Independent groups
NY Times: G.O.P. ‘Super PAC’ Weighs Hard-Line Attack on Obama
By JEFF ZELENY and JIM RUTENBERGA group of high-profile Republican strategists is working with a conservative billionaire on a proposal to mount one of the most provocative campaigns of the “super PAC” era and attack President Obama in ways that Republicans have so far shied away from.
Roll Call: Anti-Establishment PAC Taps Donors to Establishment GOP Causes
By Janie LorberThe Campaign for Primary Accountability, a super PAC that bills itself as nonpartisan and was instrumental in ousting incumbent Republican Reps. Jean Schmidt (Ohio) and Don Manzullo (Ill.), has raised nearly all of its $2.5 million from donors who have supported Republican candidates and the GOP party committees the group claims to be working against.
The Hill: Plan to tie Obama to Rev. Wright rejected by GOP super-PAC
By Justin SinkA proposal from a GOP-leaning super-PAC to run attack ads against President Obama based on his relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was floated and rejected within hours on Thursday.
National Journal: How Outside Groups Can Torpedo Campaigns They Support
By Alex RoartyMitt Romney would have been helpless to stop it. Sure, the putative GOP presidential nominee could have condemned the proposed third-party ad tying President Obama to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and, rightly, argued that he had nothing to do it. But, legally speaking, the super PAC behind the proposed $10 million TV spot, funded by TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, couldn’t be barred from airing the ad.
SCOTUS/Judiciary
Politico: John Edwards’s 5 best shots
By JOSH GERSTEINFormer Sen. John Edwards’s case is headed to the jury — and it looks like he’s got a fighting chance.
Candidates and parties
Roll Call: Coburn Calls on Parties to Reject Public Funding for Conventions
By Eliza Newlin Carney“Can we agree once and for all the party is over when it comes to travel and meetings paid for by the taxpayers?” Coburn wrote today in a letter to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who chairs the DNC.
Politico: Romney books first general election TV ads
By ALEXANDER BURNSMitt Romney’s campaign is about to go up with its first television ads of the general election, multiple sources say.
NY Times: Blitz of Campaign Ads Is Early and Aggressive
By JEREMY W. PETERSThe presidential campaign is erupting into a full-scale advertising war, with both candidates and their allies pouring huge sums into early and aggressive efforts to define the fight on their terms.
The Atlantic: Why Should Jeremiah Wright Be Off-Limits for Political Attacks?
By David GrahamThe reaction was swift to news that a conservative super PAC was considering ads that attacked President Obama by tying him to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the controversial pastor whose church Obama attended in Chicago. A consensus was reached quickly: Such attacks are out of bounds. Mitt Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, said in a statement, “It’s clear President Obama’s team is running a campaign of character assassination. We repudiate any efforts on our side to do so.” That wasn’t enough for the Obama campaign. Campaign manager Jim Messina fumed in a statement, “Once again, Governor Romney has fallen short of the standard that John McCain set, reacting tepidly in a moment that required moral leadership in standing up to the very extreme wing of his own party.” By early afternoon, even Joe Ricketts, the billionaire who was funding the yet-to-be-approved campaign, had disavowed it.
TPM: Forget Jeremiah Wright: Democrats’ Real Worry Is GOP Money
By BENJY SARLINThe surprise return of Reverend Jeremiah Wright to the 2012 campaign as part of hypothetical plan to paint President Obama as a “metrosexual black Abe Lincoln” may be an amusing story, but it’s a sideshow to the real takeaway of the week: Republicans’ impressive fundraising.
FEC
The Economist: Testy gridlock
IN A nondescript building next to the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Washington, a group of lawyers gathers every fortnight to bicker in public. The six members of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which drafts and enforces regulations on political donations, seem to have nothing but contempt for one another. As the amount of money sloshing around in American politics has grown ever bigger (see chart) and partisan competition ever more intense, the agency charged with keeping electioneering above board is ever more riven by division.
The Hill: Obama campaign asks FEC to rebuff outside group on secret donors
By Rachel LevenThe Obama campaign is urging the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to rebuff a Republican group that wants to run issue ads against President Obama without disclosing who paid for them.
