BYZANTINE CAMPAIGN FINANCE. RC (Lisa Gilbert). “In the case of this hearing on transparency in money in politics, there couldn’t be a more apt descriptor for our out-of-date, patchwork system of required disclosures of election spending, as recent U.S. Supreme Court cases have riddled the system with even more holes, making it still harder for the public and shareholders to determine the sources of outsized campaign spending by elites and corporations.”
BITCOIN UPDATE. USAT. “Bitcoin, the fast-growing digital currency, is coming to political campaigns.”
AZ: DECISION DUE. WT. “Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne should learn this week if a campaign finance case against him officially ends or it he must continue to fight the allegations.”
CA: BILL TO GOV. KFBK. “Proponents say this legislation would close a loophole that allows such donors to hide by funneling money through nonprofits.”
NH: ARGUMENTS HEARD. Union Leader. “Assistant N.H. Attorney General Brian Buonamano Thursday sought to persuade the justices of the state Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that the state cannot regulate what’s called push-polling in federal election campaigns.”
NJ: PAY TO PLAY ISSUES. Boston Herald. “GOP hopeful Charlie Baker yesterday denied he violated New Jersey’s so-called ‘pay-to-play’ law when he donated $10,000 to the New Jersey Republican State Committee just seven months before Gov. Chris Christie’s administration committed up to $25 million for a public pension contract to General Catalyst Partners, where Baker is listed as a partner.”
NY: CFR HUDDLE. CapitalNewYork.com. “As he re-engages negotiations to expand a system of public campaign finance, Governor Andrew Cuomo has met with good-government advocates and a top Working Families Party official to gauge support for a possible compromise.”
OK: CHANGES FOR LOCAL RULES. NewsOK.com. “Local campaign finance regulations in Oklahoma have become virtually impossible to enforce, say backers of a measure that would scrap these laws in favor of a new system.”
VA: DELAY REJECTED. RTD. “A federal judge today denied former Gov. Bob McDonnell’s request that he wait until 14 days before the trial to decide whether to separate his case from his wife’s.”
WY: CHANGE SOUGHT. Trib.com. “The Cheyenne-based Wyoming Liberty Group and the Alexandria, Va.-based Center for Competitive Politics are calling on the state to change election rules to conform to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.”
HAVE A GOOD DAY.