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A NOTE FROM FRED
An important development occurred this week when for the first time in her campaign, Hillary Clinton said, "As President, from my very first days, I will make campaign finance reform a top priority." This public commitment by a presidential nominee represents major progress for the issue. It follows the strong campaign finance reform plan issued by Clinton last September and the comprehensive reform policy set forth in the Democratic Party platform that reflects Clinton's reform plan and Bernie Sanders campaign message.
Also, House Democrats today announced a reform agenda that includes campaign finance reform proposals to fix the system. Last month, Senate Democrats announced their campaign finance reform package and Congressional Democrats plan to inject campaign finance reform into the national debate and fall elections. The stage is being set for major campaign finance reform battles in the next Congress.
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Spending in fight for Senate tops $100 million, says Huffington Post. Super PACs and nonprofit groups have spent over $100 million in states with contested Senate races. Republican groups have spent $70 million of that total and one-third of the money was spent in Ohio in the race between Rob Portman and Ted Strickland. The spending will likely only increase as Election Day approaches. Read more
FEC fines Koch-backed "dark money" groups. Yesterday, the FEC fined three groups $233,000 for failing to reveal the source of their funds during the congressional elections in 2010. Nonprofit groups are required to reveal their donors if the donors indicate that the funds are targeted for a specific race. Read more
This year, convention cash is more controversial than usual. According to the American Prospect, "The checks are bigger. The disclosure is scantier." These conventions will be the first without public funding, the first with six-figure checks being funneled into party accounts and the first staged in July to leave more room for general election fundraising. This is also the first year the Democrats are permitting lobbyist donations. Read more
NPR compiled "every position Donald Trump has taken on how he is funding his campaign." They range from June 2015 -- "I don't need anybody's money. I'm using my own money," to last month's announcement that he was launching an email fundraising effort -- "I'm going to make it the most successful introductory fundraising email in modern political history." Read more
House GOP super PAC sets record with fundraising haul. Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC supporting House Republicans, reported raising $4.6 million in the second quarter of this year. That record setting number shows a rapidly growing interest in "vulnerable House races," says the Wall Street Journal. In the second quarter of 2012, the group brought in $1.3 million. Read more
Clinton campaign recognizes Sanders' success with small donors. When donors go to Clinton's website, they now have the option to give $27, a nod to the amount Sanders' cited as the average donation to his campaign. Read more
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2016 FACT OF THE DAY
94 years: The amount of time that elected officials in Congress have spent fundraising since 2015, according to a new study by Issue One. Read more
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FL: Sen. Marco Rubio's summer plans consist of fundraising, fundraising and more fundraising. The Senator has 10 fundraisers scheduled in the upcoming six weeks. Read more
CT: Sen. Chris Murphy is launching a new national fundraising initiative to raise money for congressional candidates that pledge to make gun control one of their key issues. Read more
TX: Rick Perry's failed presidential bid that ended last September ran out of money, but that didn't stop campaign manager Jeff Miller from earning $1.35 million, nearly half of what the campaign and leadership PAC raised. Read more
CA: California's campaign finance watchdog fined Lyft for breaking state campaign finance laws over not filing lobbying disclosure information. Read more
By: Fred Wertheimer (@FredWertheimer) & Kathryn Beard (@KathrynBeard)
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