FEC AND 16. NYT. “‘It’s the Wild West out there in some ways,’ said Kate A. Belinski, a former lawyer at the commission who now works on campaign finance at a law firm. Candidates and political groups are increasingly willing to push the limits, she said, and the F.E.C.’s inaction means that ‘there’s very little threat of getting caught.'”
R’S AND CFR. WSJ. “The campaign finance system is broken. I don’t know how to fix it, but we should at least acknowledge that it is broken.”
HRC MOVES. NYT. “A longtime leading operative for Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton will join Priorities USA Action, the dominant “super PAC” that will seek big-ticket donations to finance what is expected to be the long and expensive presidential campaign of Mrs. Clinton.”
BUSH MOVES. MSNBC. “Super PACs, which sprang to life in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, can accept unlimited donations from wealthy individuals and from corporations. The only rule: they must operate independently of a candidate’s official campaign operation.”
ABRAMS ON MILBANK. Mediaite. “In a Friday letter to the Washington Post editors, First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams (father of our website’s founder, Dan Abrams) took on the newspaper’s columnist Dana Milbank over his claims about Citizen United‘s effects on democracy.”
MORE EMAILS. Forbes. “Lois Lerner’s latest lost and found hoard of 6,400 newly discovered emails may end up not showing much. The IRS didn’t find them. A watchdog did.”
PACE QUICKENS. NJ. “The Office of Congressional Ethics boosted its workload at the start of the 114th Congress, taking a preliminary look at 15 possible ethics violations that came across the non-partisan agency’s desk in the first three months of the year.”
CA: CHARITY DISCLOSURE LAWSUIT UPDATE. LAT. “California may require charities that raise money in the state to disclose the names of major contributors, a federal appeals court decided Friday.”
CA: TRIP ISSUE. SJI. “Magdalena Carrasco admitted in a statement to San Jose Inside that she accepted an improper benefit by allowing the Chamber to pay for her $2,400 trip to New York.”
LA: RESIGNATION. King5. ” State Rep. Susan Fagan sent has sent Gov. Jay Inlsee her letter of resignation following allegations that she falsified travel expense forms.”
NY: JUST DINNER. NYDN. “Gov. Cuomo earlier this week dined with the executive director of the state ethics commission that oversees his administration at a restaurant in upstate Saugerties owned by her extended family.”
WI: 1A AT STAKE. RCP. “Unhappy with Gov. Scott Walker’s political and policy victories in 2010, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm launched an investigation of nearly every conservative organization that supported Walker’s reforms.”
JAPAN: FUNDS CONTROL LAW. Japan Times. “The Japan Dental Federation appears to have made questionable political donations in 2010 that could be evidence the nation’s dental lobby has been breaking the political funds control law for longer than previously thought, it has been learned.”
HAVE A GOOD DAY.