WHAT MCCUTCHEON MEANS. Politico. “The Supreme Court’s decision this week striking down cumulative caps on individual hard-dollar donations was yet another blow to the post-Watergate finance regime that has sought for decades – with only the most modest success – to banish special interests from the political process.”
REFORM HAS MADE THINGS WORSE. WP (Samuelson). “Campaign finance ‘reform’ aims to fix a problem that doesn’t really exist. It not only has failed but has actually made the situation worse.”
READY FOR LOBBYISTS. Politico. “Nearly 20 consultants and lobbyists are co-hosting a Ready for Hillary PAC fundraiser Thursday night at Capitol Hill restaurant Johnny’s Half Shell. Hosts and attendees are expected to contribute $2,500 and $1,000, respectively.”
SHAKING THE WORLD. Courier-Journal. “The Supreme Court’s decision last week to allow more money in campaigns shook the political world like a 9.0 earthquake.”
MCCUTCHEON DISCUSSION ON C-SPAN. The former Chairman of the FEC and a representative of Demos discuss McCutcheon here (video).
SON OF SUPER PAC. Roll Call. “So what are joint fundraising committees, and what should they be called? Election lawyer Robert Kelner, who chairs Covington & Burling’s election law and political practice group, has already got his answer: ‘super joint fundraising committees’ or ‘super JFCs’ for short.”
MCCUTCHEON AND WHITTEMORE. Roll Call. “Whittemore was convicted last year on charges stemming from using straw intermediaries to get around the individual contribution limit of $4,600 in effect in 2007, for contributions to Reid’s campaign.”
MORAIN ON FEC AND CROSSROADS. Sacramento Bee. “You might assume that with a 3-3 deadlock, neither side would win. Not so at the FEC. Even though the commission’s lawyers believe the Republicans are mistaken, the GOP commissioners prevailed when a Democratic appointee evidently agreed to authorize the FEC to defend the lawsuit.”
VIEW ON MCCUTCHEON. Dallas Morning News. “Technically, the ruling will only affect a few hundred very wealthy donors. It struck down as a violation of the First Amendment the aggregate limit of $123,200 that an individual can disburse among candidates and parties. A wealthy donor now can max out contributions in all U.S. House and Senate races.”
ABOUT THOSE EARMARKING RULES… InsidePoliticalLaw.com. “But while the Commission has addressed, to a small degree, whether a donor “knows” that a “substantial amount” of a payment will go to a certain candidate, it has never quantified or otherwise addressed the meaning of ‘substantial.'”
SUPER PAC TEAM. NOLA.com. “[Jindal and Bush] teamed up to film an ad in support of Republican political consultant Alex Castellanos’ Super PAC ‘NewRepublican.org.'”
SOLUTION TO MONEY IN POLITICS. Kinsley. “The solution when you don’t like someone’s speech is not to silence that person, or that corporation. It’s more and louder speech of your own.”
MORE LOBBYIST DISCLOSURE? The Motley Fool shares an investor’s view here: “Clearly, lobbying garners results. But shareholders might take significant issue with the ways and means these results are achieved, if they only knew about them in the first place. Lobbying may never go away, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t demand more transparency in the future. Pressing for more disclosure is the first step toward a more complete dialogue between management and investors.”
MD: PUBLIC FINANCING FOR MOCO. WP. “About half the states, including Maryland, have experimented with varying methods of public financing of campaigns.”
MT: ATP IS BACK. Billings Gazette. “American Tradition Partnership, the conservative ‘dark money’ group the state political practices commissioner says has been involved in illegal electioneering activates since 2008, has resurfaced.”
MT: SPEECH POLICE ON PATROL. DailyInterLake.com. “Our Founding Fathers understood this historical threat to democracy. They anticipated the need for peaceful, periodic government change. So they enshrined, as the first right of individuals against their government in the Bill of Rights, the freedom to assemble, associate, speak, and challenge. People today think our elections are dirtier than ever. Political historians know otherwise.”
NY: TEST CASE. Newsday. “State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has turned out to be a guinea pig in a not-so-grand political experiment that could only be conceived in the backrooms of Albany.”
CAMPAIGNTECHEAST. Campaign Tech East 2014 is this week. The event promises to “show you how to be smart with data without breaking the bank, catch you up on the newest social media targeting options, and break down the ingredients of a winning grassroots digital effort.” I regret I can’t attend this year but hope to follow some of the sessions on Twitter (#CTEast).
DEGREE IN ADVOCACY. Daily Beast. My alma mater (one of them) is offering a new degree in international lobbying.
HAVE A GREAT DAY.