Morning Reads: Hillary's Finance Team; Anti-EPA Bill Takes on Lobbyists?

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 be publishing 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.

This is sort of funny: after months of FEC Commissioner Lee Goodman publicly attacking FEC Chair Ann Ravel for saying she wants to restrict speech on the internet (she doesn’t), it appears at least a few commissioners are balking at letting people submit comments to the agency via email, according to this BNA report ($$). They want to stick with postal mail and a rather onerous web submission process.

Dollars to donuts, it’s not Ravel who’s opposed to email submissions. Internet freedom — as long as people don’t want to use it to talk to us.

Campaign Finance/Elections

Politico: IRS may broaden rule to police political nonprofits –> Weird that setting clear guidelines for everyone to follow so that previous problems don’t happen again is seen as “controversial” these days: “The IRS may broaden a looming controversial rule to police political nonprofits to include political parties and political action committees, the IRS chief said Wednesday.”

Interesting provision in the anti-EPA bills passed by the House this week –> “a bill passed Tuesday would bar the agency from appointing registered lobbyists to the agency’s Science Advisory Board.”

CLC: Members of Congress Urged to Co-Sponsor DISCLOSE Act to Combat Growing Crisis of ‘Dark Money’ in Our Elections –> “Today, the Campaign Legal Center joined with other reform groups in urging Members of the House and Senate to co-sponsor the DISCLOSE Act, legislation responding to the unprecedented amounts of anonymously-funded political spending triggered by the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC.”

WaPo: Repair the Voting Rights Act –> Editorial: “Congress needs to fix the Voting Rights Act, a fact that can’t be ignored now that the politicians have left Selma.” WaPo on Oregon making it easier to vote.

NYT: Identity Crisis –> With the Supreme Court likely to take up a case involving Wisconsin’s voter ID bill, Linda Greenhouse writes, “I hope it’s not a fantasy to imagine that the Supreme Court — yes, the Roberts court — will seize the opportunity that the Wisconsin case provides to send a message different from the one it sent two years ago, an affirmative message the country now urgently needs to hear.” Nevada debates voter ID and it goes exactly as you’d expect.

President Obama in Cleveland yesterday suggesting mandatory voting –> “It would be transformative if everybody voted — that would counteract money more than anything.” US Senator Marco Rubio can’t believe a president would want more people to vote.

Baltimore Sun: Hogan’s public financing bill passes House –> Good: “Gov. Larry Hogan scored a modest victory Tuesday as his legislation authorizing a voluntary tax checkoff to replenish the state’s public financing fund for gubernatorial candidates passed the House.”

Register Guard: Oregon needs to limit campaign contributions –> A handful of lawmakers in Oregon write that, “The lack of contribution limits gives far more power and influence to those who can write massive campaign checks — businesses and wealthy individuals who don’t necessarily represent the needs of Oregon’s working families.”

Congress/Admin/2016

World-Herald: Brad Ashford says he’s catching flak for focusing on his work, not fundraising –> The headline is a good summary of politics these days.

USA Today: 2016 ‘candidates’ build campaigns-in-waiting –> “Hillary Rodham Clinton and her allies appear to be building a massive operation to support her expected presidential campaign — scooping up pollsters, strategists and media aides, and scoping out office space in New York City. But the Democrat has yet to launch a campaign committee.”

WaPo: Bush lands Romney finance director to lead super PAC fundraising –> It says a lot about 2016 that the 2012 nominee’s finance director is joining a super PAC instead of a campaign: “Mason J. Fink, one of Mitt Romney’s top political fundraisers, has signed on with Jeb Bush’s team and is expected to oversee national fundraising for Bush’s super PAC, according to Republicans with knowledge of the move.”

WaPo: A mighty fundraising operation awaits Clinton, as well as financial hurdles –> Good read from Matea Gold: “The outlines of the finance operation for Clinton’s anticipated campaign are just beginning to take shape, led by the expected finance director Dennis Cheng, who until recently headed fundraising for the Clinton family foundation,” with some deets on how this cycle will be different. Also, this quote: “The first $100 million is easy. The next $1 billion is what’s more problematic.”

WaPo: Aaron Schock is resigning from Congress. But there will be a lot more ‘Aaron Schocks’ in the future. –> This piece on Aaron Schock and an increase in lawmakers looking to be showhorses instead of workhorses is pretty good but the blanket slam on millennials at the end is lame. Anthony Weiner weighs in (smartly), Schock’s dad is a dad, Politico on loose travel rules, Paul Singer on the importance of reporting.

HuffPost: Democrats Call On GOP Lawmakers To Give Aaron Schock Donations To Treasury Department –> “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is asking Republican lawmakers who received donations from Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) to exercise their goodwill and donate the funds to the Treasury.” David Jolly already has.

Times-Pic: Chemical industry contributions flow to candidates as Congress takes up regulatory legislation –> From MapLight: “A new report says that the chemical industry is spending heavily on campaign contributions and lobbying with an overhaul of chemical regulations on the congressional agenda.”

Examiner: Walker will stand up to the other guys. For ‘our guys,’ he rolls over. –> Tim Carney takes Scott Walker to task for firing a staffer over her comments on Iowa: “The pattern is this: Scott Walker will stand up and fight the special interests, if they’re already his sworn political enemies. But when he gets pushed around by a political power broker, or a well-heeled lobby group that’s ‘on our side,’ Walker rolls over.”

Daily Beast: A Texas-Size Super PAC Swindle –> ProPublica’s Robert Faturechi on how a few consultants swindled a rich guy in Texas out of some cash: “Vote2ReduceDebt collapsed amid allegations of faked campaign events, destroyed records, fabricated expenses, contracts routed to cronies, and a plot to siphon the Texas oilman’s money to a reality TV show. The characters in the melee include a former top Republican strategist, a one-time TV news anchorman, a peanut-truck magnate with dreams of becoming a NASCAR star, and a refugee from an infamous Washington corruption scandal.”

The Hill: Feingold faces a brave new campaign finance world –> Whoa if true: “Former Sen. Russ Feingold is going to have to navigate a campaign finance world vastly different from the one he’d hoped to create if he decides to seek a Senate comeback.”

Other/States

Gov. Cuomo and Assembly Democrats have come to an agreement on ethics reforms but Senate Republicans aren’t really feeling it.

Capital New York: Sandra Lee partnership exempt from Cuomo disclosure rules –> The deal, mentioned above, would exempt disclosure of outside income from spouses, like Cuomo’s partner Sandra Lee. She has just signed a deal with liquor conglomerate Diageo, a company that lobbies New York politicians and gives them money. The perfect cocktail!

Courant: Ex-Governor John Rowland Sentenced to 30 Months In Prison –> “John G. Rowland, Connecticut’s brash ex-governor turned radio commentator, stood again Wednesday in front of a packed courtroom and, for the second time in 10 years, was sentenced to prison for low-rent political crimes, this time for 30 months.”

AP: Virginia: Ex-Governor’s Wife Would Have Backed Him –> “If separate trials had been approved for former Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia and his wife, she would have testified in her husband’s defense that she hid many of the gifts she received from a wealthy executive, according to a court document made public Wednesday.”

To read more go to http://everyvoice.org/dailyclips.

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