Tag: Federal Election Commission

Chuck Todd: “Wouldn't it be nice if the commission overseeing money in elections, weren't such a running joke?” » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of politics headlines, as well as commentary and informed perspectives. Find…

Share H.R. 1, the political regulation omnibus bill, contains “provisions that unconstitutionally infringe the freedoms of speech and association,” and which “will have the effect of harming our public discourse by silencing necessary voices that would otherwise speak out about the public issues of the day.” Don’t just take my word for it; that’s the view of the American Civil Liberties Union, expressed in this March 1 letter (more). For example, the bill would apply speech-chilling new restrictions to issue ads by cause organizations, should they happen to mention individual lawmakers. The House of Representatives nonetheless voted Friday along party lines to pass the bill, which was sponsored by Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD). For now, it has no prospect of passage in the Senate. The issues raised in the ACLU letter aside, H.R. 1 contains many other provisions that likely are unconstitutional, unwise, or both. Colleagues Ilya Shapiro and Nathan Harvey enumerate some of them (“If ever adopted, [HR1] would give power to one slice of Washington’s elite at the expense of American democracy’s carefully crafted checks and balances”). More criticism: Brad Smith on the bill’s restrictions on discussion and coordination of expenditures on speech; David A. French (“At its essence, the bill federalizes control over elections to an unprecedented scale, expands government power over political speech, mandates increased disclosures of private citizens’ personal information (down to name and address), places conditions on citizen contact with legislators that inhibits citizens’ freedom of expression, and then places enforcement of most of these measures in the hands of a revamped Federal Election Commission that is far more responsive to presidential influence.”) On gerrymandering, an issue on which the Constitution does grant Congress a power to prescribe standards which I’ve argued it should consider using more vigorously, the bill takes the heavy-handed approach of requiring all states to create a commission of a certain format. Whatever the comparative virtues of one format or another, that would likely run into the Supreme Court’s doctrine against federal “commandeering” of state government resources.

WMNF News interviewed Keyan Bliss, a grassroots volunteer coordinator with the Move to Amend coalition. “To accomplish this vision, Move to Amend is seeking to amend the U.S. Constitution to unequivocally state that corporations – artificial entities created by state law – are not people with the same inalienable constitutional rights as human beings. “For the past nine years, Move to Amend has been clear in how we get to the root of the problem. It’s the now-infamous Supreme Court decision, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, from 2010. We believe we must abolish the court-created doctrines of corporate constitutional rights and get big money out of politics at the same time, leaving for no loopholes. “Together our coalition drafted and supports the ‘We the People amendment,’ which was introduced into Congress in the last session as House Joint Resolution 48. This is the only proposed amendment that would address both of these court-created doctrines: corporate constitutional rights and money equals speech, which are the very foundations of corporate rule in the United States. “Last year we were able to secure the support of some 66 House representatives from both sides of the aisle. And right now we’re currently working to reintroduce the We the People amendment in the current Congress and in the U.S. Senate for the first time as well.” Listen to a longer version of this interview here: On Monday, Move to Amend will table at the Martin Luther King Day Parade in Tampa and host an event that day at 6:30 p.m. It’s at Bounce Boy in Columbus Plaza at 5008 East 10th Avenue. Then, on Tuesday they’ll be in Sarasota at Fogartyville at 525 Kumquat Court at 6:30 p.m.

A contingent of Senate Democratic Conference members want Facebook to voluntarily disclose more about the sources of advertising dollars on the social media platform. The group led by New Jersey’s Robert Menendez, highlights in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg efforts by Russia to use Facebook to spread political messaging to undermine the U.S. electoral process. “More than a year ago, after news reports revealed that Russian agents used Facebook to spread inflammatory posts to over 126 million Facebook users, Facebook promised Congress that it would provide additional disclosures on political ads,” the letter read. “Yet, you continue to take in ad revenue from companies cloaked in secrecy. Although no legal requirement exists mandating that political advertisers on social media platforms file disclosures with the Federal Election Commission, you could take it upon yourself to mirror the laws that exist for radio and television ads.” The senators cited reporting about a group that pushed a concealed carry permit certification program for gun owners, to the tune of $2.5 million. Joining Menendez were Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, Tom Udall of New Mexico, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Mazie K. Hirono of Hawaii and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Such transparency will help ensure open and fair elections, free of dark money or foreign interference,” the senators wrote, stressing a loss in confidence of customers. Also Watch: Google CEO Rejects Claims of Search Bias Against GOP spaceplay / pause qunload | stop ffullscreen ??volume mmute ??seek . seek to previous 12… 6 seek to 10%, 20% … 60% Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android.

“This is the heat of the general election, and the same person is acting as an agent for the NRA and the Trump campaign.” Reporting by The Trace, which has teamed up with Mother Jones to investigate the NRA’s political activity, shows that the NRA and the Trump campaign employed the same operation—at times, the exact same people—to craft and execute their advertising strategies for the 2016 presidential election. The investigation, which involved a review of more than 1,000 pages of Federal Communications Commission and Federal Election Commission documents, found multiple instances in which National Media, through its affiliates Red Eagle and AMAG, executed ad buys for Trump and the NRA that seemed coordinated to enhance each other. Experts say the arrangement appears to violate campaign finance laws. AMAG does not appear to have any employees or contacts independent of National Media; a lawyer who has been identified in news accounts as representing AMAG did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Records in the FCC “public inspection files”—files that television stations maintain in order to comply with transparency regulations around political advertising—show that Red Eagle and AMAG often bought ads around the same time, on the same stations, for the NRA and the Trump campaign, respectively. FCC documents also list her as the AMAG buyer or contact for various other Florida stations. “In mid-September,” the book says, “Angle and his boss were summoned to Trump Tower and told their firm would be placing all of the Trump campaign’s television advertising during the last seven weeks of the campaign.” Angle is listed on National Media’s website as a “senior media buyer.” In October, his name appeared in FCC paperwork as the contact for an NRA ad buy, placed through Red Eagle, at an ABC station in Denver. Ferrell’s “efforts help [National Media] provide optimal financial stewardship of campaign media budgets.” Kovatch “has consistently bought the largest media markets around the country, building an extensive knowledge of ratings, costs and seasonal trends across all time periods and dayparts.” Angle uses his “extensive experience” to “strategically place efficient and effective media buys for our clients.” And Kowalski “acted as a liaison between media buyers and TV, radio, and cable networks,” and “researched voter demographic data to help create” advertising campaigns for, among others, “presidential” candidates and “issue-advocacy groups.” Prior reporting has identified consulting firms as conduits for potentially illegal coordination between campaigns and outside groups. Documents authorizing the purchase were signed by Ferrell, whose colleague Ben Angle, the senior buyer at National Media, has been a proponent of sports as a way to reach conservative audiences. Angle’s name appears on Trump campaign paperwork documenting the Raycom purchase, directly above “AMAG.” After reviewing the Raycom records, Wilson said the pattern suggests the purchases were part of a unified strategy by the NRA and the Trump campaign.

Less than a week after he lost a West Virginia congressional race by nearly 13 points, Democratic state senator Richard Ojeda announced Monday his plans to run for the presidency of the United States. “We got a long ways to go, this is going to be a long fight, but we’re going to do this together,” Ojeda said in a live statement broadcast online. “I’m Richard Ojeda, and I’m running for the president of the United States of America.” The Ojeda presidential committee formed less than a week after Republican Carol Miller squashed a surge of enthusiasm behind Ojeda’s campaign by decisively winning their race for the open U.S. House seat in West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District. He criticized politicians who “legislate themselves into wealth” and proposed a system in which federal lawmakers are subject to a wealth cap of $1 million, and must donate the rest of their holdings to charity. Likewise, after leaving office, they can only receive retirement of up to $130,000 per year and total income of up to $250,000 per year, with anything above that being donated to charity. Also, Ojeda said federal lawmakers should be subject to “the very same health care systems as the average citizens,” harkening back to his congressional campaign’s emphasis on health care and protecting the Affordable Care Act. “I can guarantee you, we will finally see a fix in our health care system when the very people voting on those bills are directly affected,” he said. And even those are no guarantee for Ojeda. He won two of 18 counties in the 3rd District, Fayette and Boone. He then won re-election in 2016 by a whopping 44 points.

_____________________ Jamal Khashoggi is dead, said Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s government said on Friday that Jamal Khashoggi, the missing Saudi dissident who was a columnist for the Washington Post, was strangled during a fistfight with its agents inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. President Trump appeared to accept Saudi Arabia’s explanation on Friday. [Read the story] American intelligence officials, however, are increasingly convinced that Mr. Khashoggi was the victim of a planned killing and that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is culpable. [Read the story] Additional Reading • Khashoggi Disappearance May Disrupt Trump Administration’s Plans to Squeeze Iran • News Analysis: In Trump’s Saudi Bargain, the Bottom Line Proudly Wins Out • Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk The Justice Department accused Russians of meddling in the midterms. [Read the story] Mr. Trump praised an assault on a reporter during a rally on Thursday and railed against immigration during another on Friday. Democratic candidates in key congressional races are outpacing their Republican opponents in fund-raising, according to an analysis of reports filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission. But huge checks from conservative donors are assuring that their side stays competitive. [Read the story] Additional Reading • As Other Republican Candidates Struggle Financially, Trump Stockpiles Cash • Who Raised More Money? He is seen as the G.O.P.’s best opportunity to flip a Democratic seat in November.

For New Mexico voters, the primary sources of campaign finance data are the websites of the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office and the Federal Election Commission. And at the federal level, there are also reports filed by broadcasters with the Federal Communications Commission that show who is buying airtime for television ads. Called NAB reports, which stands for National Association of Broadcasters, these are often the first sign one has of a group planning to spend money in an election. But searching those filings on the FCC site is onerous. The Center for Responsive Politics, at opensecrets.org, has pulled all the reports filed by New Mexico broadcasters into a user-friendly portal. The group also has included a list of the most recent organizations that have gained nonprofit status with the IRS. It’s a little arcane. But if you ever wanted to, along with reporters, research who is spending how much on television ad buys, this portal makes it a lot easier. New Mexico In Depth’s Openness Project provides a similar service for state-level campaign finance and lobbyist data, pulled from the secretary of state’s website. Another website doing similar state-level work is a project of the National Institute on Money in Politics, followthemoney.org.

Washington (CNN)A Supreme Court move on Tuesday could mean that so-called "dark money" groups would have to disclose the names of their donors, potentially chipping away at a longstanding shroud of secrecy surrounding money in politics. It means nonprofit groups like Crossroads GPS could face new requirements to reveal their donors before November's midterm elections. Crossroads GPS is the No. 2 "dark money" spender since the 2010 Citizens United vs. FEC ruling, according to a recent report by the nonprofit campaign finance group Issue One. Hunter did not respond to CNN's request for comment. There are other loopholes -- particularly for nonprofit groups that don't advocate for candidates themselves, but send money to super PACs that do -- that can also help shield the identities of groups' donors. "This is a real victory for transparency. As a result, the American people will be better informed about who's paying for the ads they're seeing this election season," tweeted Democratic FEC commissioner Ellen Weintraub. Advocates for stronger donor disclosure requirements in politics, including the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which challenged the decades-old FEC rule that the federal judge threw out, celebrated the decision. "This is a great day for transparency and democracy," CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said.

A liberal millionaire now running for Congress in Pennsylvania -- and railing against the influence of money in politics -- has a history of making large donations to former President Barack Obama's campaign and other efforts. Scott Wallace, grandson of a former vice president of Franklin Roosevelt -- who’s running as a Democrat in Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District against Republican incumbent Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick -- gave more than $100,000 to Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and Presidential Inaugural Committee and also asked top administration official John Podesta to appoint him as U.S. Ambassador in South Africa. Wallace has made criticism of money in politics a campaign issue, saying money “corrupts” politics and slamming President Trump for giving access to wealthy donors. As he was donating to various Obama funds, Wallace also began his efforts to become the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, his so-called “second country,” where he lived for several years while overseeing the Wallace Global Fund’s projects in the country, by directly pushing a top Obama official to consider him for the role. "It has become my second country, and I would be deeply honored to be considered to represent President Obama as ambassador there." It has become my second country, and I would be deeply honored to be considered to represent President Obama as ambassador there,” he continued, openly offering his diplomatic services. - Scott Wallace The liberal millionaire returned to the issue a few weeks later, sending another email to Podesta, who spearheaded Obama’s transition team, saying he listed Podesta as a reference in an application to work in the administration. The Wallace campaign told Fox News that Wallace “would have been honored to join” the Obama administration and accused Fitzpatrick’s campaign of taking money special interests. “If you want to talk about a corrupting influence of money, let’s talk about how Brian Fitzpatrick took hundreds of thousands of dollars from oil and gas special interests and then voted to give them billions in tax breaks or how he has accepted thousands of dollars from corrupt Trump cronies and criminals like Elliott Broidy and Adam Kidan,” she added.