Important Politico report: “President Barack Obama’s new nonprofit Organizing for Action insists that promoting the White House’s legislative agenda can’t be counted as ‘partisan political activity.’ The organization on Wednesday quietly posted new guidelines on its website formally declaring its … Continue reading
Category Archives: tax law and election law
Ken Vogel tweets. … Continue reading
The LA Times reports. … Continue reading
CPI reports. … Continue reading
Hot Air links to new AFP ad against OFA. … Continue reading
The Center for Public Integrity has officially launched a new blog called “Primary Source,” which will serve as a daily diary of developments in the post-Citizens United world of money in politics. Check it out! … Continue reading
The following statement arrived via email: Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer Challenges President Obama’s 501(c)(4) Group, Organizing for Action At the beginning of his first term, President Obama issued a sweeping executive order to establish unprecedented new ethics rules for … Continue reading
CPI reports. … Continue reading
Wapo editorial on the new OFA 501(c)(4). … Continue reading
Must-read NYT report: The media campaign to scuttle Mr. Hagel’s appointment, unmatched in the annals of modern presidential cabinet appointments, reflects the continuing effects of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which loosened campaign finance restrictions and was a … Continue reading
Steve Hoersting: “What does this mean? It doesn’t just mean Team Obama is prepared, and deserves, to lose Danielcyzk and McCutcheon, for whether they do or not doesn’t affect their strategy. It means the concerted movement for federal campaign-finance reform … Continue reading
Politico reports. … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: “The Federal Election Commission will leave intact a deadlocked legal ruling about whether a nonprofit corporation can engage in joint fund-raising activity with an FEC-regulated political action committee, according to a Jan. 22 letter from the FEC. Last … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: In response to a question at the Cato conference, he briefly discussed Obama’s recent move to establish a so-called Section 501(c)(4) group, known as Organizing for Action, as a successor to the president’s campaign committee. Bauer said that … Continue reading
USA Today reports. … Continue reading
Peter Overby offers this nugget in his NPR report on OFA’s new 501c4. … Continue reading
Politico reports. Still unresolved is whether the new 501c4 will disclose the amount of donations and how often it will disclose. President Obama needs to get out in front of this now and announce full and frequent voluntary disclosure. … Continue reading
WaPo editorial. … Continue reading
First Read: “Organizing for Action will be set up as a 501c4 group, but we are told the group WILL have full disclosure of its donors (either monthly or quarterly); setting it up a 501c4 (as opposed to a Super … Continue reading
LA Times: “As he launches his second term, President Obama may get help from an ambitious new political organization being built out of his reelection campaign, a group that could reshape how future presidents harness supporters to press their White … Continue reading
Center for Public Integrity: The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision unleashed nearly $1 billion in new political spending in the 2012 election, with media outlets and a small number of political consulting firms raking in the bulk of the proceeds. Spending records released … Continue reading
The following press release arrived via email: In a letter sent today to the IRS, Democracy 21, joined by the Campaign Legal Center, called on the agency to investigate whether American Tradition Partnership (ATP), formerly known as Western Tradition … Continue reading
Public Citizen press release. … Continue reading
Mother Jones reports. … Continue reading
Michael Beckel flags a key finding in this Open Secrets report. … Continue reading
Roger Colinvaux has posted this paper on SSRN (Case Western Reserve Law Review). Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission makes a Supreme Court challenge to the tax law rule that prohibits … Continue reading
Peter Overby reports for NPR. … Continue reading
Political Wire: Harry Enten looks at statistics that rank members of Congress on a scale from -1 for most liberal to 1 for most conservative and finds Senate and House Democrats have been fairly stable at -0.4 since 1992. “There … Continue reading
ProPublica reports. … Continue reading
WaPo: According to public records, FreedomWorks received more than $12 millionbefore the election from two corporations based in Knoxville, Tenn.: Specialty Investments Group and Kingston Pike Development. The firms were established within a day of each other by William S. … Continue reading
Open Secrets: “Exactly what part TC4 may have played in funding groups between mid-2011 and this year’s election is currently unknown, because the IRS doesn’t require nonprofits to file their 990s until many months after the end of their fiscal … Continue reading
See this press release. … Continue reading
Steven Sholk’s updated publication is now available for free download. … Continue reading
Bloomberg reports. … Continue reading
NYT: “The New York attorney general announced a a far-reaching draft regulation on Wednesday that would force broad public disclosure of millions of dollars in loosely regulated spending on elections and ballot measures in New York.” … Continue reading
TaxProf Blog reports. … Continue reading
The Center for Public Integrity reports. … Continue reading
“Mr. Adelson, 79 years old, said he has many friends in Washington, ‘but the reasons aren’t my good looks and charm. It’s my “pocket personality” referring to his donations.” Must-read WSJ article, which also includes this part: Mr. Adelson’s 2012 … Continue reading
Mother Jones: “In the world of political money, Democrats like to cast themselves as the defenders of transparency and crusaders against corruption. They’ve asked the IRS to investigate big-spending nonprofit groups such as Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, and they’ve lead … Continue reading
The Nation reports. … Continue reading
Press release: “In a letter sent to the Internal Revenue Service today, Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center charged the IRS with an ‘indefensible abdication of responsibility” in failing’ ‘to include the section 501(c)(4) regulations dealing with political activity … Continue reading
Center for Public Integrity reports on how the search for PhRMA campaign money recipients takes an unexpected turn. … Continue reading
TPM: “You could say Americans for Job Security has been keeping donors anonymous since before it was cool.” … Continue reading
Center for Public Integrity: “New documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity show that the drug lobby’s main trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), gave $750,000 in 2011 to Freedom Path, a nonprofit group that spent big … Continue reading
Ellen Aprill has this letter to the editor of the LA Times about this recent article on nonprofits, political law, and tax law. … Continue reading
NYT editorial. … Continue reading
The Center for Public Integrity reports. … Continue reading
Nan Aron: With the release of an extensive new report, Beyond the Cause: The Art and Science of Advocacy, Independent Sector has started a conversation about how the nonprofit and philanthropic sector can increase its influence on public policy. As president of … Continue reading
Richard Painter on churches and fundraising on an anti same-sex marriage measure in Minnesota. … Continue reading
Open Secrets: While much of the focus this election season has been on super PACs — which can take money from almost any source, but must report their donors to the FEC on a regular basis — these other outside … Continue reading