CPI: Then, on Wednesday, everything changed. That was the day the feds arrested Collins and charged him with securities fraud, wire fraud and making false statements to the FBI. McMurray’s phone blew up — with new friends, congressmen, aides to previously down-on-McMurray New York … Continue reading
Category Archives: campaign finance
NYT: Campaign finance was once famously dismissed by Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, as being of no greater concern to American voters than “static cling.” But since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 opened the floodgates for … Continue reading
New Yorker: One day this summer, in the midst of this escalation, while he was scrolling through political sites on his phone, a Democratic operative in Lansing named Bob McCann came across a fifteen-second video advertisement attacking Whitmer. McCann spent … Continue reading
Aaron Blake for WaPo: In this case, about the only campaign finance question would be whether this would be considered a legitimate campaign expense, said election-law expert Rick Hasen of the University of California, Irvine. “I’m not sure I’ve seen … Continue reading
CityLab reports. … Continue reading
Press release: Public Advocate Letitia James announced major new legislation designed to prevent foreign entities from circumventing New York City’s strict campaign finance laws through a loophole created by Citizens United. Introduced in the wake of substantial new evidence of a … Continue reading
Listen at NPR’s Here & Now. … Continue reading
Big ruling while I was gone flagged here by Politico: A U.S. District Court judge on Friday issued a ruling invalidating a Federal Election Commission regulation that has allowed donors to so-called dark-money groups to remain anonymous, the latest development in a … Continue reading
Bob Bauer NYT oped. … Continue reading
AP reports. … Continue reading
AP: Long considered a peripheral issue in midterm elections, money in politics is emerging as a new litmus test for Democratic candidates. In ads, stump speeches and debates, scores of politicians are pledging to reject corporate PAC donations. Their ranks … Continue reading
Daniel Weiner blogs. … Continue reading
You can read the opinion here (via How Appealing). … Continue reading
Peter Overby reports for NPR. … Continue reading
Politico: A network of secret-money nonprofit groups has spent millions of dollars attacking swing-seat House Republicans on health care and taxes, quietly becoming one of the biggest players in the 2018 political landscape. The groups have local members and names … Continue reading
Daniel Bross and Bruce Freed SF Chronicle oped: The Center for Political Accountability’s new study, “Collision Course: The Risks Companies Face When Their Political Spending and Core Values Conflict and How to Address Them,” argues that when companies contribute to … Continue reading
Yesterday CNN reported: Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, claims that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in which Russians were expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, sources … Continue reading
Carrie Johnson for NPR: Ho’s first opinion, in April, was a dissent in a case involving limits on campaign contributions in Austin, Texas. Candidates for municipal elections — people like mayors and city council representatives who represent fewer than 100,000 … Continue reading
Freed and Sandstrom for the Institute for Public Relations. … Continue reading
Michael Morley at The Conversation. … Continue reading
NYT: Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, a Democrat who has crusaded against the loosening of campaign finance rules, is suing the Trump administration to block it from eliminating a mandate that politically active nonprofit groups disclose the identities of their … Continue reading
Adam Liptak for the NYT: Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh has a favorite sentence. It explains why he is likely to reaffirm and build on the Citizens United decision if he is confirmed to the Supreme Court. The sentence appeared in a 1976 … Continue reading
USA Today: Donors who have given $1 million or more in this cycle contributed $120.1 million to super PACs in the April-to-June fundraising quarter. That’s more than twice the $58.8 million they donated during the previous three-month period. Republicans accounted for six out … Continue reading
NYT: Federal authorities examining the work President Trump’s former lawyer did to squelch embarrassing stories before the 2016 election have come to believe that an important ally in that effort, the tabloid company American Media Inc., at times acted more … Continue reading
WSJ: MIchael Cohen taped a conversation in person with Donald Trump in which the two men discussed buying the rights to a former Playboy Playmate’s story that she had an affair with Mr. Trump more than a decade ago, according … Continue reading
Bob Barnes in WaPo: A Russian company accused by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III of being part of an online operation to disrupt the 2016 presidential campaign is leaning in part on a decision by Supreme Court nominee Brett … Continue reading
Release: A new report released today by Issue One and Campaign Legal Center (CLC) called, “All Expenses Paid: How Leadership PACs Became Politicians’ Preferred Ticket to Luxury Living”reveals how many federal lawmakers continue to exploit loopholes and lax enforcement to tap their leadership PAC funds … Continue reading
Every Voice: A Russian company indicted earlier this year as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into foreign interference in our elections is using a decision written by none other than Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to … Continue reading
NYT: It’s official: President Trump is the single biggest political advertiser on Facebook. Mr. Trump and his political action committee spent $274,000 on ads on the social network since early May, outpacing the second-biggest spender, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, … Continue reading
Lee Fang for The Intercept. … Continue reading
CPI: John Bolton needed billionaire Robert Mercer’s attention and support — so badly, Bolton spent more than $1 million of his John Bolton Super PAC’s money on “comically bad” data from Mercer’s now-defunct voter profiling firm, Cambridge Analytica. So says longtime Bolton … Continue reading
CPI: “Trump’s campaign ended June with more than $33 million cash on hand — almost three times the size of its reserve from June 2017, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission.” Update: More on the FEC filings from … Continue reading
Charles Davis on SCOTUSBlog: Kavanaugh’s opinion showed hostility towards the Supreme Court’s views in McConnell. It questioned the theory that these [soft money] limits could be justified simply by the close connection between political parties and candidates or officeholders, and more … Continue reading
Politico on the NRA’s payments to the consulting firm Starboard Strategic: It was not unusual for the NRA to spend large sums of cash in an election cycle. What was odd was where the money was going. Before 2013, Starboard Strategic … Continue reading
Ken White writes that Judge Kavanaugh’s opinions “are consistent with the Supreme Court’s strong protection of free speech rights this century,” and that he has “voted to strike down campaign financing laws and regulations under the First Amendment.” Jonathan Adler agrees: “Justice … Continue reading
USA Today on TV spending by groups that don’t disclose their donors in the current congressional election cycle. … Continue reading
CPI reports. … Continue reading
The National Law Journal has an interesting article on Jim Bopp sending a letter to President Trump and VP Pence arguing against Judge Brett Kavanaugh for SCOTUS on grounds that he’s not deregulatory enough when it comes to campaign finance … Continue reading
Bruce Freed blogs. … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement from the Supreme Court last week, was certainly the “swing justice” in key cases on major issues from abortion to gay rights. But when … Continue reading
NYT: The Supreme Court decision striking down mandatory union fees for government workers was not only a blow to unions. It will also hit hard at a vast network of groups dedicated to advancing liberal policies and candidates. Some of these groups … Continue reading
NYT: On the final day of the Supreme Court term last week, Justice Elena Kagan sounded an alarm. The court’s five conservative members, citing the First Amendment, had just dealt public unions a devastating blow. The day before, the same majority … Continue reading
CPI reports. … Continue reading
CPI: The American social media platforms Russian entities used to influence the 2016 presidential election are essentially attempting to regulate themselves, fearing a repeat during the 2018 midterms. Meanwhile, the federal government agency tasked with protecting U.S. elections from foreign meddling struggled on Wednesday … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: Congressional campaigns may find it easier to coordinate their messages with super political action committees and other outside groups as a result of Federal Election Commission decisions. The commission dismissed complaints that messages posted on the campaign websites … Continue reading
Ellen Weintraub: With a bolt out of the blue last Friday, a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals bestowed a superpower upon the Federal Election Commission. Unfortunately, it is the power to kill any FEC enforcement matter, wholly … Continue reading
WaPo: During the presidential campaign, National Enquirer executives sent digital copies of the tabloid’s articles and cover images related to Donald Trump and his political opponents to Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen in advance of publication, according to three people with … Continue reading
The Denver Post reports. … Continue reading
NYT: Election law experts from across the political spectrum largely agreed that the New York attorney general made a compelling case this week that President Trump’s campaign and his charitable foundation violated federal campaign finance laws during the 2016 election. … Continue reading
Statement from dissenting FEC Commissioner Weintraub: Trump hotels, Trump steaks, Trump water, Trump golf courses, Trump wine. The Complaint in this matter cites to an unprecedented catalog of candidate-branded products and properties used along the 2016 campaign trail. According to … Continue reading