USE OF AF1 QUESTIONED. Politico. “Donald Trump on Tuesday ratcheted up his criticism of President Barack Obama’s travel aboard Air Force One to help Hillary Clinton, ripping into the president for his campaign trip to North Carolina at taxpayers’ expense.”
FOREIGN FUNDS. NJ. “A Bergen County limousine driver has admitted to illegally funneling $80,000 from the Socialist Party leader in Albania to President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.” The DOJ release is here.
LOBBYING REFORM RESULTS. Politico. “Not only did the lobbying reform bill fail to slow the revolving door, it created an entire class of professional influencers who operate in the shadows, out of the public eye and unaccountable.”
LOBBYISTS: WHEN TO REGISTER? Politico. “The top government affairs official at Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, holds a unique distinction among his main rivals at firms like Boeing, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman: He hasn’t registered as a lobbyist.”
LOBBYISTS SKIP. WSJ. “This year, many of them are opting out of the Cleveland event later this month, both because they haven’t been tapped to raise money for the campaign and because some of their clients have expressed concern about funding a convention with Mr. Trump at the top of the ticket.”
END CU FOCUS. SF. “Yet even as the political polar opposites Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont spent the past year railing on about a ‘rigged’ political system that allows wealthy donors outsize influence, campaign finance reform isn’t the kind of sexy issue that drives voters to the polls.”
FMV PAYMENT. Breitbart. “Mitchell responded to Trump’s statement by saying, ‘Trump is 100% correct,’ and blasting the reporters in the media trying to turn this into a controversy.”
ID: FELL SHORT. WT. “Supporters of sweeping changes to Idaho’s campaign finance laws have failed to collect enough valid signatures to get their initiative on the November ballot.”
MI: CASE ON CHECKOFF. MR. “A federal judge says a Michigan law that takes aim at political fundraising by unions violates the constitution.”
WA: ETHICS SETTLEMENT. ST. “Seattle Department of Transportation Director Scott Kubly has agreed to a settlement resolving a monthslong ethics investigation into his involvement with the city’s Pronto bike-share system.”
HAVE A GOOD DAY.