A.M. political law links 4-10

COPYRIGHT AND CAMPAIGNS.  WP.  “If you’re looking for Rand Paul’s presidential announcement on YouTube, bad news. As of writing, the video has been blocked by the video streaming site, thanks to a copyright claim from Warner Music Group, as Vox’s Andrew Prokop spotted.”

PAUL LETTER HITS ADS.  BF.  “‘The Advertisement attempts to deceive voters regarding Senator Rand Paul’s position on U.S.-Iran relations through at least three false statements,’ writes Paul campaign general counsel Matthew T. Sanderson in the letter dated April 7, which was obtained by BuzzFeed News on Thursday.”

BITCOIN QUESTIONS.  NYT.  “The Bitcoin itself is essentially untraceable if the owner wants to maintain anonymity, and political candidates who accept them must rely largely on donors’ disclosing their identity.”

DEADLINE APPROACHING.  Senate.gov.  “April 20, 2015 … 1st Quarter report (Jan 1 – Mar 31, 2015)”

TAU ON STAND WITH [        ].  WSJ.  “Stand with Rand is no more.”

FEC TURNS 40.  A. Ravel.  “The #FEC will host a 40th anniversary event on April 14 from 10am-12pm. Former FEC staff are welcome, please join us!”

SURPLUS CAMPAIGN MONEY IDEA.  HuffPo.   “As of last year, nearly $100 million in campaign funds sat idle in the accounts of former political candidates.”

MT:  MOTL FAIR.  Missoulian.  “How refreshing it is to have found a political person who dispenses justice fairly. He has many a Democrat unhappy with his rulings. And there is no shortage of Republicans who thinks he comes down too hard on their (errors?).”

NV:  BILL CLEARS SENATE.  RJ.  “A bill that would ban gifts from lobbyists and require candidates to file monthly campaign finance reports during election years was approved unanimously by the Nevada Senate on Thursday.”

NY:  LOOPHOLE MOVE URGED.  NYDN.  “For years, good government groups and editorial boards have complained about the so-called ‘LLC loophole,’ which allows special interests to funnel millions of dollars into campaigns anonymously. Just a few weeks ago, upstate Assemblyman Bill Nojay called it ‘the mothership of Albany corruption.'”

WI:  REWRITING LAWS.  UW.  “Chapter 11 of the state statutes, governing campaign financing, clearly needs a rewrite. Court rulings have blown huge holes in the law, which dates to 1974.”

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND.

4-9-15 political law links

FUTURE CONFLICT.  CNN.  “One heavy-spending nonprofit group is anything but flattered that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a likely 2016 presidential candidate, has launched a political group with a nearly identical name.”

SUPER PAC HAUL.  Breitbart.  “Super PACs backing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for president of the United States are taking in a ‘record haul’ that is ‘eye-popping,’ Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin writes.”

SUPER PAC ALERT.  Miami Herald.  “Time for a political guessing game: Which Florida Republican may have created a new ‘super PAC’ to raise big bucks for the 2016 election?”

SUPER PAC SECOND ACT.  Sunlight.  “The new political committee, American Encore Action, registered with the Federal Election Commission on April 3. Its name is similar to that of American Encore, known formerly as the Center to Protect Patient Rights (CPPR), a dark money group that rebranded during the 2014 elections after it was caught up in an investigation by California’s state election ethics watchdog.”

LOSING THE RAND.  D. Levinthal.  Going forward I’ll try to highlight some political law tweets.

IA:  LAW SOUGHT.  Dailydem.com.  “According to the resolution, the Board is asking the Iowa Legislature to pass a law requiring ‘full and timely disclosure of all sources of major campaign contributions over $200 in Iowa elections.'”

PA:  CANDIDATE FINED.  Philly.com.  “State Sen. Anthony H. Williams accepted excess campaign contributions and wrongly used almost $63,000 from his senate campaign account for his Philadelphia mayoral run, the city Board of Ethics says.”

VT:  PUNITIVE ACTION DECRIED.  VNews.com.  “What candidate would want to seek public financing if, months after an election, he or she could end up on the hook personally for many thousands of dollars because of a minor, even inadvertent violation of the rules? Very few, we would think.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Your daily political law links

MENENDEZ CASE AND THE NEW WORLD.  NorthJersey.com.  “‘People are looking at this as though the Justice Department feels it has to step in in the place of the Federal Election Commission and be the primary enforcer, or at least a more assertive enforcer, of campaign finance laws in light of the lack of action by the FEC,’ said Washington attorney Brett G. Kappel, a specialist in political law whose clients include PACs and super PACs.”

BITCOIN ACCEPTED.  Mic.com.  “Unlike any of the other major Republican presidential hopefuls for 2016, Paul’s campaign accepts bitcoin donations.”

LOBBYING AND MERGER.  NYT.  “It is a demonstration of how Comcast, the media conglomerate long known for its aggressive lobbying operation, has enlisted a vast network of allies to press federal regulators to approve the $45 billion transaction, much as it did in 2010 as it sought to acquire NBCUniversal.”

BOOKER AND MENENDEZ MONEY.  BF.  “Sen. Cory Booker’s campaign does not intend to return funds received from a political action committee associated with indicted Sen. Robert Menendez, an aide to Booker told BuzzFeed News.”

NJ:  CHARGES FILED.  NJ.com.  “Community activist and former Trenton council candidate Juan Martinez is facing fines from the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission for allegedly failing to report information about contributors to his council campaign in 2010.”

ND:  COMPLAINT FILED.  GF Herald.  “Grand Forks Democrats have filed a federal complaint over reported campaign contributions to North Dakota Republican officials.”

OR:  MARCH OF REFORM.  OR Live.  “All of Oregon’s legislative leaders but one are holding hands to push through through a package of state ethics reforms first aired last month by new Gov. Kate Brown.”

RI:  LOOPHOLE BILL.  PJ.  “House and Senate committees on Tuesday approved bills to plug some of the loopholes that allowed former House Speaker Gordon D. Fox to loot his campaign fund – undetected for years – to pay more than $100,000 in personal expenses, including his mortgage and car loans.”

TX:  COMPROMISE?  Chron.com.  ” A compromise has been reached to allow passage of a controversial Senate ethics bill that would allow state elected officials to be prosecuted in their home counties, rather than in Austin, the bill’s author confirmed Tuesday.”

VT:  CASE SETTLED.  VTDigger.  “The Attorney General’s Office has resolved a complaint arising out of advertising by Pam Pac in support of candidates in the 2013 South Burlington City Council election. The State has reached settlement agreements with Pam Pac, a political committee whose treasurer was Pamela Mackenzie, and with candidates Patricia Nowak and Chris Shaw.”

VT:  INJUNCTION SOUGHT.  VTDigger.  “In a Monday filing in U.S. District Court in Burlington, Corren is seeking a preliminary injunction to stall Sorrell’s civil suit in state Superior Court and asks for a declaratory judgment that Corren’s campaign did not break the law.”

WI:  GOALS CLASH.  WI Watch.  “Two diametrically opposed camps, he noted, both see this as an opportunity.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.