Car washes, clean campaigns, and the rest of the day’s political law links

THE SANDERS CHALLENGE.  RC.  “Up until now, Sanders has been a vocal champion of campaign finance reform. Time will tell whether such ‘reform’ includes a simplification of the laws, and whether the legal minefield Our Revolution faces will cause him to ‘feel the burn.’ In the meantime, politicians looking to operate 501(c)(4)s had better lawyer up.”

DINNER CEASE AND DESIST.  Politico.  “Donald Trump’s campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter on Monday to a super PAC unaffiliated with the campaign that has lured more than $1 million in donations by offering the Republican nominee’s supporters a chance at dinner with Trump, accusing the group of ‘defrauding’ its donors.”

CLEAN CAMPAIGN CHALLENGE IN VT.  VB.  “US Senate candidate Scott Milne sent the following letter to Senator Leahy today in response to Leahy’s rejection of his debate and clean campaign challenge.”

UNORTHODOX SPENDING.  WSJ.  “Mr. Trump’s spending patterns reflect his unorthodox, first-time candidacy, during which he’s bypassed an established network of professional consultants to rely instead on a smaller, more familiar support base.”

YOUNG AND ETHICS.  Politico.  “House Democrats on Monday seized on reports that Rep. Don Young failed for more than two decades to disclose ownership of California land leased to oil and gas companies — the latest ethics scandal to plague the Alaska Republican.”

AZ:  CAR WASHES AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE.  SIND.  “Mr. Crawford says he was alerted to the possible infraction of campaign finance rules through a Facebook Fan Page, coined, ‘Scottsdale Candidate Guy Phillips’ where a post alerting all who participated at Prestige Car Wash, 3006 N Scottsdale Road, could donate 10 percent of the cost a car wash toward Councilman Phillips’ campaign.”

CA:  SUNSHINE SQUABBLE.  SB.  “Because Assembly Bill 700 amends the state’s Political Reform Act, it requires two-thirds votes of both legislative houses, and the squabble over details could make that difficult, if not impossible.”

WI:  LATE REPORT.  PG.  “Mayor Jim Schmitt is more than six weeks late in filing his latest campaign finance report despite multiple reminders from the city clerk.”

USVI:  FRAUD AND EMBEZZLEMENT CHARGES.  DOJ.  “A former Virgin Islands senator was arrested on June 29, 2016, in Modena, Italy, and extradited today for allegedly defrauding the government of the Virgin Islands of tens of thousands of dollars while he served as a senator in the territorial legislature.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Good morning — here are today’s political law links

CEOS AND EMPLOYEE POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS.  Harvard.  “Do CEOs affect political choices of their employees? Using a large sample of U.S. firms, we find evidence that they do.”

DINNER WITH TRUMP.  Politico.  “Internet-based scam PACs are hardly new to 2016. In the past, some have made look-alike campaign sites and bought Google ads to lure unsuspecting donors. Facebook, with its vast audience and ability to target users by political ideology has proved an alluring tool this cycle and Trump, with legions of passionate fans, has become an appealing target. Facebook declined to comment for this story.”

ETHICS AND THE CLINTONS.  DP.  “Based on the records released so far, the AP found that more than half the people outside the government who met or spoke by telephone with Clinton during her tenure as a Cabinet secretary had given money — either personally or through companies or groups — to the Clinton Foundation. The AP’s analysis focused on people with private interests and excluded her meetings or calls with U.S. federal employees or foreign government representatives.”

EPIPEN AND CONTRIBUTIONS.  CNBC.  “A political committee for Mylan has donated to most of the Senate committee that has asked the drugmaker to explain price increases for allergy treatment EpiPen and could grill executives in a hearing on the matter.”

CA:  LAW OPPOSED.  M.  “The FPPC says last-minute bill changes would make it harder for the agency to crack down on secret shuffling of political money and add unnecessary complexity to state disclosure laws.”

DC:  SUITE ETHICS.  NBC.  “Washington, D.C.’s mayor and the D.C. Council are receiving another round of scrutiny over their usage of special suite tickets at the Verizon Center and Nationals Park.”

MI:  COOPERATION IN INVESTIGATION.  LSJ.  “The alleged violation is that Reich’s campaign accepted campaign contributions from a corporate account, which is a prohibited source for candidate committees.”

MN:  ALLEGED VIOLATIONS.  SMN.  “The Minnesota Jobs Coalition, a center-right group, is requesting a state campaign finance board investigate whether Robin Brown, a former District 27A representative, and Gary Schindler, candidate for District 27A representative, violated multiple state statutes in relation to a March 13 campaign donation.”

MO:  NEW ETHICS LAW IN EFFECT.  SJ.  “Additional new ethics laws include a ban on statewide elected officials and lawmakers from also serving as paid political consultants and new restrictions on investing campaign money.”

MO:  SUPER PAC LAUNCH.  STL.  “A super PAC run by one of Sen. Roy Blunt’s closest friends and lobbyist allies is launching an advertising campaign on Blunt’s behalf in Missouri.”

MT:  LETTER ON BULLOCK SUPPORT.  BG.  “Dark money has taken on a high level of prominence in Montana under Gov. Steve Bullock’s administration. No Montana governor has played a larger role in raising dark money, and he’s likely to take the No. 1 spot in benefiting from dark money in his reelection as well.”

PA:  RECORDS SUBPOENA.  PG.  “Federal authorities have subpoenaed finance records and receipts from Mayor Jim Kenney’s campaign committee as part of their investigation into the electricians’ union and its leader John Dougherty, the mayor said Friday.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Scandal warning and Tribe tweet and more political law links for today here

TRIBE TWEET ON FOUNDATION:

SCANDAL WARNING.  Politico.   “A billionaire supporting Sen. John McCain’s underdog primary opponent may be doing so as payback, McCain said Wednesday.”

MEET THE SUPER PAC.  Time.  “The 2016 presidential election’s most powerful super PAC is the one backing Democrat Hillary Clinton.”

DONATION MURKY.  NJ.  “An Istanbul-based college professor is at the center of a group of suspicious 2014 contributions to a super PAC supporting Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — including $5,000 from an apparently fictitious company based in Lodi, a USA Today analysis shows.”

CAMPAIGN LEGAL FEES.  MJ.  “Trump’s $1.1 million spent on lawyers is just $300,000 shy of Clinton’s.”

AZ:  OPINION ON LAW.  T.com.  “SB 1516 has been dubbed by nonpartisan watchdogs as ‘Citizens United on steroids.'”

CA:  ALLEGED VIOLATIONS.  LAT.  “The state is investigating an allegation that Huntington Beach Planning Commissioner Lyn Semeta wrongly accepted a campaign contribution from a downtown restaurant with recent business before the city.”

FL:  PUBLIX GIVES.  FP.  “Publix Supermarkets has given nearly $2.6 million to Florida candidates and committees during the 2016 election cycle, including more than $300,000 since the start of August.”

KS:  CORRECTING REPORTS.  K.com.  “The Kansas Democratic Party has had to correct two years worth of federal campaign finance reports this week.”

NY:  HITTING NONPROFITS.  WNYC.  “New York State has a new law to stop independent political groups from coordinating with candidates for elected office, but critics say the measure won’t fix chronic corruption in Albany.”

WA:  CFR ON THE BALLOT.  LT.  “Initiative 1464, which covers campaign finance reform, disclosure and enforcement and creates a public campaign financing program, was the final ballot measure to qualify for the general election ballot this fall.”

POLITICALACTIVITYLAW.COM.  I’ll send around the next set of links early next week.  Have a great weekend.