In the News
Sacramento Bee: Another View: Rules on campaign cash limit speech
By Luke WachobPrior to super PACs and the Citizens United decision, individuals could already spend unlimited amounts trying to influence your vote. How do everyday citizens respond? By working together and pooling their resources. In other words, by joining political parties, or forming and supporting political action committees.Without these organizations, politicians need only answer to media moguls, celebrities and the personally wealthy. McNerney would no doubt claim that he is against money in politics, not against freedom of speech, but he tips his hand. His complaints about “unflattering images of candidates,” “personal attacks” and ads that say “little or nothing about relevant policy issues” are not about money. They are about speech.Unfortunately for incumbent politicians, the First Amendment is quite clear that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.” Politicians can’t admit their goal is to stop you from criticizing them; that would be unconstitutional and unpopular. Instead, they attack the ability to fund such criticism.It’s time to stop assuming that politicians speak as benevolent experts on campaign finance. Some are ignorant of the law, while others use their expertise to undermine political opponents. Letting Congress add more red tape to the political process will not end corruption, it will only further estrange citizens from their elected representatives.
CCP
Suggested Improvements to Kansas House Bill 2213
By Matt NeseUltimately, House Bill 2213 wisely raises Kansas’s outdated campaign contribution limits, in the spirit of current legislative trends and prevailing academic research. Contribution limits have failed to address any corruption issues or improve confidence in government, and they have increased the influence of independent groups, at the expense of candidates and political parties. By raising limits even further and indexing those limits to inflation, Kansas policymakers could do more to protect the First Amendment rights of Kansans. For a detailed analysis of the many failures of contribution limits as a policy, I strongly encourage you to consult the Center for Competitive Politics’ Policy Primer, “Campaign Contribution Limits: A Cap on Free Speech.”[14]
IRS
Washington Post: Rein in the IRS – The Washington Post
By George F. WillRep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) is now chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee whose jurisdiction includes oversight of the Internal Revenue Service, and hence of Lois G. Lerner’s legacy. He knows how interesting her career was before she, as head of the IRS tax-exempt organizations division, directed the suppression of conservative advocacy groups by delaying and denying them the exempt status that was swiftly given to comparable liberal groups.In 2013, Roskam, in a televised committee hearing, told the story of Al Salvi, who in 1996 was the Republican Senate candidate against the then-congressman, now senator, Dick Durbin. Democrats filed charges with the Federal Election Commission against Salvi’s campaign, charges that threatened to dominate the campaign’s final weeks. Salvi telephoned the head of the FEC’s Enforcement Division, who he says told him: “Promise me you will never run for office again, and we’ll drop this case.” That official was Lois Lerner. After Salvi lost, FBI agents visited his elderly mother, demanding to know, concerning her $2,000 contribution to her son’s campaign, where she got “that kind of money.” When a federal court held that the charges against Salvi were spurious, the FEC’s losing lawyer was Lois Lerner.Roskam’s telling of Salvi’s story elicited no denial from Lerner. Neither did the retelling of it in this column [June 13, 2013]. No wonder: The story had not been deemed newsworthy by the three broadcast networks’ evening news programs, by the New York Times or by The Post. With most of the media uninterested in the use of government institutions to handicap conservatives, stonewalling would work.
Independent Groups
Washington Times: Looking toward 2016, Rick Perry supporters launch super PAC
By Seth McLaughlinSupporters of Rick Perry announced Thursday the launch of a super PAC that will promote the former Texas governor’s resume ahead of a likely 2016 presidential bid.The Opportunity and Freedom PAC also rolled out a web video as part of its mission to educate voters about Mr. Perry’s life story and the record he compiled in Texas.“Should Governor Perry choose to run for president, this organization will aggressively support him,” Austin Barbour, the group’s senior adviser, said in a press release. “As an Air Force veteran and leader of the ‘Great American jobs machine,’ Rick Perry is the perfect contrast to the failed liberal policies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.”
Washington Post: Wealthy fans could lift Marco Rubio in 2016 campaign
By Ed O’Keefe and Matea GoldJeb Bush’s success in rounding up GOP donors as he pursues a likely presidential run has created a big question for his fellow Floridian, Sen. Marco Rubio: Will there be any money left for him?That’s where Norman Braman comes in. The Miami billionaire auto dealer and longtime Rubio benefactor is expected to put as much as $10 million into a pro-Rubio super PAC if the Florida senator decides to run, according to people familiar with his plans.“If there is a super PAC that’s founded, I will give substantially,” Braman said in an interview, declining to be more specific.
SCOTUS/Judiciary
Politico: I Was Alabama’s Top Judge. I’m Ashamed by What I Had to Do to Get There.
By Sue Bell Cobb
In Alabama, would-be judges are allowed to ask for money directly. We can make calls not just to the usual friends and family but to lawyers who have appeared before us, lawyers who are likely to appear before us, officials with companies who may very well have interests before the court. And I did.Where do you draw the line? If you ask for money from lawyers who appear in your court, it’s untenable for you. It’s also untenable for them. I may not have directly asked for money or collected the check, but in my heated campaign to become chief justice, I did reach out to everyone and anyone I could.The simple fact is: I had to. Judicial elections have become just as overwhelmed by money as all the other contests in American politics, even if we tend to forget that in Alabama and 38 other states, judges have to stand for election. And if you’re running for office, it means you have to raise money. Lots of money. And that meant phone calls. Lots of phone calls.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
Wisconsin Reporter: Did political speech cop Russ Feingold violate the federal Hatch Act?
By M.D. KittleMultiple media accounts assert the Wisconsin Democrat has been “reaching out” to supporters — possibly potential donors — in recent weeks to feel out a 2016 Senate bid against first-term Republican Sen. Ron Johnson.But is the man whose name is synonymous with campaign finance reform and expansive political speech policing violating the long-standing federal Hatch Act,which limits executive branch employees like Feingold from politicking on the job?A former White House legal expert says there’s certainly a lot of smoke surrounding the recent political teases by Feingold, who this week is winding down his nearly two-year tenure as special envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Roll Call: Democratic Floodgates Open for Maryland House Seat
By Alexis LevinsonUpdated 7:55 p.m. | Rep. Chris Van Hollen’s decision to run for Senate in Maryland marks the likely start of a crowded Democratic primary for Senate — and for his newly open House seat too.Van Hollen represents Maryland’s 8th District, a reliably Democratic district bordering Washington, D.C. With its affluent population and proximity to the Capitol, Democrats will have no shortage of candidates who could run. Van Hollen has held the seat since 2002, and for many ambitious Democrats, this is their shot.What’s more, members of the State Senate, House of Delegates and Montgomery City Council have little to risk by running because they are not standing for re-election until 2018.
Ethics
Politico: The rise and fall of Aaron Schock
By Anna Palmer and Jake ShermanHis party was wrestling over immigration policy and funding for the Department of Homeland Security, but Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock wanted his colleagues to know he’s still working hard for Republicans, despite a scandal that now threatens his career.In a closed party meeting Tuesday at the private Capitol Hill Club, Schock stood up and acknowledged that the last few weeks had been tough on him personally, but he’s focused on his job. And, to prove that, he announced that he had raised a half-million dollars for the National Republican Congressional Committee over the last several months.Schock was trying to show that embarrassing details about his heavy spending and poor record-keeping hadn’t diminished his status as a champion fundraiser. But insiders increasingly believe that revelations of his use of public and campaign money to fund a jet-setting lifestyle have jeopardized the future of one of the Republican Party’s fastest rising stars.
