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.

New York Senate President Dean Skelos and his son Adam were arrested yesterday and charged with a handful of counts of public corruption: “The complaint describes an alleged scheme to extort businesses for money to benefit the senator’s son, with the expectation that the payments would influence the senator’s official actions. It also alleges both men went to great lengths to conceal their activity, including using coded language and a so-called burner phone.” (He says he’s innocent.)

• The New York Times editorial page: It’s time for real, comprehensive solutions that raise the voices of everyday people. How many lawmakers have to be indicted before the humiliation is enough? Times-Union, Post-Standard.
• His colleagues are mostly standing with him.
• NYT on the criminal complaint: “an often titillating document that included references to burner phones, secretly taped conversations and strong-arm tactics that were on display even during the wake of a slain police officer.”
• Citizen Action’s Karen Scharff: “If the game is raising the most campaign money, it’ll always be voters who lose. We need to change the game. Publicly funded elections is the only reform that will address the fundamental problem and end the culture of corruption in Albany.”
• Adam Skelos, on a wiretap, on the omnipresent US Attorney: “you can’t talk normally because it’s like f—ing Preet Bharara is listening to every f—ing phone call. It’s just f—ing frustrating.” (Also he was super psyched about flooding.)
• Also: The Senator “allegedly attempted to pressure the state health department to create fracking regulations that would favor a company that employed his son.”
• Adam complained that his client’s legislative goals were slow-going due to ongoing debate over ethics reform. Perfect.
• The LLC loophole continues to be a problem and this indictment makes clear how it’s used to buy influence and evade contribution limits (and why Senate Republicans have opposed closing it).
• Albany has “shivers” with this key point: “an executive with the state’s top campaign donor is now cooperating with the feds.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will announce his presidential bid today:

• Time: “Part of the Huckabee strategy also hinges on the existence of an outside super PAC, an independent organization that can raise and spend unlimited cash to help Huckabee’s presidential hopes,” with the head of said super PAC–completely independent, of course–saying he’s “very proud to be on this team.” CPI’s 9 things to know.
• The Hill: “The 59-year-old won’t be able to raise the money that his best-funded GOP rivals will, and his fiscal record has been questioned by the influential Club for Growth.”
• And he already faces TV ads: Club for Growth “is bringing the welcome wagon for his entry into the 2016 Republican presidential primary — with a $100,000 ad buy denouncing his record.”

Campaign Finance/Elections

Bloomberg View: Statehouse Republicans Want Campaign Disclosure –> A great story from Jeanne Cummings that shows campaign finance is only a partisan issue in Washington: “Some Republican state legislators are pushing back against the free-spending super-PACs and secretive independent groups that have been transforming US politics into a proxy war among the super rich.”

Washington Post: Get ready for a lot more ‘dark money’ in politics –> Greg Sargent did a follow-up interview with FEC Chair Ann Ravel, specifically asking about her comments that Republican commissioners won’t pursue investigations against groups like Crossroads: “The impact of the failure to pursue them will be that the public isn’t going to get the disclosure that it is entitled to.”

On today’s Diane Rehm Show, a real campaign finance power panel: FEC Chair Ann Ravel, NYT reporter Eric Lichtblau, and well-known election attorneys Trevor Potter and Jan Baran.

The Hill: Citizens United: The view from the ivory tower has a blind spot –> Free Speech for People’s Jeff Clements on the growing momentum for an amendment to overturn Citizens United: “But two very small and unduly powerful elites aren’t happy. One of those, of course, is the 1 percent who use campaign contributions and Super PACs to gain access and influence in Washington. The second one is a set of liberal law professors…”

News-Observer: NC must help affirm that judges are not politicians –> CAP’s Billy Corriher on Williams-Yulee and North Carolina judicial elections: “North Carolina justices can get up close and personal with lawyers and corporations with a stake in the court’s rulings.”

Guernica: Like Man Bites Dog –> Ciara Torres-Spelliscy on Williams-Yulee: “But in the meantime, the fact that the Supreme Court is recognizing that there are problems created by fundraising judges is a step in the right direction.”

Congress/Admin/2016

Retiring Indiana Sen. Dan Coats (R): “I now have the privilege of serving in the Senate for the next 20 months without having to run around the country and raise untold amounts of money to campaign.”

NYT: Clinton team bolsters its defense ahead of negative book’s release –> Clinton Cash comes out today and her campaign is responding: “The moves include a new website and a social media effort focused on debunking the book, written by Peter Schweizer.” John Podesta has this post on Medium: “It is clear that they have a two fisted strategy to try to undermine her, using unlimited dark money on the one hand and taxpayer funds on the other.”

Bloomberg: State Department Says No Evidence Donations Influenced Hillary Clinton –> “The State Department hasn’t seen evidence that decisions made by Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state were influenced by donations to her family’s foundation or speaking fees to her husband, a department spokesman said.”

Washington Post: Bill Clinton (still) doesn’t get it –> “And yet, in an interview with NBC News over the weekend, Bill showed, yet again, the blind spot that he and, to a lesser extent, his wife, have when it comes to their relationships with donors and how they talk about their own personal finances.”

Carly Fiorina: “Hillary Clinton is going to have more money than everybody. That’s just a fact.”

The Intercept: Corinthian Colleges secretly funded DC think tanks, dark money election efforts –> Lee Fang took at look at Corinthian Colleges bankruptcy filing and found some donations to DC think tanks and dark money groups like Crossroads GPS. David Halperin.

National Journal: Nine Former Members of Congress Still Sitting on Millions in Campaign Cash –> “They may have left Capitol Hill, but many former members of Congress retain active campaign accounts — some of them holding millions of dollars that continually stoke rumors of political comebacks.”

The Hill: Chicago firm looks to make DC splash –> “Chicago-based firm Alpaytac is expanding its operations in DC, including promoting political and PR operative Rory Davenport to manage the Washington office.”

Roll Call: Post-Abramoff: Indian Tribes Still Ponying Up to Influence Lawmakers –> Melanie Sloan: “Today, the Indian Wars still rage in Washington, fueled by the largest lobbying contracts the city has to offer.”

Other/States

NYT: Britain’s Campaign Finance Laws Leave Parties With Idle Money –> Fun story on British election spending: “American presidential candidates spent about as much money on raising money in 2012 — around $37 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics — as the two main British parties spent on their entire campaigns in 2010.”

USA Today: Donors give controversial sheriff $5.5M in past 2 years –> “Money to re-elect Maricopa County’s controversial sheriff keeps pouring in from across the USA despite ongoing federal contempt-of-court proceedings against him.”

To read more of this morning’s headlines, go to everyvoice.org.

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