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A NOTE FROM FRED
The current system of financing presidential elections is a political disaster and the American people are paying the price. The super PACs, dark money and the Super Rich are major players in a corrupt system. To fix this, we need to revive the presidential public financing system. The Empower Act, introduced by Sen Tom Udall (S.1176) and Reps David Price and Chris Van Hollen (H.R. 2143), is modeled on the successful New York City public financing system and would provide multiple public funds to match small contributions at a 6 to 1 ratio. Participating candidates would abide by substantially lower contribution limits. A repaired presidential public financing system would greatly dilute the importance and impact of outside spending groups and their mega-donors and it would empower ordinary Americans by making their small contributions much more important. Candidates would have an alternative way to finance their presidential campaigns without becoming obligated to big money funders. The presidential election in 2016 is taking place in a corrupt campaign finance system. We need to ensure this does not happen again.
Read more of my op-ed at www.huffingtonpost.com.
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"We're in the process of building what I think is the largest movement for democratic reforms in decades" - Fred Wertheimer told Kathy Kiely for BillMoyers.com who followed reformers around the Capitol Monday as they lobbied Congress for campaign finance reform and voting rights. Read more.
Democracy Spring goes to the states. Following last week's protests in Washington, the group says it will expand the movement to the states to disrupt election campaigns and political fundraisers in their fight for campaign finance and voting rights reforms. "We gave new life to a democracy movement that cannot be stopped," said a lead organizer. Read more.
Ahead of tonight's FEC disclosure deadline, the Wall St Journal outlines what you need to watch for including, who is behind the pro-Trump super PAC that has aired a $1 million ad campaign and if the Clinton campaigns effort to boost its number of small donors is paying off. Read more.
K Street goes all in for Clinton. Washington lobbyists have bundled more than $1.5 million to Clinton's campaign during the first quarter of 2016. Rubio's now suspended campaign received $400,000 bundled by registered lobbyists. The Cruz, Kasich, Trump and Sanders' campaigns reported no lobbyist bundlers. Read more.
"If we are running against Clinton, she will wipe us out as far as fundraising goes," - said a Republican fundraiser. The Hill talked to Republican donors who are reluctant to support Trump if he is the Republican nominee and are turning their focus to Senate and House races. The Koch network has a budget of $900 million for political and advocacy spending. If Trump wins the nomination, the Kochs will likely dedicate most of the cash they spend to help vulnerable Senate Republicans. Read more.
Majority of Americans support the Senate voting this year on SCOTUS nominee Garland, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that found 52% supported a vote in 2016 on the vacant Supreme Court seat, while 30% did not. Read more.
Rubio's leadership PAC has continued to send monthly payments to top campaign and Senate aides during the first three months of this year. This has raised questions about whether his PAC was illegally subsidizing campaign activities. Leadership PACs' cash can be used to pay for staff and travel expenses unrelated to campaigns or congressional activities. It was unclear what Rubio's aides were being paid for by the committee. Read more.
The GOP is beating Democrats in the hunt for convention cash. GOP officials said they are close to meeting their fundraising goals with $67.8 million in promised contributions. The two Democratic committees have lined up $43.6 million so far. Read more.
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2016 FACT OF THE DAY
$40 million - Amount the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has reserved to spend on air time this fall in FL, OH, NH, CO and NV. Read more.
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NY: The federal investigation into the campaign fundraising of Mayor de Blasio has expanded to focus on efforts to raise money for Democratic candidates for the New York Senate in 2014. Read more.
FL: A construction company owned by Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Patrick Murphy's father gave a $300,000 donation to the pro-Murphy super PAC. That was on top of the $200,000 that Murphy's father gave last year. The two donations account for more than half of the super PACs reported income. Read more.
PA: The American Action Network, a leading conservative group, is spending $200,000 over the next week to help Rep. Shuster in his Republican primary. Read more.
By: Fred Wertheimer (@FredWertheimer) & Kathryn Beard (@KathrynBeard)
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