In the News
Politico Influence: Big Q2 spenders: Defense flat – White House hosts global investment forum – Nelson joins Dentons – Al Jazeera, a hot potato client?
By BYRON TAU & ANNA PALMERThe conservative group Center for Competitive Politics is asking the Supreme Court to hear former lobbyist Kevin Ring’s appeal on corruption and honest services wire fraud charges. Ring was a former lobbyist for Jack Abramoff at Greenberg Traurig and later at Barnes & Thornburg. Part of the case against him at trial was the legal campaign contributions he gave to several members. CCP filed an amicus brief urging the court to take Ring’s appeal and argues that the standard set by Ring’s prosecution could ” create an unacceptable risk that lobbyists and other citizens will be subject to prosecution for entirely lawful conduct.”
Independent Groups
Wall Street Journal: House IRS Probe Continues
By Angela HuntMr. Hull testified that Mr. Wilkins’s office overruled the determinations he made on tax-exempt applications that he was charged with reviewing. Despite having 48 years of experience, Mr. Hull was told to wait for Mr. Wilkins’s office to weigh in. The chief counsel’s office did eventually weigh in—two days after Mr. Wilkins himself met with President Obama.Mr. Wilkins’s name appears in the White House visitor log two days before his office made recommendations for dealing with “potential political cases” to the Exempt Organizations division. Mr. Wilkins met with Mr. Obama April 23, 2012. And on April 25, Mr. Wilkins’s office “provided additional comments on the draft guidance” regarding how to scrutinize tea party applications, according to the Inspector General’s report on the scandal.
PJ Media: Oversight Probe: House Dems Pressured SEC to Scrutinize 501(c) Donations
By BRIDGET JOHNSONThe House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today said that House Democratic leadership was pressuring the Securities and Exchange Commission to cast a wary eye on donations made to tax-exempt groups.In a letter accompanying a memo to SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White, Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), subcommittee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and member Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) cited documents obtained through the committee’s investigation that show special-interest groups and House Dems convincing the SEC to go against staff recommendations and probe donations by the same types of groups that fell under extra IRS scrutiny.“Documents produced to the Committee indicate that the SEC has been under immense pressure from elected officials and special interest groups as part of a government-wide effort to stifle political speech,” the trio wrote. “This effort to politicize the agency appears to have been successful in overcoming the objections of the SEC’s professional staff, and moving the Commission closer to using its authority to regulate public securities markets as a backdoor way to limit the political speech of the same types of groups targeted by the IRS.”
Washington Post: Who’s who among super PACs and other independent players
By Matea GoldThe rising clout of independent political players such as super PACs, advocacy organizations and even for-profit corporations has led to what some describe as a shadow political system. Unencumbered by fundraising limits, these groups are increasingly taking on functions that traditionally were the domain of the political parties. Here are some of the most influential outside groups.
Washington Post: Super PACs, other independent political groups already setting pace for 2016 presidential race
By Matea GoldThe Democrats have established their 2016 war room in a glassy new building in downtown Washington. The Republicans are setting up shop across the Potomac River in the Northern Virginia suburbs.Long before any candidates announce their presidential bids, the next race for the White House is unofficially underway. Political operatives for two independent groups — American Bridge 21st Century on the left and America Rising on the right — are already tracking potential contenders, aiming to build robust research files that can be used against the opposition.
Politico: OFA embraces tea party blueprint for August push
By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVEREOFA’s preparing a range of under-the-national-radar tactics in conjunction with heading for town halls. Rallies, distribution of fliers and district office demonstrations will be aimed at drawing the same sort of local attention that tea party groups managed four years ago, hoping to spook members of Congress worried about the 2014 midterms.
Politico: IRS scrutinized some liberal groups
By David NatherAfter a political group in Texas asked the IRS for a tax exemption last year, it got a lengthy, time-consuming list of questions — like a request for the minutes of all the board meetings since the group got started.And a California-based group got turned down completely in 2011, because the IRS concluded that it was set up “primarily for the benefit of a political party.”
Candidates, Politicians, Campaigns, and Parties
Politico: The ultimate donor leaves a void
By Alexander BurnsIn life, Perry spent more than a decade as a financial pillar of the Republican Party; he was the third-biggest political contributor of the 2012 cycle, and hit the number-one mark in multiple previous campaigns. In death, friends and political allies say he leaves a void where there was once a reliable funding stream for the GOP.In our present, Florentine era of big-money politics, the death of Bob Perry is a cautionary case study in what happens when one of the engines of a national party suddenly disappears – when one of the men and women who have sustained a network of advocacy groups and political campaigns unexpectedly vanishes from the scene. The free-for-all of campaign fundraising tends to privilege larger-than-life, ideological donors, rather than durable institutions, and little thought is given to what happens when one of those outsized figures is no longer around.
Lobbying and Ethics
BLT: Patton Boggs Earns $1.9 Million for Foreign Lobbying
Patton Boggs received payments totaling $1.9 million for lobbying work performed on behalf of overseas governments during the first half of 2013, according to a report filed with the U.S. Department of Justice last week.
FEC
TPM: FEC To Vote To Treat Married Same-Sex Couples Equally
By Hunter WalkerThe Federal Election Commission is likely to vote Thursday to allow married same-sex couples to make joint political donations from an individual bank account, a privilege that has long been afforded to straight married couples.If the FEC does alter its rules regarding donations from same-sex married couples, as expected, it would be one of the many changing federal regulations attributable to last month’s landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
State and Local
New York –– NY Post: Saint Cuomo
EditorialNow, we have no problem with Cuomo’s raking in big — and entirely legal — donations from supporters. Indeed, we’re more skeptical than he is about the supposed “corrosive effect” of money on politics.But if he’s going to beat his chest and proclaim to the world that such contributions are inherently corrupting, he should forego them. With a $28 million war chest already in hand, that would hardly mean unilateral disarmament. As St. Augustine understood, reforming one’s ways isn’t easy — but people really should practice what they preach.
