[Political Activity Law]

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.

 

BERNIE QUESTIONS.  ABC.  “The group, called ‘Our Revolution,’ will support progressive policy proposals and politicians across the country. According to its website, the group is operating as a 501(c)(4) organization, a tax status that will allow it to accept unlimited contributions without having to reveal its donors.”

REVIEW OF REFORMS.  HLS.  “Each year from 2012 through 2015, between 65 and 92 political contributions/lobbying proposals were submitted to a vote at Russell 3000 companies. During the 2016 proxy season, 66 such proposals were submitted to a vote thus far. While roughly consistent with the 71 proposals that reached a vote in 2015, this number is significantly lower than the 92 proposals that reached a vote in 2014.”

FAKE FILINGS TARGET.  Reason.  “The FEC wants to give these phonies a chance to either confirm the info the FEC suspects is false, or to withdraw their filing.”

VALUATION AND FORMS.  Olympian.  “A Washington Post review of local property records revealed the same pattern across most of Trump’s U.S. golf courses. For eight of the 10 courses on which he pays taxes, Trump reported in his May filing to the Federal Election Commission that the courses were worth tens of millions of dollars even as his attorneys have pressed local tax officials to value the properties at a fraction of those amounts.”

ENDING LOBBYIST BAN?   WP.  “The Clinton campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But lobbyists who are part of Clinton’s deep network of Washington contacts have raised millions of dollars for her campaign — suggesting that a President Clinton may be more open to appointing lobbyists to positions in her administration.”

ETHICS MATTER.  ET.  “As congressional investigators probe whether Rep. Roger Williams violated conflict-of-interest regulations, the Texas Republican acknowledged in a recently released document that he did not completely follow ethics guidance that could have kept him out of the mess.”

SUPER PAC FAMILY PLAN.  TB.  “Patrick Murphy’s father continues to pour large sums of money into the 2016 election in the hopes of getting his son elected to the U.S. Senate.”

DC:  ORANGE RESIGNS.  WP.  “District Council member Vincent B. Orange (D-At Large) resigned Monday to lead the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, buckling under pressure to leave office rather than simultaneously lead the business lobby and the committee, which regulates businesses.”

NY:  CFT TIMING.  GG.  “New York City’s campaign finance system, particularly its public matching funds program, is considered a national model, and it stays that way by being regularly updated and modernized.”

WI:  DOUBLE LIMITS.  Madison.com.  “Republican statehouse candidates benefited more than Democrats in the first six months of this year from doubled campaign contribution limits, according to an analysis by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

YARD SIGN WARS.  Boston.com.  “In Democrat-heavy Massachusetts, being a Donald Trump supporter is not easy. And as some are finding out, expressing their support for the Republican presidential nominee can be even harder.”

YARD SIGN THEFT AND SOCIAL MEDIA.  DC. “Boston University student Katia Checkwicz posted — then deleted — a video of herself stealing and destroying a pair of yard signs promoting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.”

YARD SIGN BUSINESS.  B.  “Donald Trump supporters are spending their own cash to buy yard signs and bumper stickers because there’s a shortage of free campaign merchandise in their local areas, including in key swing states the Republican nominee must win.”

FOUNDATION TO BAR FOREIGN FUNDS.  AFR.  “The Clinton Foundation will stop accepting foreign and corporate donations if Hillary Clinton is elected president but only if she beats Donald Trump to the White House.”

DONOR FAMILY HELP.  NYT.  “Like many elite donors, the Mercers shun mainstream media attention — even while financing alternative outlets that provide content for conservative activists.”

FIVE MONEY MYTHS.  TheStreet.  “The unlimited sums of money in campaigns can often lead to miscalculations or overestimation of a candidate’s campaign contributions.”

ETHICS TRAINING MISSED.  WT.  “The State Department can find no evidence that some of Hillary Clinton’s top aides completed their mandatory ethics training, raising still more questions about whether her team cut corners during their time serving with her in government.”

AZ:  CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION.  AZC.  “A good-government advocacy group asked the FBI and IRS on Thursday to investigate former Arizona legislative aide Sean Noble’s political activities during the 2010 election.”

MD:  ALJ AND CANDIDACY.  CG.  “A commission has found one of Anne Arundel’s candidates for Circuit Court judge was guilty of an ethics violation for her work in Washington.”

MT:  SHOOTING ORGANIZATION IN THE NEWS.  KULR.   “A group is being accused of violating campaign finance laws in 2014. Wednesday Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices released findings that the Montana Shooting Sports Association did not provide enough detail about its contributors.”

TX:  UNFINISHED BUSINESS.  SA.  “Political consultants and their clients are likely to exert pressure on the Texas Ethics Commission during the public comment period on a proposed rule that will close a loophole that essentially allows candidates to report how much they spend but not how.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.