In the News
LA Times: U.S. Supreme Court is asked to shield major donors in California
By David G. SavageA conservative group based in Virginia that fights for free speech and free spending in politics is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris from seeing its list of major donors.Requiring disclosure to “political officeholders” would “violate the privacy of its donors,” lawyers for the Center for Competitive Politics said in an emergency appeal filed with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.Last year, the group sued Harris after she demanded the donor list and threatened to end its tax-exempt status as a charity raising funds in California. Lawyers for the group said that disclosing its donors would violate the “freedom of association” protected by the 1st Amendment. So far, the group has lost before a federal judge in Sacramento and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
SCOTUS Blog: Group seeks privacy for donor list
By Lyle DennistonA Virginia-based non-profit group asked the Supreme Court on Friday to bar state officials in California from gaining access to the lists of people who donate money or services to it. The Center for Competitive Politics, a vigorous supporter of political free-speech rights that does not get involved in election campaigns, asked for the protection until it can file a formal appeal to the Court on the constitutional dispute.The Center’s plea (application 14A1179), along with the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and other Circuit Court orders, can be read here. It was filed with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who handles emergency matters from that geographic region. He can act on his own or share the issue with his colleagues.The identity of those who give money to the Center is provided in a document (Form 990) that it must file with the Internal Revenue Service to qualify for tax-exempt status — under tax code 501(c)(3) — as an educational organization.
NPR: ‘Candidates’ Driving Cash-Filled Trucks Through Campaign-Finance Loopholes
By Peter OverbyThe campaign-finance law, its amendments, regulations and related court decisions define these terms and dozens of others. Nowadays, the art of campaign-finance lawyering lies in determining what a definition fails to say — and then driving a cash-filled truck through the loophole.“It doesn’t include everything someone could think of,” said David Keating, the inventor of a type of political action committee known as a superPAC and president of the anti-regulation Center for Competitive Politics.Keating was talking about one particular definition. He could have been referring to any or all of them.
CCP
CCP v. Harris: Emergency Application for Injunction Pending Certiorari
Citizens United
National Constitution Center: Town Hall Video: Was Citizens United Wrongly Decided?
Election and constitutional law experts Anthony Johnstone and John McGinnis debate the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision in a May 2015 event from Boston.
Independent Groups
NY Times: ‘Campaigns’ Aren’t Necessarily Campaigns in the Age of ‘Super PACs’
By Nicholas Confessore and Eric LichtblauAs the 2016 campaign unfolds, Hillary Rodham Clinton will benefit from one rapid-response team working out of a war room in her Brooklyn headquarters — and another one working out of a “super PAC” in Washington.Jeb Bush has hired a campaign manager, press aides and fund-raisers — yet insists he is not running for president, just exploring the possibility of maybe running.And Senator Marco Rubio’s chance of winning his party’s nomination may hinge on the support of an “independent” group financed by a billionaire who has bankrolled Mr. Rubio’s past campaigns, paid his salary teaching at a university and employed his wife.
Politico: Hillary Clinton backers defend link to PAC
By Gabriel DebenedettiCorrect the Record, which plans to defend Clinton with online communications, will set up a “non-contribution account” and will not make independent expenditures such as buying advertisements that would cause it legal problems, it says. Nonetheless, Clinton allies said they still expect critics to file complaints about the plan to the Federal Election Commission.The Tuesday announcement raised eyebrows among election lawyers and operatives with an eye on campaign spending. But while some said they were preparing formal complaints to the FEC, few expected any action amid a partisan divide on the six-member panel. While Democrats close to Clinton’s operation insist that the maneuver is entirely legal, Republicans — some of whom are also using super PACs in novel ways in 2016 — have largely been silent.“There are a lot of political operatives out there who are just viewing the 2016 cycle as the wild west because the sheriff at the FEC is asleep, not enforcing the law. I have no doubt that’s part of the calculus of many political operatives and players in this cycle,” said Paul S. Ryan of Washington’s Campaign Legal Center, who has already filed campaign finance complaints against Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Rick Santorum, and Martin O’Malley this year — and who said he may file one against Clinton. But “rather than file complaints, if history is a guide, Republican operatives and their candidates may just jump on the bandwagon and do the same thing.”
NY Times: The Right Baits the Left to Turn Against Hillary Clinton
By Ashley Parker and Nick CorasanitiWASHINGTON — A Twitter post recently caught the eye of Bill McKibben, the environmental advocate and godfather of the Keystone XL pipeline protests. It included an image from “The Simpsons” showing Homer and his family basking in mountains of cash in their living room, followed by a report on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s appearing at a fund-raiser with a lobbyist from the Keystone fight.Mr. McKibben’s environmental organization, 350.org, has been trying to raise awareness about the ties it sees between lobbyists for the oil pipeline and former aides to Mrs. Clinton. He promptly shared the post with his 150,000 Twitter followers, and the reaction was immediate.“You expect different from a Clinton?” one person responded on Twitter. And from another: “Did you need another reason not to vote for Hillary Clinton?” Lost in the response was the source of the offending tweet. It was not another environmental organization or even a liberal challenger to Mrs. Clinton. Instead, it was a conservative group called America Rising PAC, which is trying, with laser like focus, to weaken the woman who almost everyone believes will be the Democratic Party’s candidate for president in 2016.
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
Wall Street Journal: With Another Bush Eyeing White House, Family Money Machine Springs to Life
By Beth Reinhard and Christopher S. StewartFormer first lady Barbara Bush began adding campaign donors to the family’s Christmas card list five decades ago, building an index-card file of well-heeled contributors who went on to serve as ambassadors, cabinet members and State Department advisers in the two Bush administrations.Jeb Bush, who opened the door to a presidential campaign five months ago, is now reaping a record-setting haul thanks to a donor network that stretches back to his father’s election to Congress in 1966.“The Bush family gave us the chance to serve,” said donor David D. Aufhauser, who worked as general counsel for the Treasury Department under former President George W. Bush. “So we are loyal.”
State and Local
New York –– AP: Widening corruption scandals swirl around New York governor
Albany’s ongoing political meltdown, however, is proving harder to address, even as it prompts questions about Cuomo’s ties to a real estate developer at the center of the most recent corruption scandal.Former Senate Leader Dean Skelos is charged with extorting payments for his son from the developer, who is one of Cuomo’s top donors. Skelos is fighting the charges.Cuomo initially said he had not discussed state business with the developer, but his staff acknowledged that they met three times in 2011 to discuss rent regulations.
