As we continue our effort to keep you up-to-date with all the news on how money continues to corrupt American government and politics, BillMoyers.com is pleased to publish this daily digest of money and politics news compiled and edited by Adam Smith, communications director of the non-partisan campaign finance reform group, Every Voice.
Sunlight Foundation, the Internet Archive, and the Committee of Seventy released an interesting report yesterday looking at political ads and news broadcasts in the Philadelphia media market. In the final eight weeks, six stations in the market “benefitted from a $14.4 million bonanza in political ads. Over that same period those stations aired fewer than 19 minutes of substantive political stories — those devoted to actual campaign issues as opposed to news of candidate appearances.”
Campaign Finance/Elections
National Journal: Make Leadership, Not Voting, Mandatory –> Ron Fournier responds to President Obama’s mandatory voting suggestion with his own idea: Rep. John Sarbanes’ (D-MD) Government By the People Act: “give ordinary people the ability to raise gobs of money that actually counteract special-interest donations.”
Every Voice: “People’s Budget” Calls for Empowering Small Donors in Political Process –> I take a look at the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s People’s Budget that calls for small donor public financing (while cutting things like oil subsidies and tax breaks for private jets).
AZ Republic: How to take Congress back from special interests –> Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and John Sarbanes have this op-ed in Phoenix on the Government By the People Act: “Most people who run for public office do so out of a sincere desire to help others and to make a difference in their community. Many are deeply frustrated by the outsized role of money in politics and long to restore Congress’ credibility. To do this, we have to rebalance who holds the power in financing our elections.”
NYT: The Schneiderman Remedy for Sleaze –> NYT editorial praising Eric Schneiderman’s ethics reform plan: “The attorney general’s speech also warned that for all Mr. Cuomo’s talk of reform, his ideas are likely to be no more meaningful than the ethics reforms approved in 2005, 2007, 2011 and 2014 — all of which merely tinkered at the edges.” The NYDN says of Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos’ attacks on Cuomo’s partner Sandra Lee: “Herrings don’t get much redder than this.” Voters are not happy with Cuomo’s handling of ethics.
CRP: Corporate Disclosure of Political Spending –> On Rep. Grace Meng’s (D-NY) bill SEC political spending disclosure bill.
Bloomberg: Thanks for the Stock Tip, Mr. Senator –> A good update on the political intelligence industry in Washington. “Is it legal? That’s a murkier question.”
Congress/Admin/2016
CPI: Meet the top politicians, mega-donors who mingled at secretive conference –> “Eleven potential Republican presidential candidates, several media titans and a gaggle of top political donors ranked among attendees this month of a secretive politics and policy conference, according to an attendee roster obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.” That’s why Steve Scalise couldn’t make it to Selma. Aaron Schock was also there, natch.
Former Sen. Jim Webb on deciding whether to mount a real campaign for president –> “It’s not worth it go through this process if you have to sell out what you believe. The question is, can we get the right kind of support in order to get out and make our case to the American people rather than to the financial sector?”
Reuters: Despite Hillary Clinton promise, charity did not disclose donors –> Oops: “At the outset, the Clinton Foundation did indeed publish what they said was a complete list of the names of more than 200,000 donors and has continued to update it. But in a breach of the pledge, the charity’s flagship health program, which spends more than all of the other foundation initiatives put together, stopped making the annual disclosure in 2010, Reuters has found.”
WSJ: Clinton Charity Tapped Foreign Friends –> “The Clinton Foundation swore off donations from foreign governments when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. That didn’t stop the foundation from raising millions of dollars from foreigners with connections to their home governments, a review of foundation disclosures shows.”
In comments at the summer camp association yesterday, Clinton blamed Washington’s dysfunction partly on “the insatiable pressure to raise money which is crazy and it’s no way to run a great country,” knocking both SCOTUS and the Citizens United decision.
CRP: Seventh Annual K Street Classic: Longhorns Remain on Top –> “We here at OpenSecrets have done just that with our seventh annual K Street Classic, in which we use lobbying expenditures as the predictor for game outcomes in the tournament.”
And speaking of the NCAA tournament, we’ve been running our own bracket with a campaign finance theme.
Bloomberg: The Many Hats of Jim Messina –> “Messina, an in-demand Washington operative and head of Priorities USA Action, a super PAC aligned with likely 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, has become Silicon Valley’s go-to government fixer.”
Reuters: Jeb Bush lawyer tries to stop radio ads touting Bush campaign –> Haha: “To avoid creating an impression that Bush was skirting campaign finance laws, his lawyer had to ask a Florida man to stop running ads touting the former Florida governor as a presidential candidate.”
NYT: Walker Reassures S. Carolinians That Raising Money Won’t Be a Problem –> “Mr. Walker did not mention Mr. Bush or Mr. Bush’s wealthy friends, but the governor did cast himself as a favorite of small-dollar donors: He said 70 percent of the people who had donated to his campaigns gave $75 or less.”
Journal-Sentinel: John Doe prosecutor moves to send former Scott Walker aide to jail –> “A former aide to Gov. Scott Walker when he was Milwaukee County executive may soon be headed to jail.”
WaPo: Jeb Bush pushes back on $500 million fundraising chatter –> The man who set a $1 million contribution limit for his campaign can’t believe people are coming up with crazy estimates for said campaign’s fundraising.
Examiner: Rand Paul did not file to run for president –> This story is basically a few hundred words to say “we totally messed up reading the FEC website.”
NYT: Rubio Ally to Lead ‘Super PAC’ Backing His Candidacy –> Marco Rubio is getting a super PAC.
The Hill: GOP House members: There’s not another Schock-like scandal brewing –> House lawmakers insist Aaron Schock was the exception, not the rule. A cartoon.
WSJ: RNC Boosts Monthly Haul, Targets Data Buildout –> “The Republican National Committee increased its monthly fundraising haul in February, bringing in $7.6 million — about half a million more than it raised in January.” The NRSC brought in $3.8 million last month.
Mitch McConnell promised the Koch brothers he’d take on the EPA and boy is he keeping his word.
WaPo: Patrick Murphy attends meet-and-greet at DSCC ahead of likely Senate run –> “Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-FL) mingled Thursday with party power brokers at a meet-and-greet event held at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the latest sign he is gearing up for a Senate run.”
Politico: Top DC Lobbyist in Ugly Parking Dispute –> Oh man: “The wife of Florida’s former lieutenant governor is considering whether to press charges against a high-powered Washington lobbyist who put his hands on her and, she and a friend say, shoved her Wednesday evening in front of their children amid a spring-break parking dispute at Fort Myers Beach.”
And because it’s Friday –> Larry King has an interesting process for tweeting.
Other/States
HuffPost: Republicans Heap Money On Rahm Emanuel’s Re-election Campaign –> “In total, Republican donors have put more than $2.3 million behind Emanuel’s re-election since Jan. 1, 2013, according to Illinois campaign finance records.”
The Nation: Nine Billionaires Are About to Remake New York’s Public Schools — Here’s Their Story –> On the billionaires — and Cuomo donors — behind education policy changes in New York.
New Yorker: Ayn Rand Comes to UNC –> Gov. Pat McCory and his allies have been messing with the University of North Carolina and you can’t miss the influence of wealthy donor Art Pope in the process.
To read more go to http://everyvoice.org/dailyclips.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You can get our Morning Reads delivered to your inbox every weekday! Just enter your email address below…
