[Political Activity Law]

FEC MEETING.   The agenda for today’s open meeting is online.

RAVEL ADMISSION.   WE.  “A former Democratic chair of the Federal Election Commission who repeatedly rejected charges she was targeting Republicans and conservative websites like the Drudge Report has admitted that the agency has an anti-GOP bias.”

CA:  MEUSER WIN.  My friend Mark Meuser is moving on in California’s Secretary of State race.  I’ve had the opportunity to work with him and look forward to a hard-fought campaign.

HI:  FACING QUESTIONS.   CB.  “State Rep. Kaniela Ing has a numbers problem, and it’s not just because he’s trailing in the polls in the race for Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District.”

MO:  REPRESENTATION ISSUE.  HAN.  “The Kentucky lawyer who represented Gov. Eric Greitens and his campaign in the Missouri Ethics Commission complaint over a charity donor list never paid the fees necessary to legally practice law in Missouri.”

NH:  AMPING UP ENFORCEMENT.   NHBR.  “For the first time, the unit will be ‘implementing a systemic examination of the financial disclosure statements filed by every candidate and political committee during the 2018 primary and general election campaign to ensure that the report is timely and in compliance with the minimum disclosure requirements.’ The attorney general’s office also promises ‘randomized audits of financial disclosures.'”

WA:  TECH COMPANIES SUED.   FOR.  “The state of Washington is suing Facebook and Google over allegations that the two companies violated campaign finance laws.  Washington attorney general Bob Ferguson announced that his office filed two lawsuits this week against the two tech giants, alleging they failed to maintain records on entities that have purchased political ads on their platforms, violating state campaign finance laws.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

STRAW DONORS IN THE NEWS.   IPL.  “Straw donor schemes are surprisingly common.  Such schemes involve an individual who has made the maximum donation to a campaign and who seeks to circumvent the contribution limit by funneling money through friends and family, causing FEC reports inaccurately to list those other persons as the true donors.”

BITCOIN IN POLITICS.  CT.  “Even though the weight of cryptocurrency contributions in campaign funds remains modest, the overall upward trend is consistent with the increasing degree of mass adoption. There is little doubt that we will soon see more campaigns funded exclusively by crypto, as well as more successful bids relying at least partly on digital currency contributions. As these processes unfold, the FEC will be compelled to chart clearer rules and grapple with the problem of crypto donations’ limited traceability.”

CA:  FPPC BOOTS.   SFC.  “The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission went into bureaucratic overdrive Thursday, booting a May 24 complaint filed against supporters of Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom by Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign for governor.”

CA:  REGULATOR RESIGNS.   CPR.  “Fair Political Practices Commission Chairperson Jodi Remke announced on Tuesday that she will step down on Friday. That follows months of acrimony with fellow commissioners.”

CA:  MAYOR CLEARED.   TCN.  “Mayor Jim Desmond has been cleared of wrongdoing after an independent investigation found no ‘probable cause’ to validate claims he violated campaign finance laws concerning his bid for the District 5 seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.”

MT:  DECISION ISSUED.   MISS.  “The Montana Commissioner of Political Practices issued a decision Friday finding that Missoula Sheriff T.J. McDermott violated campaign finance laws.”

NY:  LLC LAW IN THE NEWS.   TU.  “Molinaro also stated on Wednesday that he would push for the closure of the so-called ‘LLC loophole’ in state election law, which allows wealthy individuals to donate essentially unlimited sums to state political candidates using limited liability companies that often cannot be traced to the contributors.”

NY:  MISTRIAL DECLARED.  WSJ.  “A Long Island judge on Thursday declared a mistrial in the case of Edward Mangano, the former Nassau County executive accused of public-corruption crimes, after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.”

TX:  CAMPAIGNS LIVE ON.   WFAA.  “WFAA looked at Texas Ethics Commission filings of nearly 400 former state representatives and senators. We found that about 40 of them had between then about $9 million in leftover donations.”

WA:  CASE SETTLED.   TDN.  “Longview Democrat Teresa Purcell will pay $14,395 to settle a complaint about campaign finance reporting failures stemming from her 2016 run for a state House seat, Purcell and the state Attorney General’s Office announced Friday.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.  

FARA AO’S COMING.  NLR.  “The Department of Justice has begun informing persons who obtained Foreign Agents Registration Act (‘FARA’) advisory opinions that it will ‘soon’ publish on its website copies of advisory opinions issued since January 1, 2010.”

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM?   ATL.  “If Republicans lose the House in 2018, expect the Trumpist right to start thinking very hard about the virtues of campaign-finance reform.”

FLEXIBILITY URGED.   HILL.  “Internet giants are pushing back against tougher election advertising regulations, asking the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to allow for some flexibility in how they disclose funding sources for political ads.”

ZOMBIE UPDATE.   BG.  “Donors, nonprofits and a lawmaker are urging the Federal Election Commission to make it harder for a dead political career to keep feeding, zombie-like, at the money left in a dormant campaign account.”

QUESTIONS ON GROUP.   HILL.  “A group tied to Breitbart News that was meant to boost President Trump‘s support among urban and African-American communities may have violated election law, according to a former Federal Election Commission (FEC) general counsel.”

MO:  CAMPAIGN FINANCE ALLEGATIONS.   VOX.  “Greitens, a Republican, is currently facing a felony charge for invasion of privacy, stands accused of coercing a woman into sex, and, according to the state’s attorney general, may have committed a crime by using a charity donor list to solicit campaign funds.”

MO:  ALLEGATIONS INDICATED.  MN.  “State law requires candidates for statewide office to form a campaign committee if they spend or receive more than $500 dollars.  According to Hafner, Greitens failed to do so until a month later.”

TX:  HOPING FOR RULING.   TRN.  “I have a supporter who is interested in contributing to my campaign specifically to help defray the costs of childcare. With this in mind, I am requesting an Advisory Opinion from your board on–if the donor is aware that the donation is for childcare–I can accept the contribution and use it for childcare.”

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MEX:  FUNDING QUESTIONS.   ABC.  “For every peso declared to Mexican electoral authorities by political parties and candidates, 15 more are moving under the table, according to a report Tuesday on the problem of illegal campaign finance.”

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HAVE A GOOD DAY.