[Political Activity Law]

WA:  LARGE FINE.  WAAG.  “The ruling against GMA — a Washington, D.C.-based trade group representing major food, beverage and consumer companies — is believed to constitute the largest campaign finance judgment in United States history.” $18 million in penalties and damages.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND WASHINGTON INFLUENCE.  WP.   “Many K Street leaders view social media and digital advocacy, not traditional lobbying, as the fastest-growing segments of the influence industry, according to a recent survey of Washington lobbyists, lawyers, association executives and think tank leaders.”

DONOR DISCLOSURE.  WFB.  “Hacked emails contain documents revealing hundreds of donors to the Center for American Progress and Media Matters for America, liberal nonprofits that have resisted efforts to disclose their funders.”

REP. ISRAEL ON REFORM.  WP.  “The Disclose Act would require corporations, unions, super PACs and other outside groups to disclose contributions of $10,000 or more within 24 hours to the Federal Election Commission, as well as disclose their source of funding in ads. It would also require them to disclose their spending to their shareholders and require lobbyists to disclose campaign-related expenditures in conjunction with their lobbying activities.”

LOBBYIST BUNDLERS AND FEINGOLD.  WFB.  “Russ Feingold, the Democratic senate candidate challenging Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson (R.), has accepted $700,000 in contributions bundled by lobbyists this election cycle.”

ACLU SHIFT ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE?  Prospect.  “While Cole agrees with Citizens United that corporations deserve the same spending protections as individuals, he rejects the Court’s finding that the only form of corruption that may be regulated is the case of an explicit quid pro quo in exchange for a donation. He also points to other rationales for regulating political money, such as the need to protect electoral integrity and advance equality. All this gives Cole fodder to help the ACLU rethink a campaign-finance stance that has aligned itself with near-total breakdown of laws limiting the role of political money.”

CA:  LAWSUIT FILED.  DC.  “The California Fair Political Practices Commission, or FPPC, alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that District 3 City Council candidate Al Murray and his campaign violated the Political Reform Act by failing to file required campaign finance documents.”

CT:  AD PROMPTS REFORM.  HC.  “Currently, the top five donors to the political action committees must be disclosed. Democrats say they will propose legislation in 2017 to expand that number and extend it to all donors beyond certain levels.”

MO:  WHAT AMDT 2 WOULD DO.  C17.  “If passed, Amendment 2 would limit campaign contributions to candidates for state and judicial offices.”

VT:  AG REJECTS.  TE.  “The Vermont attorney general’s office has rejected a Republican Party complaint that a political committee affiliated with Planned Parenthood illegally coordinated activities with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sue Minter’s campaign.”

WA:  COST OF REFORM.  TD.  “A ballot initiative aimed at getting money out of politics would introduce the biggest overhaul of the state’s campaign financing system seen in decades. Yet retailers in border communities including Longview are concerned with how the initiative would be financed — by eliminating the sales exemption for out-of-state shoppers.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

TRUMP TRANSITION PLANNING.  WP.  “New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner are hosting an information session on the transition at the downtown Washington office of Baker Hostetler Thursday morning, according to an invitation obtained by The Washington Post.”

ULTIMATE PAYEES IN THE NEWS.  Politico.  “At its most extreme, a candidate could theoretically hire a single firm to run its entire campaign and only disclose that one payment. Spending on polling, on ads, on staff salaries — on anything else — could be kept secret.”

SUPER PAC INTERACTION.  SP.  “Memos prepared by legal counsel for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign reveal how the campaign developed workarounds so it could coordinate with a network of pro-Clinton super political action committees or Super PACs.”

PAY TO PLAY & PENCE.  Intercept.  “Feinberg, like many hedge fund managers, can legally sidestep the pay-to-play rule by donating not directly to the presidential campaign — but to a presidential Super PAC.”

AL:  CASE TURMOIL.  PNJ.  “In Alabama Democratic Conference (ADC) vs. Attorney General, State of Alabama, the appeals court rejected a challenge to a new Alabama law that bans one PAC from contributing to another.”

AL:  COMPLAINT OVER LETTER.  AL.  “According to the News-Courier, Jones sent a letter on campaign letterhead thanking the grand jurors for their service and asking for their vote.”

ME:  FUELING MEASURES.  BDN.  “Nonprofit ‘dark money’ groups have doled out about half of the funds fueling Maine’s five citizen-initiated ballot questions in November.”

MT:  CONFIDENTIALITY IN QUESTION.  GFT.  “Rep. Brad Tschida, R-Missoula, sent an email Tuesday to GOP Sens. Dee Brown of Hungry Horse and Bob Keenan of Bigfork and other legislators from both sides of the aisle containing his Sept. 21 ethics complaint accusing Bullock and O’Leary of malfeasance and Political Practices Commissioner Jonathan Motl of covering it up.”

TX:  LATEST REPORTS.  AC.  “The final set of campaign finance figures for the five City Council races up for election this coming Tuesday got published through the Office of the City Clerk on Monday, Oct. 31, breaking down how much each money candidate has raised, spent, owes in loans, or has on hand for the last few days.”

EU:  GROUNDS NOT SUFFICIENT.  Guardian.  “An ethics panel has cleared the former European commission chief José Manuel Barroso of breaking an EU integrity code for taking a job at Goldman Sachs, but questioned his judgment in moving to the bank.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

AIDE LANDS.  WP.  “Stacy Ettinger, a top aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), has been hired by the law and lobby firm K&L Gates, becoming the latest ex-Schumer staffer to land a K Street job at a time when their former boss is poised to become the most powerful Democrat in the Senate.”

SPEECH NOOSE READY.  AIM.  “American citizens are in for a double whammy of speech restrictions, and even of censorship.  The Federal Election Commission (FEC), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) want to ratchet up the pressures of freedom of speech.”

INDIVIDUALS OVER CORPORATIONS.  WSJ.  “Despite legal rulings allowing companies, trade groups and unions to spend unlimited sums supporting political candidates, they still trail far behind wealthy individuals in political spending, a new study finds.”

THE INTERCEPT ON CORRECT THE RECORD.  Int.  “The email chain, dated May 13, 2015, begins with Judd Legum, editor of CAP’s Think Progress blog, sending Tanden a Washington Post article about the scheme hatched by Correct the Record.”

BILINGUAL SUPER PAC.  CNN.  “A GOP group funded by heavyweight Republican donors is attacking Hillary Clinton from the left, attempting to open a rift between Latinos and the Democratic nominee via television ads aimed at Spanish-language voters.”

FEDERAL REGISTER CHECK.  Hill.  “The campaign finance rules would address electronic contributions and expenditures that are made over the Internet or through text messages, the FEC said.”

CONTRIBUTIONS RETURNED.  WCAX.  “A Vermont congressman’s top campaign donor is drawing attention for questionable campaign contributions.”

HI:  MAYOR’S RACE SPENDING.  HCB.  “The super PAC has been airing TV and radio ads critical of the Honolulu mayor, who was supported by two other super PACs identified in the reports. In all, they’ve raised more than $1 million from Sept. 27 to Oct. 24.”

MO:  REFORMERS MAY WIN.  BM.  “Campaign finance reformers appear set to celebrate a big win next Tuesday in Missouri, where voters are expected to approve a proposed constitutional amendment that would, among other things, reinstate campaign-donation limits in a state that, this year alone, has seen more than $120 million poured into campaigns by writers of six- and seven-figure checks.”

MT:  LAW SURVIVES.  TT.  “Montana’s new campaign disclosure law has survived its first test, with a federal judge rejecting arguments that it unconstitutionally interferes with the free speech of groups that want to influence elections without revealing where they get their money or how they spend it.”

NM:  COMPLAINT DEADLINE.  AJ.  “At least one aspect of this seemingly endless election season is over: It’s too late to complain to the secretary of state about violations of New Mexico’s campaign finance laws.”

NY:  REFORM CONCERNS.  NYT.  “Three years after the 2013 elections revealed serious flaws in New York City’s campaign finance laws, the City Council may finally be moving to fix some of the worst problems — but not without including a few changes that would benefit individual Council members.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.