TPM: News broke late last week that the Federal Election Commission had opened a preliminary inquiry into whether Russians illegally channeled money to the National Rifle Association to support Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. But the FEC’s move, which came after … Continue reading
Category Archives: federal election commission
WaPo: More than a year into his presidency, President Trump has shown little interest in beefing up the Federal Election Commission, the agency that could serve as a key player in his avowed agenda to reduce the influence of moneyed … Continue reading
Lee Goodman, who has been a strong force for deregulating campaign finance law at the Federal Election Commission, has tendered his resignation. (You can listen to my interview with Commissioner Goodman on the ELB Podcast.) With the loss of Commissioner … Continue reading
This is something from the Tampa Bay Times: IT’S BEEN MORE THAN A DECADE since South Florida Rep. Mark Foley was forced out of Congress for sending sexual text messages to teenage boys. But Foley tapped his congressional campaign fund to dine on … Continue reading
Bloomberg: The U.S. Federal Elections Commission is moving forward with a plan to introduce new rules on political advertising on social media ahead of the 2018 election cycle. The commission has a working draft of the rules in front of … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: FEC commissioners are feuding over when a nonprofit group spending to influence elections can be regulated as a political action committee. Democratic Federal Election Commission member Ellen Weintraub said in a statement that a recent court decision mandates that a … Continue reading
CPI piece, with the subhead: “Agency could lose quorum just as liberals, conservatives find sliver of common ground” … Continue reading
Troubling: COVER LETTER TO THE STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER ELLEN L. WEINTRAUB IN MUR 6920 (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION) DECEMBER 19, 2017 Due to pending litigation, I must take the unprecedented step of releasing the attached statement with the identities of certain … Continue reading
Letter concludes: “Until the time is otherwise appropriate, I look forward to returning to my duties at the Federal Election Commission.” … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: Candidates and political groups may be heading into another congressional election cycle without guidance about what their ads should reveal about who’s paying to influence Facebook’s almost 160 million U.S. users. The Federal Election Commission deadlocked along party … Continue reading
NLJ: A nominee for a District of Columbia judgeship took a beating at his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday when he could not define motion in limine. U.S. district court nominee Matthew Petersen, a member of the Federal Election Commission, has never tried … Continue reading
Washington Post: The Federal Election Commission moved a step closer to placing tighter regulations on Internet ads published on major Web platforms, marking a significant shift for an agency beset by partisan dysfunction and another sign that regulators are seeking to thwart foreign … Continue reading
My oh my. A positive (and surprising) development. But let’s see if/what they come up with and if they can get agreement. We’ve seen groups like the Institute for Free Speech oppose the Honest Ads Act out of stated concern … Continue reading
Tony Gaughan has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal). Here is the abstract: Since the 1970s, federal campaign finance law has been built on four pillars. The first is contribution limits on donations to candidate … Continue reading
Morning Consult: As executives from Facebook Inc., Google Inc. and Twitter Inc. face congressional committees this week over concerns that Russian agents used their platforms in order to influence the 2016 election, a Democratic member of the Federal Election Commission … Continue reading
CPI: The Federal Election Commission has fined Boston-based Suffolk Construction Co., a federal government contractor, for making illegal contributions to a pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC, according to a letter from the agency. The $34,000 settlement between the FEC and Suffolk appears to mark the … Continue reading
Dallas News: Campaign watchdog groups blasted Austin lawyer Trey Trainor on Wednesday, warning senators that his ties to the White House and views on campaign finance should raise “significant concerns” should he win a spot on the Federal Election Commission. … Continue reading
Christopher Hooks for the Texas Observer. … Continue reading
Ann Ravel for Politico: I suggested to the commission that the FEC consult with internet and tech experts to discuss how the agency’s current approach may or may not fit with future innovations. Starting this conversation should have been noncontroversial, … Continue reading
Matea Gold for WaPo: James E. “Trey” Trainor III, the conservative Texas lawyer nominated by President Trump this week to serve on the Federal Election Commission, has challenged the principle that the public benefits from the disclosure of political donors, arguing that voters could be distracted … Continue reading
WaPo oped from Ellen Weintraub, longtime FEC Commissioner: Would you click on that political ad if you knew it had been generated by a Russian troll farm? Probably not. But without knowing that? Well, you might. Indeed, we now know … Continue reading
Ken Doyle for Bloomberg BNA: The Federal Election Commission voted unanimously to jump-start a rulemaking process focused on disclosure requirements for online ads, following the revelation of Russian-linked political ads on Facebook. The vote, at the end of a lengthy commission … Continue reading
TPM: The Twitter account for President Trump’s new pick for the Federal Election Commission was reportedly made private Tuesday evening after other Twitter users began noticing some of the nominee’s past sharing of anti-Protestant posts. The White House announced late Tuesday … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: President Donald Trump is nominating Trey Trainor, an Austin lawyer well known in Texas politics, to serve on the Federal Election Commission. The White House announced Trainor’s appointment late Tuesday night. He must be confirmed by the Senate. … Continue reading
Dave Levinthal for CPI. … Continue reading
Release: Today Common Cause filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that one or more unknown foreign nationals made expenditures, independent expenditures or disbursements in connection with the 2016 presidential … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: The revelation that Russian sources financed political ads on Facebook in the 2016 presidential campaign could prompt enforcement action by the Federal Election Commission, agency Vice Chairwoman Caroline Hunter said. “It’s something we can and should deal with … Continue reading
Dave Levinthal with the news, who also notes that if Petersen is confirmed there would be only 4 commissioners on the 6-member commission, a bare quorum. … Continue reading
Statement of reasons: The specter of any foreign government meddling in U.S. elections is an issue that we, like all Americans, take very seriously. Contributions and expenditures by foreign nationals in connection with U.S. elections are prohibited by the Federal … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: The Federal Election Commission may be severely constrained in what it can or will do to combat foreign influence in U.S. elections, a new analysis posted on the agency’s website suggests. The commissioners have recently grappled with the foreign … Continue reading
Read the memorandum. … Continue reading
CPI: On Feb. 6, Center for Public Integrity senior political reporter Dave Levinthal filed a FOIA request seeking any email exchanges between a White House and FEC official. On May 8, the FEC informed Levinthal that it had located responsive … Continue reading
The remarks are here, and they are as unconvincing as they are mean-spirited. The attacks on Democratic Federal Election Commissioner Weintraub and (former) Commissioner Ravel have been relentless. Ravel couldn’t take it anymore, and now the heat gets turned up … Continue reading
Looks to be a great improvement. Kudos! … Continue reading
Open Secrets: Take the campaign’s September monthly report, covering Aug. 1-31, 2016. It has gone through four iterations. The first version, filed by the Sept. 20 deadline, was 25,625 pages long. But when it was amended for the first time … Continue reading
Statement. … Continue reading
Brad Smith in the Columbus Dispatch: But today the FEC is under attack from members of Congress whose misguided proposal to “reform” the agency could take us back to the Watergate era. A bill co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Renacci, an Ohio … Continue reading
Watchdog group Free Speech For People, joined by Harvard Law Professor John Coates, just filed an FEC complaint against Citgo and the Trump inaugural committee alleging that federal law prohibits “foreign nationals” from donating to presidential inaugural committees. Read the complaint. … Continue reading
The Supreme Court has long recognized that a group facing a realistic threat of harassment for revealing its donors or vendors has a First Amendment right to exemption from generally applicable campaign finance laws. The case establishing this principle, Brown … Continue reading
Release: A federal district court today refused to throw out a lawsuit Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 filed against the Federal Election Commission (FEC). CLC and D21 filed the suit in the United States District Court for the District … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: A Federal Election Commission rule on “independent expenditures,” which has allowed millions of dollars’ worth of campaign ads to air without disclosure of the donors funding them, can be challenged in court, a federal judge ruled. The FEC … Continue reading
LAT: A member of the Federal Election Commission has accused President Trump of threatening democracy with his unproven allegations of voter fraud and asked him to show evidence if he has any. Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic commissioner at the agency, … Continue reading
CPI reports. … Continue reading
Interesting Brad Smith at NRO: If career staffers at the FEC are now attempting to sabotage the work of the commissioners — who are, by law, entrusted with running the agency — that’s frightening. The establishment of a Twitter group … Continue reading
Bauer blogs. … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: The Federal Election Commission won’t appeal a federal judge’s ruling that challenged the FEC rules for presidential debates. The decision announced by the FEC March 8 means the FEC will have to respond to the ruling by Judge … Continue reading
Illuminating video interview with FEC Commissioner Lee Goodman. I earlier interviewed the commissioner for the ELB Podcast. … Continue reading
Letter: This bill would make our elections less safe, less secure, and less fair, and could reduce the faith of the American people in their elections’ results. In these unsettling times, surely public officials in all branches and at all … Continue reading
Eliza Newlin Carney for TAP. … Continue reading
I got a lot of pushback for making that suggestion, as in this NYT piece. People said I was giving him ideas, but I have no doubt this occurred to them before I mentioned it. But now HuffPo reports this … Continue reading