are Hillary’s donors, since his coverage of Hillary this year will be obsequious as the rest of MSNBC,” Graham said. “He could also cite MSNBC’s incredibly inconsistent ethics on activism—punishing Joe Scarborough and Keith Olbermann for candidate donations, and then allowing Al Sharpton to lead cop-bashing parades which he would then cover at 6 pm.”
Candidates and Campaigns
Politico: GOP donors pushing Condoleezza Rice to run independent campaign
Matt Dixon
A group of Republican donors and strategists has been working to persuade former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to make an independent bid for president, according to a memo outlining the plan obtained by POLITICO Florida…
“We have been in touch with Dr. Rice through her chief of staff,” read the plan, which is stamped “confidential.” “She is reluctant at this stage. We are asking for anyone wanting to assist to encourage her to run.”
CPI: The lobbyists who love Bernie Sanders
Michael Beckel
You might not think the National Cannabis Industry Association, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and National Mining Association have much in common.
But they have this: Lobbyists for these organizations have donated money to the presidential campaign of Democrat Bernie Sanders, the self-described socialist who has regularly castigated special interests and the government influence industry.
In fact, nearly two-dozen federally registered lobbyists have given money to Sanders’ presidential campaign, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of campaign finance records.
Huffington Post: Marco Rubio’s Surprising 3-Word Answer About Money in Politics
Stephen Spaulding
“If you could change one thing about the campaign finance system after going through all this as a candidate, what would you change?,” asked Todd.
“I don’t know,” said Sen. Rubio.
Really?
Sen. Rubio’s campaign has raised over $34.5 million for his campaign committee as of January. Outside groups have raised another $34 million on his behalf, much of it from hedge fund billionaires and untraceable sources, as the Huffington Post’s Paul Blumenthal has reported.
Yet Sen. Rubio has no idea if there is a single thing he would change about the way we raise and spend money in political campaigns.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: For John Kasich, a battle over signatures to appear on Pa. primary ballot
Karen Langley
Attorneys for Mr. Kasich and the objector have stipulated that the campaign filed no more than 2,184 signatures with the state, and that 192 of those signatures were not valid. Republican and Democratic candidates for president must submit 2,000 signatures to appear on the ballot.
But the objection to Mr. Kasich’s nominating petition was filed at 5:13 p.m. on the last day to challenge nominating petitions, and his attorney argues that makes it 13 minutes too late to be considered. The objector’s attorney disagrees, saying there is no requirement that the filing be received by 5 p.m.
The States
KTVQ Billings: Judge denies Wittich motion to dismiss campaign finance charges
Mike Dennison
Yet an attorney for Wittich said he intends to appeal one of the denials to the Montana Supreme Court – a move that could delay the scheduled March 28 civil trial on the charges.
District Judge Ray Dayton of Anaconda also rejected Wittich’s attempts to prevent several witnesses from testifying at the trial – including Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl, who investigated the charges against Wittich.
Arizona Daily Sun: Dark money campaigns suspended
Howard Fischer
Organizers of twin initiative campaigns to tighten up on dark money and open up political primaries suspended both efforts Thursday after a key source of funding dried up.
Chuck Coughlin, treasurer for both efforts, said that Texas billionaire John Arnold and his wife Laura, who had fronted each of the groups $500,000 with a promise of more, apparently is interested in financing only the proposal to create a system where all candidates ran against each other in an open primary, regardless of party affiliation.
