VOTER FRAUD BRAIN TRUST. Roll Call. “Call them the voter fraud brain trust. A cadre of influential Washington, D.C., election lawyers has mobilized a sophisticated anti-fraud campaign built around lawsuits, white papers, Congressional testimony, speeches and even best-selling books.”
WATERS MATTER AND PROPOSED RULE CHANGES. The Times. “Saying that public trust is at stake, a special House ethics panel on Tuesday called for new rules to prevent lawmakers and their staffs from violating conflict of interest standards and proposed other new measures designed to keep partisan squabbles from undermining future investigations of such wrongdoing.”
POLITICO ON WATERS CASE. Here. “The long saga of the Maxine Waters ethics investigation is a chronicle of mistakes, partisan and intraparty squabbles, allegations of racism, bitter personal rivalries and failed attempts to bring the investigation to a close months and even years before it ended.”
ANDREWS HOUSE ETHICS ISSUES. Story here. “Andrews was responding to a piece published by the Gloucester County Times editorial board in the Sept. 16 edition of the paper, which has a circulation of about 24,000 households, that called on the 11-term lawmaker to resign in the face of a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations against him.”
SUPER PAC IMPACT. WSJ. “So far, these super PACs are looking less than super.”
SUPER PAC LOBBYING ANGLE. Politico. “From autism research to dentists, a growing number of issue-based organizations are preparing to use these powerful political committees not for their prescribed purpose — advocating for the election or defeat of candidates — but as de facto lobbying arms on Capitol Hill.”
SHAREHOLDERS AND CORPORATE POLITICAL ACTIVITY. Corporate Counsel. “Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court vastly expanded the scope of permissible corporate political spending with Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, evidence is mounting that this new freedom may come with perils for public companies and their shareholders.”
NEW CPA-ZICKLIN INDEX UPDATE. Center for Public Accountability. “Although secret political money is surging, many large American companies have voluntarily strengthened their political disclosure and accountability policies and practices, according to an annual benchmarking study released today.”
GA: FEES SOUGHT. Story here. “Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal’s lawyer is seeking legal fees from a northwest Georgia man whose complaints against the governor were eventually dismissed.”