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A NOTE FROM FRED
Super PACs and nonprofit groups are pouring money into battleground Senate races and we are still four months away from the November elections. For example in Ohio, more than $14.2 million has been spent to support Republican Rob Portman versus more than $7.2 million spent to support Democrat Ted Strickland, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In the small state of New Hampshire, $7.2 million has been spent to help Democrat Maggie Hassan versus $4.2 to help Republican Kelly Ayotte. Tens of millions of dollars more will be spent in Senate races in the coming weeks and months. In June, a super PAC backed by the Koch brothers announced a $2.7 million ad buy in the Ohio Senate race and $1.2 million one in the Nevada race, according to NBC News. The Koch brothers’ network is also reserving $30 million in ad time to run in battleground Senate races in August and September, according to POLITICO. This massive flow of money funded by huge contributions from the Super Rich will not result in the kind of representative government the American people want or deserve. Our campaign finance system is collapsing from its own weight and citizens cannot and will not stand for this. A nationwide battle for reform begins the day after Election Day.
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Trump and RNC raise $51 million in June. The latest campaign finance report according to the Trump campaign shows "a substantial surge from anemic fundraising in May," but still lags behind what Clinton collected in June. The Trump campaign said it raised $25 million at fundraising events and another $26 million through its small-donor operation. In June, the Clinton network took in $68 million, according to USA Today. Read more
Payments on Trump's campaign finance reports raise red flags. Experts told CNBC that the filing anomalies show that "the Donald Trump camp is either unaware of campaign finance law, or is actively funneling donors' cash to insiders." Trump's forms do not disclose which vendors the staffers are paying and appear to show double reimbursements to some staffers. Experts said the anomalies in the reports would be enough to justify the FEC and RS to investigate them further. Read more
PACs continue to break campaign finance records. PACs, including super PACs, are spending money faster than ever before, says Bloomberg BNA. In the 2012 presidential election, the first held after the Citizens United decision, super PACs made up 6% of overall spending. At the same point in the 2016 election, super PACs make up 16% of overall spending, more than $529 million. Read more
"A constitutional convention would be a Brexit-scale crisis for the US," says a Los Angeles Times op-ed by Georgetown Law Professor David Super. "The bigger threat is that a constitutional convention, once unleashed on the nation, would be free to rewrite or scrap any parts of the U.S. Constitution." There is no precedent to limit a convention to only one issue. Currently, proponents calling for a balanced budget convention are only six states shy of the 34 needed to call a constitutional convention. "Those who care about this country's most basic values can no longer ignore this danger," says Super. Read more
Not to be left out, special interests look to discreetly influence party conventions. Top companies like Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Apple scaled back their giving to the two conventions, but others have just gotten creative on how to give their money, says the Center for Public Integrity. One way is to give a large donation straight to the host committee. Those contributions will not be made public until 60 days after the conventions are over. A second option is to sponsor private parties for lawmakers and VIPs that are closed to the media. Read more
In the Senate, disclosure and transparency are a SLOW process. Unlike candidates for every other federal office, Senate candidates do not have to electronically file their campaign finance reports with the FEC. Instead, they mail in their reports, thus delaying disclosure and costing taxpayers $700,000 a year, according to BillMoyers.com. Legislation to fix this problem by requiring online disclosure was introduced by Sen. Tester, but has been "languishing in legislative limbo." When asked why there hasn't been action on the bill, Tester responded only with, "Mitch McConnell." Read more
"Can super PACs be put back in the box?" asks the Washington Post. A legal team representing a bipartisan group is introducing a new effort to try to overturn the DC Court of Appeals decision in SpeechNow.org v FEC. That decision paved the way for super PACs to accept unlimited contributions. The group led by a Harvard Law professor and a former Bush ethics lawyer is planning on filing a complaint at the FEC today against 10 super PACs. Read more
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2016 FACT OF THE DAY
46-to-1: The amount "Team Clinton" is outspending "Team Trump" in nine battleground states, according to NBC News. Read more
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FL: The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is launching a $1.25 million ad buy attacking Democrats in the Florida Senate race. McConnell had promised to "pour money into the contest if Sen. Marco Rubio agreed to run for re-election." Read more
NY: The state campaign finance board cleared Mayor de Blasio and his nonprofit of wrongdoing, but also strongly denounced the group's behavior of using unlimited donations to advance the mayor's political agenda. Read more
MT: State lawmakers rejected a proposal by Republicans to call a special legislative session in order to pass a bill to raise contribution limits. Read more
By: Fred Wertheimer (@FredWertheimer) & Kathryn Beard (@KathrynBeard)
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