Republican FEC commissioners (finally) speak out. The three commissioners indicated that political donors who try to shield their identities through private companies or "pop-up" corporations can be sanctioned. Democratic commissioner Ann Ravel said she is "not convinced" that the Republicans will actually support investigations into the corporations. Read more.
SCOTUS ruled that "one person one vote" is legal. In a unanimous decision this morning, the Justices ruled that states may count all residents, regardless of if they are eligible to vote, when drawing election districts. If the Justices had ruled that only those eligible to vote could be counted, political power would have shifted from cities to rural areas. Read more.
"Washington is like Rod Stewart’s haircut — party in the front, party in the back, frankly too much party and no business anywhere,” said John Oliver on Last Week Tonight. The episode focused on congressional fundraising. Oliver said the fact that politicians spend 25 to 50% of their time in Washington raising money for their campaigns is "horrifying". Read more.
SCOTUS vacancy isn't the only judicial political battle currently happening. AP looked at the millions of dollars being spent to reshape state Supreme Courts where justices are ballots in almost two dozen states this November. In Arkansas, spending for two Supreme Court seats has topped $1.6 million, setting a state record for TV ad buys in a judicial election. Read more.
CNN asks "Could Republican Convention delegates be bought?" Per FEC rules, there are some limits on what delegates can accept, such as that they cannot accept funds from corporations, labor unions, foreign nationals or government contractors, but they are allowed to raise funds to travel to the convention. Beyond that, party officials admitted the laws are murky and vary widely between each state party. Read more.
Politifact deemed Clinton is "Pants on Fire!" regarding her statement that she is the only candidate on either side that Wall Street is running ads against. They found that the financial industry is running ads against Clinton, but have run ads attacking "virtually every candidate." However, the financial industry has contributed to both sides of the aisles, including to Clinton's campaign. Read more.
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