CCP
Members of Congress Renew Proposal to Kill Bipartisan FEC
By Luke Wachob
The current six-commissioner structure, created in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was purposefully designed to prevent both the appearance and the reality of partisan control of the agency. Prior to the creation of the FEC, the Department of Justice took responsibility for the enforcement of campaign finance laws. That system allowed too much White House influence, and ultimately Richard Nixon’s DOJ abused the Department’s power to go after the then-President’s critics…
Vesting civil enforcement authority over campaign finance laws exclusively in an independent, bipartisan agency protects both sides, no matter who holds power at any given moment. Campaigns and speech about candidates, which help decide who gets elected, are an area where it is critical that both sides agree to the rules and methods of enforcement. Otherwise, we risk tainting the integrity of our elections with the suspicion of partisan abuse.
Replacing the FEC with a five-member agency under control of the President would be a disaster for free speech rights, equality under the law, and bipartisanship. We should never give up the protections that keep every American’s First Amendment rights safe just to make life easier for regulators. Bipartisan law enforcement may be difficult at times, but it’s worth it.
Supreme Court
Bloomberg BNA: Trump Backs Soft-Money Limits in Supreme Court Case
By Kenneth P. Doyle
The Trump administration has urged the Supreme Court to uphold long-standing campaign finance laws that restrict unlimited “soft money” contributions to political parties ( Republican Party of Louisiana v. Federal Election Commission, U.S., No. 16-865, motion to dismiss or affirm filed 4/12/17).
A motion filed with the high court April 12 by acting U.S. Solicitor General Jeffrey B. Wall said the court should dismiss a challenge to soft money restrictions brought by the Republican Party of Louisiana. Wall, who was appointed by President Donald Trump last month as acting solicitor general in the Justice Department, filed the motion on behalf of the Federal Election Commission…
The Louisiana Republicans’ challenge to soft-money restrictions established by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act-also known as the McCain-Feingold law-was viewed as a test of whether the new administration would support campaign finance regulations. The case could also provide a test on the issue for the newly reconstituted Supreme Court with the addition of Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Free Speech
Competitive Enterprise Institute: Feds Back Down After Seeking to Unmask ‘Rogue’ Agency Twitter Account
By Ryan Radia
The Supreme Court has recognized that the First Amendment protects a person’s right to speak anonymously-a venerable American tradition dating back to the nation’s founding, when pseudonymous speakers writing under names such as Publius and Cato played a major role in public discourse. Given that none of Alt_USCIS’s tweets appear to have broken any laws or caused actionable harm to any person, unmasking the user would have a chilling effect on the many critics of government who prefer not to publicize their identity to avoid retaliation and ostracism…
This is hardly the first time a government agency has wrongly sought to unmask the identity of an anonymous critic on the Internet. Back in 2011, as Nicole W.C. Yeatman and I discussed in an op-ed in The Seattle Times, the police department in Renton, Washington tried to use the courts to compel Google to hand over records about “MrFuddlesticks,” a YouTube user who made several videos criticizing the department for sexual harassment allegations and other misconduct. And in 2015, I wrote about the effort by the recently fired U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara to force Reason magazine to divulge identifying information about a pseudonymous commenter who had made some politically incorrect, hyperbolic comments about a federal judge.
Independent Groups
CNN: Pro-Trump nonprofit, with new leadership, launches ad campaign
By Theodore Schleifer
The beleaguered nonprofit once intended to be the central outside group to boost President Donald Trump is jumpstarting a new television campaign now that it has new leadership at the helm.
America First Policies on Monday will begin spots in at least eight states, according to media buying sources, and have hundreds of thousands of dollars behind it, suggesting the nonprofit now is on firmer financial and structural footing.
The nonprofit is being closely scrutinized for signs of life after it failed to collect early money from donors and was beset by infighting. But it has been since taken over by Katie Walsh, Trump’s former deputy chief of staff and an accomplished party fundraiser.
The 30-second ads will air in at least Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
Congress
Bloomberg BNA: Bipartisan Bill Would Restructure FEC to End Gridlock
By Kenneth P. Doyle
Backers of the bill (H.R. 2034), which has gained bipartisan support in the House, say it’s needed to restore respect for campaign finance laws that have been poorly enforced by the current FEC…
Instead of requiring a bipartisan, four-vote majority for any FEC action, just three commissioner votes would be required.
The legislation also would provide for a stronger FEC chairman, appointed for a fixed 10-year term by the president, with stronger administrative and investigative powers.The FEC currently is structured to have a weak chairman, with the position rotating annually among all the commissioners.
The structural changes would not take effect until 2020, providing time for appointment of a new FEC chairman and commissioners. It would also provide for a “Blue Ribbon Commission” of former judges and other experts to recommend who should be appointed to the FEC.
Roll Call: Freedom Caucus Member’s Book Slams Money-Obsessed Politicians
By Kate Ackley
“Members are required to pay for committee assignments,” Buck writes. “Lobbyists, corporations, and wealthy individuals who need something from Congress raise the money.”
The result of that system, he writes, “is that members routinely vote for defective legislation in order to please party leaders and get money for their re-election campaigns instead of doing what is right for America.”…
Buck, in the CQ Roll Call interview, said he does not prohibit lobbyists or political action committees from donating to his campaign coffers. He also said he regularly seeks out their views on policy matters.
“We solicit information from all sides of a piece of legislation,” he said.
Buck said he’s heard thirdhand of instances when people may have allowed political donations to sway their votes but added he was reluctant to discuss it, since he didn’t have direct knowledge…
He said in the interview he started a group modeled on the ReFormers Caucus, an effort by the campaign finance organization Issue One. Buck said this group has a dozen members, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats.
South Florida Sun Sentinel: South Florida congressman wants to change Constitution to curb money in politics
By Anthony Man
Speaking to about 150 people at a town hall meeting in Wilton Manors, Deutch repeated his call for amending the Constitution to limit the influence of money in politics…
He said the 5-4 Citizens United decision from the Supreme Court removing limits on political spending by individuals and corporations have had a devastating effect. “We can already see the damage.”
Deutch said the effects of the 2010 decision are pernicious. Corporations and wealthy individuals can spend unlimited amounts of money. The result, Deutch said, is many of his colleagues live in fear of running afoul of big money interests, because anyone who crosses them could suddenly be the target of an onslaught of political spending.
“These powerful special interests can come into a race and spend against any candidate who steps out of line,” Deutch said. “Big money can come into any campaign and squash any candidate who has the good sense, for example, to say climate change is real.”
Deutch, a Democrat who represents most of Broward and southeast Palm Beach County, wants to amend the constitution to overturn Citizens United.
Candidates and Campaigns
CRP: Election 2016: Trump’s free media helped keep cost down, but fewer donors provided more of the cash
By Niv Sultan
We can now report that the total cost of the election was nearly $6.5 billion, a 3 percent increase from 2012’s figure of just under $6.3 billion.
Adjusted for inflation, however, that’s actually a drop of about 1.4 percent. Inflation-adjusted spending also fell from 2010 to 2014, making this a two-cycle trend…
And, all things considered, Democrats and Republicans roughly split the costs of the election, with each picking up 47.7 percent of the tab; the remaining 4.6 percent came from independent groups or spending that lacks party codes in our data…
The 0.01 percent consists of the cycle’s top donors – where the number of members equals 1 percent of 1 percent of the United States’ estimated adult population (aged 18 or older). In 2012, that group numbered fewer than 24,000, and gave about $1.6 billion in contributions. The total for 2016’s 0.01 percent spiked to more than $2.3 billion – an increase of about 45 percent. That vastly outstripped the growth in the group’s size, which was only 3 percent.
Most of that increase came in the form of soft money, or contributions to outside spending groups, which more than doubled.
Roll Call: Liberal PAC Makes First Senate Endorsements of 2018
By Simone Pathé
End Citizens United announced its support Thursday for the re-election campaigns of Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Jon Tester of Montana, in its first endorsements of the 2018 cycle.
“All three have seen first-hand how super PACs and dark money groups have attempted to buy a Senate seat but each time, they’ve won because of their grass-roots support and proven record fighting for the middle class,” Tiffany Muller, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.
Founded in 2015, End Citizens United backs Democratic candidates who support a campaign finance overhaul, specifically the passing a constitutional amendment to overturn the 2010 Supreme Court decision after which the group is named. The PAC spent more than $15 million on House and Senate races in the 2016 cycle, helping elect 15 new members…
End Citizens United says it plans to raise $35 million for the 2018 cycle – $10 million more than it raised for the 2016 elections.
Trump Administration
Washington Post: Trump’s pledge to allow churches to support candidates may be part of tax bill
By John Wagner
As Republicans struggle to craft a sweeping tax package – a process already rife with political land mines – they are preparing to add another volatile element to the mix: a provision that would end a six-decade-old ban on churches and other tax-exempt organizations supporting political candidates.
The repeal of the “Johnson amendment” is being written into tax legislation developed in the House of Representatives, according to aides. President Trump has vowed to “totally destroy” the provision at the behest of evangelical Christians who helped elect him.
The inclusion of the repeal in broader tax legislation could bolster its chances. A stand-alone bill would almost certainly face a filibuster in the Senate, where opponents fear the measure would effectively turn churches into super PACS.
The States
McClatchy DC: Nearly $3M in public matching funds spent in governor’s race
By Michael Catalini, Associated Press
New Jersey taxpayers have provided $3.6 million in public matching funds to Democratic and Republican candidates in this year’s contest to succeed Republican Gov. Chris Christie, state election officials said Thursday.
The money has been given to four candidates in this year’s primary election for governor, up from $2.8 million announced earlier this week, according to the Election Law Enforcement Commission.
Democrat Jim Johnson, a former official in President Bill Clinton’s administration, and Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno have received the most money, at nearly $1.2 million each. Democratic Assemblyman John Wisniewski received about $663,000 and Republican Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli got a roughly $651,000 disbursement, his first of the campaign…
The program dates to 1974 and allows candidates to get $2 in public cash for every $1 raised. Candidates must raise $430,000 to qualify for public cash. There’s a cap of $4 million and spending for candidates getting public money is limited to $6.4 million in the primary.
Matching funds are financed through donations from state income tax forms and through the general fund.
Colorado Independent: In Colorado, lawmakers clash over a dark money loophole
By Corey Hutchins
Currently in Colorado, while individuals and groups have to disclose money they spend when trying to influence an election, they often don’t have to publish who paid for it on the specific fliers they print.
Now, some lawmakers at the Statehouse say that’s a loophole they should close.
Two Democratic members of the Colorado House want to pass a law that would require “paid for” disclosure on literature that “unambiguously refers to a candidate that is disseminated to the public within 30 days before a primary election or within 60 days before a general election” and costs more than $1,000 to produce…
“This has gone on through the history of elections and politics, because as we know when you’re ever fighting against someone who’s in government or in a seat of power there’s always an ability to to have retribution come your way,” said Republican Rep. Tim Leonard.
