[Political Activity Law]

FARA RETROACTIVE.   WP.  “A consulting firm led by Paul Manafort, who chaired Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for several months last year, retroactively filed forms Tuesday showing that his firm received $17.1 million over two years from a political party that dominated Ukraine before its leader fled to Russia in 2014.”

GROUP INCORPORATION NOTED.   WFB.  “A lawyer brought in to do crisis control for Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.) incorporated a dark money nonprofit group that is now defending the senator’s record over the Tomah VA scandal in the state, records show.”

RETWEET COMPLAINT.   NPR.  “Haley retweeted Trump’s endorsement of the candidate.”

GOVERNING AND CAMPAIGNING.   CNBC.  “Trump’s predecessors also took heat for commingling presidential and political duties when they began running for re-election.”

UPHILL CLIMB ON SUPER PACS.  NLR. “Press reports indicate that the FEC dismissed the Dream Team complaint based on SpeechNow.”

PA:  NO OUTSIDER DONATIONS.    BCC.  “Freedom to donate to political campaigns should be linked with the freedom to vote for the candidate of one’s choice. People who are eligible to vote in a given race should be eligible to donate to candidates in that race.”

TX:  NO FAULT.   MS.  “Former Austin City Council Member Don Zimmerman is off the hook for a 2015 complaint over a $2,000 payment his campaign made to his wife.”

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UK:  LEAVE VOTE FUNDING.   GUA.  “Could the reason that this money was passed through Northern Ireland be that, uniquely in the United Kingdom, political funders there are allowed to remain anonymous?”

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HAVE A GOOD DAY.

FACING SCRUTINY.   Politico.  “Democratic Reps. John Conyers of Michigan and Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico are under scrutiny by the House Ethics Committee for alleged violations, although both men strongly deny any wrongdoing.”

FACING SCRUTINY II.   Hill.  “Two high-power Democrats are facing scrutiny for possible ethics infractions, the House Ethics Committee announced Monday.”

KOCH PROMISE.   USAT.  “The vast policy and political network aligned with billionaire Charles Koch is ramping up for its most expensive round of political and policy fights yet — as it works to expand the Republican majority in the Senate, pushes Congress to approve President Trump’s tax cuts and promotes measures across the country to curb organized labor.”

NEW REGISTRATION.   CPI.  “Abramoff, the documents detail, was aiding an Italian national hoping to earn a consulting contract with the Republic of Congo that, in part, sought to polish its image in the United States.”

FEC COMMISSIONER ON RUSSIA.   MSNBC.  “Commissioner Ellen Weintraub calls on the FEC to do more to assure the American people that the threat of foreign entities is being taken seriously.”

CA:  CHICO LIMITS OK.   ER.  “If the council wants to have a meaningful discussion, maybe it should debate whether councilors should abstain from voting on projects that financially affect large contributors.”

PA:  ETHICS DEBATE.   LV.  “A grassroots effort to create a comprehensive ethics law in Bethlehem, backed by two city council members, was dealt a major blow Monday night.”

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AUSTRALIA:  FOREIGN BACKLASH.   GM.  “A heated new debate about Beijing’s influence has raised calls in Australia for greater vigilance toward Chinese money, as countries around the world grapple with a rising appetite in China for overseas infrastructure and sensitive technology.”

CAN:  SEEKING RESOLUTION.   GM.  “Municipal politicians in British Columbia are preparing for an overhaul to the province’s campaign-finance laws, which could trickle down to civic election races that have been governed by the same ‘Wild West’ rules currently under scrutiny in the legislature.”

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HAVE A GOOD DAY.

NEW SECURITY MEASURES.  Hill.  “The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has issued case-by-case rulings for members to use campaign funds for security purposes. The idea under discussion would be for the FEC to issue a blanket ruling allowing any member to do so.”

HARVEY FURGATCH, 90.  SDUT.  “A security officer… came up to inquire what this raffish character was carrying in his bag. Books, Furgatch said. The officer informed one of the richest businessmen in San Diego that he couldn’t sell books on the steps of the Supreme Court. A few years later, FEC v. Furgatch would work its way to the Supreme Court.”

KENNEDY AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE.   SB.  “Overall, Kennedy has voted with the conservatives more than with the liberal justices. He wrote the court’s opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which held that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money in election campaigns.”

SUPER PAC TARGET.   LVRJ.  “Nevada’s Republican Sen. Dean Heller placed himself in the wobbly space between two tectonic plates set to collide when he announced Friday that he would not support President Donald Trump’s American Health Care plan ‘in this form.'”

OSSOFF AND REFORM.   TB.  “Jon Ossoff, the failed Democratic hopeful for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District seat who outspent his Republican opponent by $19 million, declared this week that America is in need of campaign finance reform.”

MI:  MONEY WARNING.   FREEP.  “Chris Thomas, the dean of the nation’s election directors who is retiring after 36 years on the job in Michigan, says the growing influence of undisclosed ‘dark money’ on elections is contributing to public cynicism and will ‘swallow the whole thing’ if not controlled.”

MO:  ETHICS COMPLAINT.   KCS.  “A complaint filed this week with the Missouri Ethics Commission alleges an adviser to a prominent Republican donor at the center of pay-to-play allegations violated state law by never registering as a lobbyist.”

WA:  DOCUMENT DEMANDS.   WAG.  “The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) filed a petition today in King County Superior Court seeking enforcement of a civil order issued in the state’s campaign finance investigation of King County Democratic Central Committee Chairman Bailey Stober.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.