[Political Activity Law]

ELECTION LAW NEWS. Wiley Rein’s latest Election Law News is here.

TODAY AT THE FEC. More about today’s meeting agenda is here.

FORMER CANDIDATE SENTENCED. WP. “The Justice Department says a former congressional candidate in Rhode Island has been sentenced to three years in prison for fraud and campaign finance violations.” DOJ’s Press Release is here.

FORCING VOTE. HILL. “One of the bills the senators will try to secure a vote on will be Warner’s Foreign Influence Reporting in Election (FIRE) Act, which would require political campaigns to report foreign contacts to the FBI and the Federal Election Commission.”

STEARNS TO PAY. OCALA. “The former Republican congressman must pay $15,000 for using campaign funds for personal use years after leaving office.”

PA: WHO’S GIVING. PE. “The latest campaign-finance reports from the 2020 presidential candidates, filed last week, offer a snapshot of how the race is sizing up across the Philadelphia area. All told, donors around here have given roughly $2.7 million through June 30 to the two dozen or so candidates who hope to be their party’s nominee next year.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

EQUAL TIME IN THE NEWS. WE. “Garner’s employer, Cumulus Media, opted to squash the interview as a result of the Federal Communications Commission’s Equal Time Rule, which specifies that any network that gives air time to a political candidate must give the same amount to any opposing candidate who requests it.”

ONLINE BARRAGE. POL. “A Democratic super PAC is starting to spend at least $1 million a month online attacking President Donald Trump’s record on the economy, the group announced Tuesday.”

SUPER PAC ATTACK. JS. “Wisconsin is among four battleground states being hit with digital ads from a Democratic super PAC targeting President Donald Trump.”

USE OF FUNDS EXAMINED. POL. “Running for president costs millions of dollars in staff salaries, even more in advertising fees and tons in travel — but sometimes, what a campaign really needs to get through a day is five-figures worth of paella.”

MESSAGE MIXUP. SFC. “The problem is, while Steyer doesn’t need money, he needs donors — 130,000 of them — to qualify for the Democratic National Committee’s Sept. 12 debate in Houston. That’s in addition to support of 2% or more in four national or early-voting-state polls.”

CA: TAX RETURN TICK. POL. “Gov. Gavin Newsom’s back in California after a brief vacation, and he’s got a major decision to make.”

MS: CASH LOOPHOLE. CL. “A loophole in Mississippi law allows politicians to personally profit from their campaign funds — as long as they use money raised before 2018.”

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CORRECT THE RECORD ANALYSIS. OS. “Deadlocked on a party-line vote, the Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint that Hillary Clinton’s campaign illegally coordinated with a super PAC during the 2016 presidential election cycle.”

PERSONAL USE IN THE NEWS. FP. “Former Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns is the first casualty of the Federal Election Commission’s crackdown on zombie campaigns, agreeing to pay a $6,900 fine and reimburse his campaign $8,120 for violating federal law prohibiting personal use of campaign funds.”

LEFT PACS RAISE. MJ. ” Yet even as it boasted of being the preeminent online resistance organization, it spent just $2,350—0.3 percent of what it raised—on independent expenditures supporting Democratic candidates or targeting Republicans. Instead, much of the money went to Dworkin’s consulting firm Bulldog Finance Group for fundraising consulting and to other individuals associated with the super-PAC.”

FL: BALLOT MEASURE UPDATE. GQ. “In the latest dispatch from the Republican Party’s war on democracy, allies of President Donald Trump are pushing a ballot initiative in Florida that would amend the state constitution to specify that ‘only’ U.S. citizens may vote in elections.”

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ARGENTINA: NO MORE CASH. AQ. “The reform, which modifies the existing Political Parties Financing Law, seeks to reduce dirty money in politics by outlawing cash donations for campaigns. This would be a truly major shift — during the last presidential campaign in 2015, 99% of campaign contributions were made in cash, according to CIPPEC, a think tank that promotes government transparency.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.