Frank Wilkinson for Bloomberg View: It’s amazing that corporations have gotten away with it for so long. Cheerios had a social moment back in 2013 with an ad featuring a mixed-race family. Racists didn’t much like the idea of little … Continue reading
Category Archives: campaign finance
Daniel Wiener oped in the Detroit Free Press. … Continue reading
Fredreka Schouten for CNN: President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress this week have repeatedly sought to dismiss as trivial allegations that Trump directed hush money payments to women in potential violation of the nation’s campaign-finance laws. “If … Continue reading
In thinking about the potential criminal liability of Donald Trump for campaign finance violations, I time and again return to the prosecution of John Edwards for similar criminal behavior involving whether hush money payments to a mistress need to have … Continue reading
Steven Sholk’s annual review, now ready for your downloading pleasure. … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs. … Continue reading
This is the podcast you’ve been waiting for: President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to several crimes, including illegally making hush money payments to two women alleging affairs with then-candidate … Continue reading
WaPo: The Senate on Wednesday voted 50 to 49 to overturn a Trump administration policy that allows politically active nonprofits to withhold from the government the identities of their donors, underscoring a growing unease among Democrats over the influence of … Continue reading
NYT: Until this week, it was largely Mr. Cohen’s word against the president’s denials. That is why the admission by A.M.I. is “highly significant, because it goes to corroborate” Mr. Cohen’s testimony, said Jeff Tsai, part of the prosecution team … Continue reading
From a DOJ release: The Office also announced today that it has previously reached a non-prosecution agreement with AMI, in connection with AMI’s role in making the above-described $150,000 payment before the 2016 presidential election. As a part of the … Continue reading
Roll Call: The campaign finance issues looming around Rep.-elect Ross Spano, R-Fla., have grown more troublesome in recent days with new questions about the role of a longtime friend in funding his campaigns and hiring his new Congressional staff. Spano has not been sworn into Congress … Continue reading
This new book edited by Gene Mazo and Tim Kuhner looks like it will be terrific. Enter the code MAZO2018 at the checkout on Cambridge’s website for a 20 percent discount. Table of Contents Introduction Democracy by the Wealthy: Campaign … Continue reading
Fredreka Schouten for CNN. … Continue reading
Shane Goldmacher for the NYT: It is one of the most potent and feared weapons in the arsenal of modern American politics: the super PAC. But as three dozen Democrats ponder presidential runs in 2020 and begin to design their … Continue reading
Charlie Savage in the NYT: President Trump defended himself on Monday against prosecutors’ accusation that he directed illegal payments ahead of the 2016 election to two women to stay silent about alleged extramarital affairs with him, insisting that the payments were “a … Continue reading
I spoke to the PBS News Hour about the President and the alleged campaign finance violations. … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: President Donald Trump may never face a criminal penalty or impeachment proceedings for violating campaign finance laws in alleged conspiracy with his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. But on Monday, he … Continue reading
Politico: U.S. Rep.-elect Ross Spano is struggling to hire office staff as he relies on a controversial adviser: one of the friends at the center of a campaign finance scandal that is rocking the Florida Republican. Spano, an attorney and … Continue reading
Philly Inquirer reports. … Continue reading
With no noted dissent, the Supreme Court has turned down a cert. petition in the Zimmerman campaign finance case from Austin Texas. I flagged this case (along with a Montana case that the Court will consider taking up in January) … Continue reading
NYT: In the memo in the case of Mr. Cohen, prosecutors from the Southern District of New York depicted Mr. Trump, identified only as “Individual-1,” as an accomplice in the hush payments. While Mr. Trump was not charged, the reference echoed Watergate, when … Continue reading
Josh Gerstein for Politico: Singh is appealing a 2016 federal conviction on charges a Mexican real estate developer secretly footed the bill for a quarter million dollars-worth of digital campaign consulting that Singh provided two San Diego mayoral candidates. The … Continue reading
From the sentencing memo: During the campaign, Cohen played a central role in two similar schemes to purchase the rights to stories – each from women who claimed to have had an affair with Individual-1 – so as to suppress … Continue reading
Arizona Republic: A judge has ruled that Arizona lawmakers violated the state Constitution on multiple fronts when they passed a sweeping overhaul of campaign-finance laws in 2016. Those changes illegally limit the power of the voter-approved Citizens Clean Elections Commission to police campaign-finance … Continue reading
Corporate Counsel: Midterm contribution records from Political MoneyLine show corporations gave big to both parties in the AG races. For instance, DAGA’s top contributors were unions such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers ($350,000), its top donor. But Altria Group Inc. ($200,000), … Continue reading
The Trace: Reporting by The Trace shows that the NRA and the Trump campaign employed the same operation — at times, the exact same people — to craft and execute their advertising strategies for the 2016 presidential election. The investigation, … Continue reading
Tom Edsall NYT column: Since 2010, when the case was decided, independent expenditures and other forms of outside spending have grown exponentially, according to OpenSecrets. In 2010, independent expenditures totaled $203.9 million; in 2016, it was $1.48 billion. In this nonpresidential … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs. … Continue reading
According to the docket. It could also be when the Court considers whether to take the Austin campaign finance case. As I wrote in Slate back in September: As Common Cause’s Steve Spaulding notes, “Kavanaugh himself acknowledges in the docs that he’s … Continue reading
NLJ: When asked if, in the wake of the huge influx of money into elections, he had any regrets about his majority opinion in Citizens United v. FEC, he said the decision “stands for itself.” “It’s true there’s a problem with … Continue reading
You can find the opinion in Thompson v. Hebdon at this link. The court majority (Callahan, Bea) held that the part of the Alaska law limiting out-of-state residents from contributing more than $3,000 per year to Alaska elections violated the … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs. … Continue reading
NYT: In the months before the Nov. 6 elections, New York’s Senate Democrats received $25,000 from a mysterious group of five donors, with names like 2332 7 Ave L.L.C., 207 Silver Lane L.L.C. and 228 W 132 L.L.C. The donors … Continue reading
CPI: For most of this decade, Congress has all but ignored the perpetually gridlocked Federal Election Commission, which exists to enforce and regulate the nation’s campaign finance laws. No longer, two Democratic congressional representatives tell the Center for Public Integrity. The … Continue reading
CPI: But Adelson’s Presidential Medal of Freedom — which liberals are mocking as an award for the $113 million Adelson and her billionaire casino mogul husband, Sheldon Adelson, contributed to conservative candidates, super PACs and other political committees during the 2018 midterm elections — comes as some Republicans … Continue reading
Elizabeth Reese has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Houston Law Review). Here is the abstract: The rich are getting richer, and money talks. Since Citizens United, there has been widespread outrage about the role of money in politics. Advocates for … Continue reading
Jen Heerwig for Sludge, with the subhead: “A 2017 program showed ‘democracy vouchers’ for Seattle elections doubled the amount of users over traditional cash donors, and that participants were more representative of the city’s population in terms of income, race, … Continue reading
WaPo: In its news release, the White House cited Adelson’s research in narcotic addiction, her founding of two centers to fight substance abuse and her support of Jewish organizations. The release does not mention that the Adelsons also contributed at least … Continue reading
Bob Bauer for The Atlantic: It is a strange turn of events when a president famous for denouncing “fake news” is discovered to have entered into an agreement with a media organization to finance the concealment of very real but politically … Continue reading
Philip Bump for WaPo. … Continue reading
Financial Times’s “Agenda” report. … Continue reading
WSJ: As a presidential candidate in August 2015, Donald Trump huddled with a longtime friend, media executive David Pecker, in his cluttered 26th floor Trump Tower office and made a request. What can you do to help my campaign? he … Continue reading
CFI report. … Continue reading
Politico: House Democrats have exploited campaign finance law to pay rent for dozens of campaign offices used by their candidates in 2018 — an arrangement that’s further padded the party’s massive financial advantage in the midterms even as Republicans cry … Continue reading
CFI Analysis. … Continue reading
Splinter reports. … Continue reading
Michael Gilbert and Samir Sheth for the HLR Blog. … Continue reading
CPI: Want to influence Tuesday’s midterm election but keep your identity secret from voters? No problem. Here’s how you do it: Step 1. Pick a super PAC name, treasurer and bank account. Step 2. File a short form with the … Continue reading
Public Citizen: Fifty-six rich election donors have poured at least $2 million each into super PAC groups this election season, more than double the level in the 2014 midterms and a record for any midterm election, according to a report (PDF) by … Continue reading
HuffPost: HuffPost’s April 2016 report investigated the tactics of End Citizens United, a political action committee founded by three former staffers at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s official organ dedicated to electing Democrats to the House of Representatives. … Continue reading