LATEST ELECTION LAW NEWS. Wiley Rein’s Election Law News for July 2012 is available here.
DISCLOSE DEAD. Story here. “Senate Democrats’ second attempt in less than 24 hours to advance the campaign finance bill failed Tuesday — even after at least 16 senators held the floor for six hours Monday night in support of the measure.”
FUTILE QUEST. Bloomberg. “Whitehouse’s bill had almost zero chance of passing, falling to a 51-44 filibuster vote by Senate Republicans on Monday. Some of those Senators, notably Arizona Republican John McCain, had joined Democrats in passing a similar bill 12 years ago by a huge margin. But that did not stop Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) from bringing the bill up for another vote—and a second defeat, 53-45, on Tuesday afternoon. Reid’s act of political theater was intended to fire up voters who believe Republicans are allowing secret special interest money to co-opt the political process.”
BRINKS TRUCK. The latest from Ciara Torres-Spelliscy is online here. “The loopholes in these disclosure laws are big enough to accommodate an armored Brinks truck full of campaign cash. Just like a real Brinks truck, voters can’t see through the truck to tell exactly how much money is in play.”
COPYRIGHTS AND CAMPAIGNS. Politico. “A day after forcing YouTube to pull a Mitt Romney campaign ad featuring a snippet of Barack Obama singing Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together,’ a major music publisher is doing likewise with videos of the president’s crooning.”
ANTI-ALEC TACTICS SPOTLIGHTED. WFB. “A host of progressive organizations have led an intense campaign to destroy the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for more than a year, not only through legal challenges but also through public shaming campaigns against corporations and state legislators connected to the group.”
EMERGENCY MOTION FOR STAY ON FCC POLITICAL FILE RULES. The NAB’s motion to stay the new FCC political file rule is online here.
REP. ANDREWS PROBE. The Hill. “The chairman of the Camden County Republican Party in New Jersey asked the Ethics Committee and the OCE to investigate Roberts last November, following a series of articles that appeared in the Newark Star Ledger.”
OCE AND REP. GRIMM. Story here. “The independent Office of Congressional Ethics has voted unanimously to recommend the dismissal of an investigation into Rep. Michael Grimm’s fundraising, sources familiar with the investigation said.”
HOUSE ETHICS HISTORY. Story here. “The House Ethics Committee has not officially punished the vast majority of lawmakers it has investigated as a result of referrals from an independent ethics panel.”
HAVE A GREAT DAY.