CHALLENGE REJECTED. ABC. “The justices on Tuesday left in place a lower court ruling allowing the 2012 law to be enforced. The measure requires third-party groups working independently of candidates to influence elections to disclose the source of donations.”
CONTRACTOR LAW IN THE NEWS. Hill. “There are also loopholes in the federal contractor ban. The biggest allows employees and corporate officers of companies with federal contracts to contribute to any candidate or committee of their choosing. They can also establish super-PACs in the name of their own.”
NAME OF ANOTHER ISSUES. STL. “A Washington-based watchdog group is alleging that a Belleville law firm used its secretaries and office staff as ‘straw men’ to funnel illegally high campaign donations to Metro East congressional candidate C.J. Baricevic.”
SOLICITATION ISSUES. TPM. “Accepting contributions from foreign nationals is illegal of course though in this case it seems more a matter of incompetence than criminal intent, as though Trump has bought his email list not for a party list vendor but maybe from a Nigerian email scammer.” More from The WSJ: “For the Trump campaign, sending fundraising emails to non-Americans could raise questions with the Federal Election Commission, which prohibits campaigns from soliciting or accepting foreign donations.”
SUPER PAC SPENDS. RC. “The Senate Leadership Fund plans to spend big money defending Republicans in a quartet of battleground seats this fall, the super PAC said Tuesday, a strong indication of which states the group expects — and doesn’t expect — to be competitive in November.”
MOYERS THANKS FCC. BM. “On June 24, the Federal Communications Commission began requiring the nation’s radio broadcasters and cable television stations to upload all of their political ad contracts to a public online database.”
CA: DONORS DISCLOSED. LAT. “Individuals named in the group’s report include Silicon Valley tech and investment executive John H. Scully ($500,000), investor and Hyatt Hotel heir Anthony Pritzker ($100,000), developer Geoff Palmer ($100,000) and private equity investor Gerald Parsky ($50,000).”
KY: APPOINTMENTS UPDATE. CJ. “Gov. Matt Bevin on Tuesday issued an executive order stripping the state attorney general and auditor of their abilities to nominate candidates to the governor to appoint to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.”
MT: SPECK SAYS LEVEL THE FIELD. IR. ” Are we to conclude that citizens of modest means who have little or no money to fling into political campaigns have ‘limited free speech’ — or none at all?”
NV: UBER ATTACK. BF. “The super PAC affiliated with the Koch network is up with a new ad in Nevada, attacking Democratic Senate candidate Catharine Cortez Masto for driving Uber out of the state.”
NC: HARTSELL INDICTED. WT. ” A longtime North Carolina state senator misused campaign contributions and falsely labeled the spending as expenses and charitable donations on finance reports, according to an indictment issued Tuesday.”
PA: SODA TAX SUPPORT. PM. “Known as Philadelphians for a Fair Future, it aired TV ads, funded polls, and partnered with an army of volunteers to help persuade lawmakers to support the tax.”
TX: COMPLAINT FILED. SA. “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington recently asked the IRS to look into whether a 501(c)4 nonprofit called the American Dream Initiative was created specifically as a vehicle to influence elections, which would violate the group’s tax-exempt status. CREW has also asked the IRS, FBI and U.S. Department of Justice to probe whether the American Dream Initiative lied about how much money it reported spending on political activity in 2014.”
HAVE A GOOD DAY.