WHY CFR HASN’T WORKED. Cillizza. “Here’s the key to Beckel’s eye-opening report: Corporations are spending hundreds of millions of dollars via groups that are not required to disclose either their sources of funding or how they spend that money.”
SUPER PACS and 14. NJ. “As the super PAC era progresses, more and more groups that can take and spend unlimited money have popped up. Some high-powered strategists are going local, establishing big-money super PACs that focus on just one Senate or House race.”
GROUP TO SUE. WT. “Two watchdog groups said Thursday they plan to sue the Federal Election Commission over its decision to dismiss a complaint against GOP strategist Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS.”
SUPER PAC MORPH. NJ. “Ready for Hillary claims to have an e-mail list that’s bigger than Clinton’s 2008 campaign database and more donors combined than major presidential super PACS like Crossroads, Restore our Future, Priorities USA, and American Bridge. The idea is to turn all of that over to Clinton, if and when she launches a presidential campaign.”
RULING REVERSED. ABC. “A federal appeals court says a judge should reconsider a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s 2009 ban on federally registered lobbyists serving on government advisory boards.”
SETBACK FOR BAN. Reuters. “The ruling amounts to a partial victory for Washington’s 12,000 registered lobbyists, many of whom feel they have been unfairly tarred by Obama’s efforts to keep them out of public service.”
GROUPS HIT (C)(4) PROPOSALS. TaxProf Blog. “A coalition of 55 conservative organizations has sent this letter to Congress requesting it to reject the IRS’s proposed regulations limiting the political speech of 501(c)(4) groups…”
TIMES HITS FEC. NYT. “The F.E.C. should be scrapped in favor of a nonpartisan and independent board capable of decisive action, not the contrived deadlock that compounds the risk of big-money campaign corruption.”
PERSONAL USE SUIT UPDATE. Boise NPR. “Federal Election Commission lawyers urged a federal judge not to heed U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s contention that regulators are being too hard on him and force him to pay nearly $360,000 in fines and restitution for tapping campaign accounts for his legal defense following his 2007 arrest in an airport bathroom sex sting.”
DONOR SWAPPING ALLEGED. NYDN. “The parallel transactions raise questions whether Grimm —who went on to win a House seat in 2010 — engaged in ‘donor swapping,’ a controversial practice that allows candidates to sidestep fundraising limits.”
LA: LAWSUIT ON LIMIT COMING. The Advocate. “A political action committee supporting Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter lost an attempt Friday to get the Louisiana Board of Ethics to allow unlimited individual contributions, rather than the $100,000 limit imposed by state law.”
MS: INCOMPLETE REPORTS ALLEGED. SunHerald.com. “In many cases, Mississippi politicians file incomplete campaign-finance reports, leaving voters in the dark about their contributors’ backgrounds, but no state agency claims responsibility for rectifying the problem.”
MO: LOBBYIST BAN PLAN. SouthCountyMail.com. “Under [Secretrary of State] Kander’s plan, a lobbyist would be prohibited from providing a gift or meal of any value to a legislator, public official or staffer. His bill also would make it a crime to lie to the state Ethics Commission and, like the governor’s call, would impose limits on how much any one person could contribute to a political campaign.”
NJ: BERGEN MOVES ON PAY TO PLAY. NJ. “The county took a major step toward tightening pay-to-play regulations on Wednesday, introducing a resolution that will reduce the amount county contractors can donate to political candidates.”
NY: DISCLOSURE ERRORS. CapitalNewYork. “Some committees were notified that their campaign finance reports were received but could not be posted because the paperwork was incorrectly filed. Errors included submitting the wrong file, or the right file in the wrong format.”
NY: CFR PLAN. NYT. “Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, seeking to prod recalcitrant lawmakers to take action after a rash of embarrassing corruption scandals in Albany, plans to use his budget proposal this week to push for approval of new ethics laws and a public financing system for state political campaigns, administration officials said.”
RI: NRA FINE. Prov Journal. “The National Rifle Association has agreed to pay a $63,000 fine to Rhode Island after acknowledging that a now-defunct local political action committee had violated the state’s campaign finance law.”
UT: CALLS FOR CFR. Story here. “Sen. Jim Dabakis (D-Salt Lake City) wants Utah to join the majority of states across the country that have limitations on campaign contributions.”
HAVE A GREAT DAY.