5-5 pol. law links

DOMAIN GAME.  The Hill.  “Michael Link, assistant director of digital strategy at the SEIU, told The Hill that he created the site, which has been shared by a number of prominent Democrats on Twitter. But he stressed that it was a personal project outside of the scope of his job with the SEIU.”

STATE CFR MOVES.   Bloomberg.  “While Republicans in Congress continue to smother proposals for campaign finance transparency, statehouse Republicans from Maine to Montana are moving in the opposite direction.”

CAMPAIGN FINANCE DISCUSSION.  Diane Rehm Show.  “The chair of the Federal Election Commission calls the agency ‘worse than dysfunctional’ and says it may not be able to curb 2016 election abuses. But Republicans don’t agree. A look at partisan paralysis at the FEC and what can be done about it.”

AZ:  PETTY LAWS.  AZC.  “The attempt to control ever-more picayune aspects of political campaigning while failing miserably at the task of controlling political spending should give our never-daunted reformers cause for pause. If only.”

VT:  REDUCING PENALTIES.  WCAX.  ”The Vermont Senate has voted to reduce the penalty for candidates who receive public money and violate the state’s campaign finance laws.”

UK:  ANOTHER WORLD.  NYT.  “Reflecting the strict spending limits as well as a parliamentary system in which the outcome of a national election is determined in 650 constituencies, much of the campaigning in Britain remains local, with candidates pounding the streets, knocking on doors, issuing leaflets and sending mail.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Mon. pol. law links

FEC AND 16.  NYT.  “‘It’s the Wild West out there in some ways,’ said Kate A. Belinski, a former lawyer at the commission who now works on campaign finance at a law firm. Candidates and political groups are increasingly willing to push the limits, she said, and the F.E.C.’s inaction means that ‘there’s very little threat of getting caught.'”

R’S AND CFR.  WSJ.  “The campaign finance system is broken. I don’t know how to fix it, but we should at least acknowledge that it is broken.”

HRC MOVES.  NYT.  “A longtime leading operative for Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton will join Priorities USA Action, the dominant “super PAC” that will seek big-ticket donations to finance what is expected to be the long and expensive presidential campaign of Mrs. Clinton.”

BUSH MOVES.  MSNBC.  “Super PACs, which sprang to life in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, can accept unlimited donations from wealthy individuals and from corporations. The only rule: they must operate independently of a candidate’s official campaign operation.”

ABRAMS ON MILBANK.  Mediaite.  “In a Friday letter to the Washington Post editors, First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams (father of our website’s founder, Dan Abrams) took on the newspaper’s columnist Dana Milbank over his claims about Citizen United‘s effects on democracy.”

MORE EMAILS.  Forbes.  “Lois Lerner’s latest lost and found hoard of 6,400 newly discovered emails may end up not showing much. The IRS didn’t find them. A watchdog did.”

PACE QUICKENS.  NJ.  “The Office of Congressional Ethics boosted its workload at the start of the 114th Congress, taking a preliminary look at 15 possible ethics violations that came across the non-partisan agency’s desk in the first three months of the year.”

CA:  CHARITY DISCLOSURE LAWSUIT UPDATE.  LAT.  “California may require charities that raise money in the state to disclose the names of major contributors, a federal appeals court decided Friday.”

CA:  TRIP ISSUE.  SJI.    “Magdalena Carrasco admitted in a statement to San Jose Inside that she accepted an improper benefit by allowing the Chamber to pay for her $2,400 trip to New York.”

LA:  RESIGNATION.  King5.  ” State Rep. Susan Fagan sent has sent Gov. Jay Inlsee her letter of resignation following allegations that she falsified travel expense forms.”

NY:  JUST DINNER.  NYDN.  “Gov. Cuomo earlier this week dined with the executive director of the state ethics commission that oversees his administration at a restaurant in upstate Saugerties owned by her extended family.”

WI:  1A AT STAKE.  RCP.  “Unhappy with Gov. Scott Walker’s political and policy victories in 2010, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm launched an investigation of nearly every conservative organization that supported Walker’s reforms.”

JAPAN:  FUNDS CONTROL LAW.  Japan Times.  “The Japan Dental Federation appears to have made questionable political donations in 2010 that could be evidence the nation’s dental lobby has been breaking the political funds control law for longer than previously thought, it has been learned.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

4-30 political law links

SUPREMES ON SOLICITATION RULE.  NPR.  “Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court’s four liberals in rejecting an appeal by Lanell Williams-Yulee, a lawyer who, in 2009, ran for a county court seat in Hillsborough County. Yulee mailed voters a personal letter asking for money; she also posted it online.”

NOT GUILTY PLEA.  MH.  “The former chief of staff for Miami Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia pleaded not guilty Wednesday to secretly giving money to a suspected ringer tea-party candidate in 2010.”

IN:  PENCE TO SIGN.  IS.  “A package of ethics reforms is headed to Gov. Mike Pence — including a last-minute addition that would require lawmakers to disclose businesses in which they have a particularly large financial stake.”

NY:  LLC UPDATE.  Chron.com.  “The New York Assembly Election Law Committee has approved legislation to close the campaign finance loophole for limited liability companies.”

OR:  BILL TO FLOOR.  OR Live.  “The first of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s ethics bills is headed to the Senate floor after receiving approval from a legislative committee Tuesday.”

TX:  ETHICS BILL MOVES.  TT.  “The state Senate passed a far-reaching ethics reform bill Tuesday, voting in often odd coalitions to reveal more about the money members make, prohibit themselves from immediately becoming lobbyists, post their financial statements online and even subject themselves and all other Texas elected officials to drug testing.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.