SANDERS AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE. VTD. “Sen. Bernie Sanders is building a political organization that will be able to avoid financial disclosure and influence policy from the shadows, a ‘dark money’ strategy he has railed against for years, including on the presidential campaign trail.”
SPIES AND THE END OF CU. RS. “Just as Bill Clinton’s Chinese money scandals of the late 1990s were the precursor to McCain-Feingold reforms, Hillary Clinton is ironically creating the atmosphere of corruption that may well end in her goal of rolling back Citizens United political speech protections.”
BOOK DEALINGS. DB. “Donald Trump used his campaign funds to buy thousands of copies of his own book at retail cost, simultaneously diverting donor money back into his pockets while artificially boosting his sales figures. It’s a tactic that may be illegal, campaign finance experts say.”
RENT DISCLOSED. WLIX. “Donald Trump’s campaign is paying more than ever to rent space inside his Trump Tower in New York. Federal Election Commission reports show that the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign paid $35,457 per month for rent and utilities to Trump Tower Commercial LLC between August 2015 and this April. The payment began increasing in May and hit $169,758 last month.”
T KID$. V. “Nevertheless, when it comes to payments to relatives or family-owned companies, the Trump campaign is breaking new ground.”
SPONSORED POSTS. USAT. “Are you a millennial woman thinking of staying out of this election? Two pro-Clinton super PACs really want you to vote, so badly they’re spending $20 million and paying for BuzzFeed posts to convince you.”
FUNDRAISER COSTS. CNBC. “Tickets for Clinton’s event Tuesday, for example, top out at $33,400 per guest, according to news reports.”
ACCESS GRANTED. WP. “In each case, according to emails released Monday from Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state, the requests were directed to Clinton’s deputy chief of staff and confidante, Huma Abedin, who engaged with other top aides and sometimes Clinton herself about how to respond.”
CO: FREE SPEECH THREAT. DP. “Many political groups in Colorado rely on free or reduced-cost legal services to comply with Colorado’s campaign finance laws. But under the Court of Appeals’ ruling, providing those services will be much harder — and in some cases impossible.”
TX: TEC MESS. ET. “A new rule under consideration by the Texas Ethics Commission is so poorly drafted that no citizen could ever be expected to comply with its requirements. The rule is aimed at forcing Texans to file even more information when they spend moneyspeaking about candidates, campaigns, and ballot measures.”
WI: NEW LAW IMPACT. JS. “It’s been eight months since the Legislature’s disastrous rewrite of Wisconsin campaign finance law, and you can already see the havoc that it’s wreaking on the public’s right to know and on the right to impose reasonable limits on campaign contributions.”
WI: WEIGHING BAN. Madison.com. “The Wisconsin Ethics Commission, the state’s new overseer of the campaigns and conduct of public officials, will consider Tuesday whether to bar commissioners from contributing to political campaigns.”
CAN: SASKATCHEWAN LOBBYISTS ONLINE. CBC. “For the first time, the Saskatchewan public will be able to find out who is being paid to lobby government officials.”
POLITICALACTIVITYLAW.COM: I didn’t send around links yesterday due to an unusual hosting issue.
HAVE A GOOD DAY.