Tues. top political law links

NEW SUPER PAC.  The Hill. “Tea Party Patriots, a prominent national group, is launching a super-PAC to engage heavily in Senate races and plans to target at least three Republican incumbents.”

MS SUPER PAC LAUNCH.  NY Times.  “A group of Mississippi Republicans, moving to counter spending from out-of-state conservative groups, have created a ‘super PAC’ to help Senator Thad Cochran fend off a primary challenge and will begin airing a television ad on Friday.”

LAWYERS BUSY.  Roll Call.  “Campaign finance lawyers have been busy in the last few months providing legal services to members of Congress, Super PACs, and presidential campaigns.”

WHEELAN ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE.  US News.  “For now, I’m just asking you to accept a simple premise: 1) Washington is not working. 2) The way we fund campaigns exacerbates that dysfunction. 3) So let’s consider changing how we fund campaigns.”

ASTA PLEDGE.  Travel Weekly.  “ABC Global Services’ pledge of up to $10,000 to ASTA’s Political Action Committee (ASTAPAC) is the largest any company has donated to ASTAPAC, according to Eben Peck, ASTA’s vice president for government affairs.”

CA:  DISCLOSURE CHRISTMAS.  The Californian.  “While most of you enjoyed Christmas last month, Christmas for political reporters actually comes this week when local and regional politicians have to file their Form 460s.”

CT:  NO CHARGES.  NH Register.  “Federal prosecutors do not plan to charge former House Speaker Chris Donovan in the 2012 campaign corruption case that dashed his congressional candidacy and has two of his former staffers serving prison terms.”

NM:  LOBBYISTS GIVE.  WT.  “Lobbyists and their clients handed out about $403,000 in campaign contributions to legislators, Gov. Susana Martinez and others in the months leading up to this year’s legislative session, according to the latest state disclosure reports.”

NY:  FUNDS RETURNED.  Daily News.  “Former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is the only mayoral candidate in the 2013 election to return public funds to the city’s Campaign Finance Board.”

MD:  CANDIDATE WILL TAKE PUBLIC FINANCING.  AP.  “Republican Larry Hogan made his campaign for the GOP primary in the governor’s race in Maryland official on Monday, announcing he will use public financing after filing his candidacy at the state election’s board.”

OH:  NO CFR ON BALLOT.  Columbus Dispatch.  “The Franklin County Board of elections has barred two ballot initiatives from the Columbus ballot in May.”

VA: WITNESS WEAKNESSES. WP. “A quick Google search of Williams would have revealed the controversies surrounding his previous businesses.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.

Monday’s political law links

WHO’S READY? Politico. “A pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC named several prominent Democratic donors on Friday in its push to build support for the former secretary of state to run for president in 2016.”

C-4’S AND THE SUPERBOWL. Fox News. President Obama discussed the topic with Bill O’Reilly during the pre-game interview.

LEGAL DEFENSE FUND ESTABLISHED. Politico. “Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.) has created a special fund to pay his legal bills from an ongoing Justice Department criminal probe into his dealings with a Florida doctor and financial supporter.”

FUNDRAISING LANDSCAPE. Politico. “The Democratic Party has created a well-oiled fundraising machine.”

D’SOUZA SPEAKS. Here. “His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, has contended that D’Souza’s actions were ‘at worst,’ an act of misguided friendship toward the candidate.”

CU BOOMERANG. WP. “Now, party leaders struggling to unify the warring wings in time to retake the Senate this year and lay a foundation for the 2016 presidential race are instead contending with a well-financed insurgency.”

D’S CAPITALIZE ON CU. Mother Jones. “The story of the Democratic Party’s reversal on Citizens United is best told through the story of one group in particular: Priorities USA Action, the flagship Obama super-PAC during the 2012 presidential campaign.”

KOCHS HIT REID. The Hill. “The Koch brothers fired back at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Thursday evening after he said the powerful conservative financiers were trying to ‘buy the country.'”

HLOGA POST-EMPLOYMENT RULES. NY Times. “Some aides resist pay raises, to keep their salaries just below the cutoff that would prompt lobbying restrictions. More highly paid House aides, simply because their paycheck came from an individual lawmaker or leadership office rather than a committee they worked closely with, are immediately allowed to lobby former committee colleagues. This maneuver would be prohibited in the Senate, where senior aides cannot contact anyone in the Senate for a year.”

SUIT FILED. WT. “The suit grows out of a 2010 FEC complaint filed by Public Citizen against Crossroads for what critics said was a failure to register as a political committee and disclose its donors, despite spending massive amounts on political advertising in the 2010 election cycle.”

MT: FOCUS ON COMMISSION. Billings Gazette. “As Montana’s new political practices commissioner, attorney Jonathan Motl is cranking out decisions at a red-hot pace and taking on what he sees as illegal campaign activity by ‘dark money’ groups and their favored candidates.”

VA: LEGAL BILLS DISCLOSED. WP. “New documents released by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s office show that taxpayer-funded attorneys were deeply involved in responding to the federal investigation of former governor Robert F. McDonnell, going back to at least early June.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.

Thurs. political law links

GIVING RATE.  Nerdwallet.com.  “Using campaign contributions data from the Center for Responsive Politics, we ranked the top ten places among the U.S.’s 50 largest metropolitan areas according to per capita contribution rates.”

SUPER PAC WAR.  Daily Beast.  “The folks at Stop Hillary are chafed that Ready for Hillary, in a flurry of networking and buck-raking, has rented the mailing list of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.”

SUPER PACS IN KY.  HuffPo.  “We Are Kentucky, a super PAC formed to support the Senate candidacy of Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D), raised $260,500 in its first six months of operation, according to a report filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.”

FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION MEETING.  The agenda for today’s meeting is here.

CA:  COUNTY REFORMS.  SBSun.com.  “San Bernardino County supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved revisions to its campaign finance reform ordinance, two years after it was established to combat corruption.”

KY:  STATE SUPER PAC LAUNCH.  WKMS.org.  “A newly-formed Super PAC will target Kentucky House races this fall in an effort to win a GOP majority in that chamber.”

MT:  ALLEGATIONS AGAINST CANDIDATES.  Missoulian.com.  “Two more legislative candidates illegally coordinated with a secretive conservative group, the state commissioner of political practices said Thursday, bringing the total to five candidates accused of campaign violations in the 2010 Montana elections.”  Over the last few weeks I’ve missed a number of interesting developments in Montana.  Going forward I’ll link to all of the reports I find.

MT:  REMOVE OFFICEHOLDER?  Independent Record.  “State Rep. Mike Miller, R-Helmville, should be removed from office or fined for accepting illegal campaign help from secretive conservative groups, the state political practices commissioner said in court filings Friday.”

MT:  MORE ACCUSED.  Frontline.  “At least nine candidates for state office in Montana may have coordinated illegally with a dark-money group ahead of the 2010 elections, according to the commissioner responsible for investigating political practices in the state.”

MT:  SEEKING HONESTY.  Independent Record.  “Smack ‘em with a shovel and stop wasting the state’s time.”

OH:  DEWINE ALLEGATIONS.  Dayton Daily News.  “In the three years since winning a close race for attorney general, Mike DeWine and his political team have been raising hundreds of thousands of dollars – often from lawyers who want state business — and then using that campaign cash to pay off a $2 million personal loan that DeWine made to his committee in 2010 and to build up a war chest for his 2014 re-election bid.”  More at Plunderblund.com.

WA:  TOUGHER DISCLOSURE URGED.  Olympian.  “Lawmakers should take more aggressive action this year by forcing disclosure of the biggest campaign donors, whose secret money seems to be playing a more frequent role in state elections.”

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