4-7 political law links

MENENDEZ INDICTMENT CHANGES EVERYTHING.  BI.  “It will be up to a jury to decide whether the doctor and the senator engaged in corruption. But the facts asserted in the indictment are sufficient to call into question the court’s underlying thinking in Citizens United.”

WHAT’S LEFT.   MinnPost.  “The two fundamental ideas around which the entire post-Watergate campaign-finance regulatory scheme was built were limits on how much any one donor could give and disclosure of who is giving. An underemphasized story in last week’s Washington Post seemed to say that there is nothing meaningful left of either idea.”

MENENDEZ AND THE SUPREMES.  NR.  “But it turns out corruption, appearances, and influence-peddling are all at the crux of federal charges against New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez.”

NEW WORLD.  Bloomberg.  “Potential presidential candidates this year–including Bush–are using outside groups to pay for traditional functions of an early campaign or political committee, including communications, policy development, and research.  Unlike a presidential campaign or the committees that politicians are supposed to use while they consider running for the White House, these groups have no legal limits on contributions, which worries watchdogs.”

STRETCHING LIMITS.  Vox.  “Jeb Bush hasn’t yet said that he’s running for president, and he’s in no rush to do so. Because, as long as he’s not a candidate, he’ll have an easier time raising the money he thinks his operation will need.”

PRO-HUCKABEE SUPER PAC.  NYT.  “A group with the ability to raise unlimited donations to support the former Arkansas governor, who has said he is considering a second run for the presidency, has begun and will be run by a well-known Iowa operative.”

INQUIRY SOUGHT.  Sun Herald.  “In the latest barb of a recent conservative onslaught aimed at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a new watchdog group said Friday it has asked the Federal Election Commission to determine whether she has violated campaign laws by failing to formally declare her presidential candidacy.”

CA:  UNION ALLEGATIONS.  IBABuzz.com.  “Orinda Mayor Steve Glazer, vying with Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla in the 7th State Senate District special election, filed a complaint Wednesday with the state’s political watchdog agency claiming labor unions are hiding their role in a group that’s attacking him.”

MO:  GIFT SEARCH.  STLToday.   “Use this database to find gifts from lobbying groups to Missouri politicians from January 2012 to February 2015.”

MO:  GIFTS AND COOLING PERIOD.  KC.com.  “The Missouri House on Thursday signed off on ethics legislation that would cap lobbyist gifts at $25 apiece and ban lawmakers from becoming lobbyists for at least one year after leaving office.”

MT:  OPPOSITION.  FHNG.  “As a former Commissioner of Political Practices, I respectfully object to the confirmation of current Commissioner Jon Motl.”

RI:  STATE OWED.  NBC.  “Nearly 300 ex-candidates and political action committees collectively owe Rhode Island $2.2 million in fines for not filing campaign finance reports on time.”

VT:  SORRELL TO SPEAK.  KSL.  “Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell will give a talk at Vermont Law School about the state’s campaign finance laws and a lawsuit to block Vermont’s genetically engineered food labeling law.”

YESTERDAY AT THE WHITE HOUSE.  I got the chance to attend yesterday’s White House Egg Roll with my family.  It was warm and sunny and I took a bunch of photos, including this one of the President and the First Lady.  The day marked the 5th anniversary of the Let’s Move! campaign.

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HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Here are today’s political law links, 4-2

SENATOR INDICTED.  WP.  “Federal prosecutors unveiled a 14-count indictment Wednesday of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), one of his party’s leading voices on foreign affairs, charging him with using his office to benefit an eye doctor in exchange for many gifts over their decades of friendship.”

INDICTMENT NEWS.  Star Ledger.   “Also indicted was Menendez’s friend and campaign donor, Dr. Salomon Melgen, a West Palm Beach, Fla., ophthalmologist.”

CORRUPTION CHARGES.  NYT.  “The indictment, the first federal bribery charges against a sitting senator in a generation, puts in jeopardy Mr. Menendez’s political future and carries a possible sentence of 15 years in prison for each of the eight counts of bribery.”

THEORY DIFFICULTY.  HuffPo.  “Menendez has denied any wrongdoing, and the case could rest on questions about the reach of the “speech and debate” clause of the Constitution, which makes it very difficult for members of Congress to be prosecuted for their official acts, and difficult for federal investigators to access materials that may implicate members of Congress.”

NEW NONPROFIT.  WP.  “The nonprofit group, Right to Rise Policy Solutions, was quietly established in Arkansas in February by a friend and former Bush staffer. The group shares the name of two political committees for which Bush has been aggressively raising money — blurring the line that is supposed to separate a campaign from independent groups.”

CHAIR ON TESTING.  WP (A. Ravel).  “There is no such thing as pre-testing the waters.”

DC:  UNFINISHED WORK.  WP.  “The choice of identifying Gray in Thompson’s proceedings was the judge’s. The timing was Machen’s.”

MN:  GAP PROPOSED.  KIMT.  “Many states and the U.S. government have limits against lawmakers becoming lobbyists too soon, but Minnesota does not.”

VT:  RGA TO PAY.  BFP.  “The Republican Governors Association will pay $40,000 for violating Vermont campaign finance laws while supporting Brian Dubie in the 2010 governor’s election, the state Attorney General’s Office announced Monday.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.  I’ll send around the next set of links on Tuesday.  Have a great weekend.

4-1-15 political law links

TESTING COMPLAINTS.  NYT.  “The groups, the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21, filed formal complaints with the Federal Election Commission against four undeclared candidates for president: Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Rick Santorum, all Republicans; and Martin O’Malley, a Democrat.”

TESTING LIMITS.  FT.  “As a raft of Democrats and Republicans line up to formally announce their bids for the White House in the coming weeks, Mr Bush and other potential contenders are already raising tens of millions of dollars through a multitude of vehicles, from traditional political action committees to ‘super-PACs’ and non-profit entities known as 527s.”

LLC GIVING.  Slate.  “Super PACs, which were created in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and a related federal court case in 2010, are supposed to be transparent political committees, publicly disclosing who funds them. However, limited liability companies such as SPM Holdings can serve as vehicles for megadonors to contribute to the groups—many of which are aligned with specific political candidates—while hiding their identities from voters.”

PAC QUESTIONS.  Newsweek. “Even within the free-wheeling world of U.S. campaign finance, Vote2ReduceDebt stands out as a cautionary tale for donors, activists and voters.”

CT:  BILL MODIFIED.  NH Register.  “The bill, which seeks to correct some problems created by the 2013 campaign finance package, will now cap the amount of money a state party can spend on a publicly-financed House or Senate candidate at $250,000.”

NJ:  PAY TO PLAY WARNING.  NJ.com.  “Tom Byrne, who was elected chairman of the board overseeing the state’s $77 billion in pension funds at the start of the meeting, said the rule change, which would expand pay-to-play rules, is ill-advised.”

NJ:  COMPLAINT REJECTED.  IBT.  “The New Jersey Ethics Commission, led by a former aide to Gov. Chris Christie, has rejected a complaint targeting the Christie administration’s former top pension official. Citing jurisdictional constraints, the commission issued a one-paragraph ruling dismissing allegations of impropriety directed by the state’s largest union at Bob Grady, a private equity executive who headed the state council that oversees public employees’ retirement money.”

NY:  LAWSUIT ESCAPED.  Law360.  “A New York federal Judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit seeking multiple injunctions over Aetna Inc.’s alleged failure to fully and accurately disclose its political spending, ruling that the plaintiff didn’t adequately plead to the standards needed for injunctive relief.”

NY:  BILL SECRECY.  Capital NY.  “After the arrest and indictment of former Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, Cuomo proposed a five-point ethics plan, telling lawmakers he wouldn’t pass a budget unless the reforms were adopted.”

VA:  POST SUPPORTS REFORM.  WP.  ” What seems to be a tightening is actually a loosening, as the current limit is an annual aggregate, while the new limit would apply to each separate gift.”

VT:  RGA FINED.  VTDigger.org.  “The Republican Governors Association will pay $40,000 in penalties for campaign finance violations stemming from its spending during Vermont’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.