ELECTION “DAY” NO MORE. The Post. “So it was inevitable that Election Day would become a relic of community solidarity. This is the year it’s finally, irrefutably, finished.”
SEC PAY TO PLAY REFORM URGED. Mark Renaud addresses the topic here. “This deep incursion into First Amendment freedoms that are the result of the SEC’s Rule is unacceptable.”
WAGNER ALERT. Venable’s recent alert on Wagner is online here. “On November 2, 2012, the District Court for the District of Columbia, two days after oral argument, upheld the long-standing ban on political contributions from federal government contractors.”
DOOR-KNOCKER FINANCING. Politico. “There’s so much secret money in conservative politics that even volunteers are getting paid — and paid well.”
CREDIT FOR CAMPAIGNING. The Times. “Campaign semester, which began in 2008 (when Occidental’s most famous former student, Barack Obama, was running for the presidency), is apparently the only program of its kind in the country, college officials said. And this year, it has offered students a front-row view of one of the tightest presidential contests in memory.”
POST ON MONEY CHASE. Here. “Outsized contributions by a wealthy few threaten to distort the political system. Secret contributions threaten to corrupt it. In light of wrongheaded rulings by the Supreme Court, these problems will be difficult to fix. But at the very least, ramped-up disclosure rules and limits on what super PACs can do in coordination with particular candidates would improve a system in critical condition.”
MORE MILITARY BALLOT ISSUES. The Hill. “A group of Republican senators said Monday that thousands of voter ballots are unlikely to reach military service members until after Nov. 6.”
WILLIAMS MULLEN ADDS. BLT. “Williams Mullen’s government relations practice has grown with the addition of a new top lobbyist in Washington.”
LEGAL BATTLES. The Times. “President Obama and Mitt Romney hunted for last-minute support on Sunday in a frenetic sprint across battleground states, even as their parties faced off in the first of what could be a growing number of legal disputes over presidential ballots and how they are counted.”
SOCIAL MEDIA AND 12. Politico. “The 2012 race marks the first time a new type of high-level campaign staffer — the digital director — had a seat in the top tier of the presidential campaigns as well as most major congressional races.”
CORPORATE DONOR FOCUS. Story here. “The biggest corporate contributor in the 2012 election so far doesn’t appear to make anything — other than very large contributions to a conservative super PAC.”
CA: LATEST ON ARL CASE. USAT. “California’s political watchdog on Monday accused a Republican-run Arizona group of money laundering after it admitted funneling an anonymous $11 million contribution from two other conservative organizations to influence the outcome of ballot initiatives.”
HAVE A GREAT DAY.