[Political Activity Law]

IS IT LEGAL? CNN. “Bloomberg could not GIVE Amy Klobuchar’s campaign $1 million if she were the Democratic nominee nor plot with her campaign about how to spend $1 million, because that would exceed the $2,800 general-election contribution limit.”

SHARPTON OWES. FBN. “Rev. Al Sharpton’s unsuccessful presidential campaign had nearly $1 million in debt at the end of 2019 ⁠— more than 15 years after his 2004 presidential bid.”

PAC BOOST. MP. “A week out from the Nevada Caucus, a group called Kitchen Table Conversations filed with the Federal Election Commission on Friday, with the stated goal of assisting Klobuchar in maintaining momentum after a third place finish in New Hampshire.”

GA: NO SUBPOENA. AJC. “A judge ruled in favor of Democrat Stacey Abrams’ 2018 campaign for governor Friday, denying a request from the Georgia ethics commission for more documents in an attempt to find campaign finance violations.”

MO: EX-GOV. FINED. HM. “State ethics regulators have fined the campaign of former Gov. Eric Greitens $178,000 over campaign finance violations dating to his upstart, outsider bid to become Missouri’s chief executive.”

ND: BILL CIRCULATING. NDF. “State Legislators received a bill draft that would eradicate dark money, and some say it would bring transparency to campaign finance laws.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

FEC IN DEFAULT. CREW v. FEC. Haven’t seen the FEC held in default like this before (see below). The complaint, made public on the FEC website, is apparently still open before the agency.

DO LIMITS WORK? STL. “In politics, money is like water. It finds a way.”

ID: DEADLINE EXTENDED. IP. “Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney announced this afternoon that the state is extending tonight’s campaign finance report filing deadline by a week.”

OH: COMPLAINT ON FUND USE. F19. “A Republican lawyer has filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission against Democratic Cincinnati City Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard.”

OR: DROPPED OUT. KDRV. “One of the Democratic contenders for Oregon’s Secretary of State announced that she would suspend her campaign on Monday, making vague reference to a story about her use of campaign funds.”

PA: USING THE LAW. PE. “Liberals have been beating establishment Democrats with the help of outside groups that outspend the candidates themselves. And campaign finance reform is no longer the rallying cry it once was.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

LOAN ISSUE. TBT. “U.S. Rep. Ross Spano, already facing a federal probe into his 2018 campaign, may have more trouble on his hands.”

NEW MEASURES. RC. “House members and political money experts debated comprehensive new campaign finance overhaul measures on Thursday, but they heard testimony from a Federal Election Commission member who suggested they might first want to address the existing campaign regulatory infrastructure.”

FREE REIN. HILL. “The GAO report paints a broken campaign finance enforcement system providing minimal chance of detecting these fraudulent schemes and even less probability of exposure to civil or criminal enforcement.”

EAC BUDGET. FUL. “The plan he unveiled Monday would cut spending 14 percent at the Election Assistance Commission, the federal agency tasked with making sure voting machines are reliable and therefore at the center of efforts to prevent foreign hacking.”

CA: CHALLENGE COMING. SFE. “A federal judge in San Francisco will hear arguments on Feb. 14 on a political campaign committee’s free-speech challenge to new donor disclosure rules enacted by city voters in November.”

ME: FACING INVESTIGATION. MPR. “A potential referendum over Central Maine Power’s power line proposal for western Maine is generating more campaign finance violations, this time from opponents of the project.”

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ECU: TRIAL. YN. ” Former President Rafael Correa goes on trial before Ecuador’s highest court starting Monday on charges of campaign finance fraud and accepting millions of dollars in bribes.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.