MCCONNELL AND CFR. Courier-Journal. “Campaign finance reform groups are charging that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is using a spending bill to mount a ‘sneak’ attack on party spending limits.”
SUPER PAC FTL. WP. “Trevor Parkes and Henry Longley, neither of them from Ohio, filed paperwork for the ‘Draft Rob Portman’ super PAC and set up Facebook and Twitter accounts that consist mostly of sharing or retweeting Portman himself. They planned to really ramp up their efforts after this semester, they told Bloomberg in an interview last month.”
COMPLIANCE NOW. State and Federal. This month’s edition contains a number of interesting updates, as usual.
REVOLVING DOORS. NYT. “Why, the letter asked, do banks routinely pay out special compensation packages to executives who leave to take government jobs when those packages were intended to retain them?”
AR: MORE REFORM ON BALLOT. UALRPublicRadio. “The Arkansas Attorney General’s office is considering the wording of campaign finance reform proposal that one grassroots group would like to get on the 2016 general election ballot. The ballot question was submitted Monday.”
CA: DISCLOSURE BILL. The Californian. “To date, the California Legislature has managed to keep the state Fair Political Practices Commission a budget-starved, emaciated waif of an agency. So for a member of the Assembly to actually write a bill that would beef up disclosure — well, it’s just not something you see or hear of everyday.”
IL: IS IT ENOUGH? Evanston Now. “It takes money to run a political campaign. But how much is too much? At what point does the money donated to political campaigns become a hindrance to democratic elections?”
MD: NEW RULES PROPOSED. Baltimore Sun. “New rules proposed by the State Board of Elections would forbid candidates from dipping into their political funds to pay for such things as foreign travel, tuition or mounting a legal defense to charges unrelated to the campaign.”
MD: WINNING WITH PUBLIC FINANCING. WP. “Gov.-elect Larry Hogan (R) this month became the first candidate in Maryland history to win a gubernatorial election while participating in the state’s public financing system. The question now is whether he’ll be the last.”
VA: MCDONNELL UPDATE. Timesdispatch.com. “‘Substantial evidence exists to support the jury verdict that Mrs. McDonnell acted with corrupt intent. However, obstruction of justice requires more than just a misleading note,’ wrote U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer.”
HAVE A GOOD DAY.