In the News
National Review: The Coming Speech Wars Online
By Paul H. Jossey
Cyberspace has also reduced the relevance of government censors who oversee old-style political communications. But it also raises questions about whether the new boss, Silicon Valley tech giants, will be worse than the old. As political speech evolves, new threats emerge as old ones cling to power. The fight for free political speech isn’t over, but it has changed, and we must remain vigilant lest our freedom slip…
The Internet is an incredible human achievement. It has done more to ensure freedom and human rights than any government agency ever could. But such freedom is insecure when would-be censors exist either inside or outside government. We can guard against them by ensuring that government policy and technological processes preserve the right to speak, offend, ridicule, hate, or lie without sanction. Congress should codify Internet freedom – as in many important respects it already did when it passed the Communications Decency Act in 1996 – by amending the FEC’s enabling statute. Further rulemaking on the scope of the Internet exemption granted by the FEC would reduce the power of recalcitrant agencies to ignore it.
Bloomberg BNA: Libertarian Challenge to Contribution Limits Advances
By Kenneth P. Doyle
A constitutional challenge to restrictions on campaign contributions to a political party has been given a go-ahead by a federal judge in Washington, D.C. ( Libertarian Nat’l Comm. v. Federal Election Commission , D.D.C., No. 16-cv-121, memorandum opinion 1/3/17).The Libertarian Party’s national committee challenged restrictions imposed by Congress in 2014 when it passed a law sharply increasing the amount of money a single contributor can give to a party but limiting the uses of that increased money. The controversial 2014 law — tacked onto an approriations bill funding the federal government — boosted the total contribution a party committee can receive to more than $300,000 annually but required that most of the money be used to pay only for three purposes: party conventions, legal costs and party headquarters…
The Libertarian Party’s current challenge to FEC limits on a bequest of campaign money continues a long-running effort. An earlier challenge was dismissed as moot in 2014 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. That court said it took so long for the case to be litigated that all the bequeathed money involved had already been paid in annual installments that complied with party contribution limits, by the time the case was ready to be decided.
Independent Groups
Politico: New pro-Trump political group readies for launch
By Shane Goldmacher and Alex Isenstadt
The new political group being launched to boost President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda is finally taking shape after weeks of sometimes contentious discussions.
According to people familiar with the plans, Trump’s former digital director Brad Parscale is expected to be named as president of the group and Nick Ayers, one of Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s top political advisers, is likely to join in an as-yet unnamed senior role…
But day-to-day operational control of the group, which will be organized as a 501(c)4 nonprofit, is expected to lie with Parscale, who was given authority to take charge by Jared Kushner, Trump’s influential son-in-law. Inside Trump’s orbit, there has been a tug-of-war for weeks over who would control this outside entity – and with it the potential to tap into millions of dollars from both small and large donors.
Congress
American Prospect: Anti-Anti-Ethics
By Eliza Newlin Carney
In a sense, it should come as no surprise that Republicans would set out to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent investigative body put in place in 2008 as part of a post-Abramoff ethics overhaul, just as they launch into unified GOP rule…
But much of what congressional Republicans now seek isn’t what voters bargained for, particularly when it comes to government accountability and ethics.Trump’s attacks on moneyed interests and on Hillary Clinton’s supposed ethics problems helped sweep him into office. Now Trump is under fire for many of the same types of conflicts and Wall Street ties that he so successfully turned against Clinton. Ironically, it was the ethically challenged Trump who helped knock some sense this week into Republicans bent on eviscerating the Office of Congressional Ethics, with a couple of tweets that urged them to put policy matters “of far greater importance” first.
CNN: Democrats call for ethics probe of Trump HHS nominee Tom Price
By MJ Lee
Senate Democrats are calling on the House Office of Congressional Ethics to launch an investigation into Rep. Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, to probe the congressman’s financial investments and stock holdings.
“We are here to call on the House Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate if any laws were broken,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference. “There’s enough evidence here that cries out for an investigation. Whether the law was actually broken, whether there was quid pro quos or inside information is the better way to put it — we don’t know.”
Schumer was joined by fellow Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Ron Wyden, each a top Democrat on two separate Senate committees set to hold confirmation hearings on Price.
The announcement comes following a Wall Street Journal report that alleged Price traded more than $300,000 in shares of health-related companies during his time in Congress, all “while sponsoring and advocating legislation that potentially could affect those companies’ stocks.”
Trump Administration
Inside Climate News: Federal Climate Investigation of Exxon Likely to Fizzle Under Trump
By Dave Hasemyer
Over the past year, the battle lines formed along partisan lines on the question of whether the Justice Department should launch a probe into ExxonMobil’s stance on climate change.
The designated referee in that battle was to have been U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who received the formal letters staking out each side’s position on an investigation.
One of those letters, sent by five Republican senators sympathetic to Exxon, carried the signature of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, who is Donald Trump’s choice to succeed Lynch as the next attorney general.
That letter argued that a federal investigation of Exxon would suppress debate on the validity of climate change and amounted to prosecutorial misconduct. Any investigation of the oil giant must be stopped immediately and no future probes initiated, Sessions and the other senators told Lynch.
If he is confirmed by the Senate to replace Lynch, Sessions will become the nation’s top law enforcement officer and would hold ultimate authority on the future of any federal investigations of Exxon, making it highly unlikely that any investigation underway would proceed any further.
Huffington Post: Jeff Sessions’ Voting Rights Record Is So Bad That Common Cause Will Oppose Him
By Paul Blumenthal
Common Cause announced on Thursday that it will oppose the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) for attorney general. It is one of the few times in the liberal activist group’s 46-year history that it has come out against a presidential nominee…
The advocacy group cited Sessions’ stated positions on campaign finance as another reason to oppose his nomination. Like most other Republican senators, Sessions is an outspoken fan of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which opened the door to unlimited electoral spending by corporations and unions. He has also expressed support for eliminating or loosening campaign contribution limits.
Paul S. Ryan, vice president for policy and litigation at Common Cause, noted that the Justice Department is a key player in the enforcement of campaign finance and other anti-corruption statutes. He suggested that an Attorney General Sessions “wouldn’t do that job of vigorously investigating and enforcing potential violations” of such laws.
Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Debts Are Widely Held on Wall Street, Creating New Potential Conflicts
By Jean Eaglesham and Lisa Schwartz
The debts of President-elect Donald Trump and his businesses are scattered across Wall Street banks, mutual funds and other financial institutions, broadening the tangle of interests that pose potential conflicts for the incoming president’s administration.
Hundreds of millions of dollars of debt attached to Mr. Trump’s properties, some of them backed by Mr. Trump’s personal guarantee, were packaged into securities and sold to investors over the past five years, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of legal and property documents…
As a result, a broader array of financial institutions now are in a potentially powerful position over the incoming president. If the Trump businesses were to default on their debts, the giant financial institutions that serve as so-called special servicers of these loan pools would have the power to foreclose on some of Mr. Trump’s marquee properties or seek the tens of millions of dollars that Mr. Trump personally guaranteed on the loans.
The States
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal: Time is now for campaign finance reform
By Editorial Board
Both Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who presides over the Senate, and House Speaker Philip Gunn said in separate, recent interviews that passing legislation dealing with campaign finance will be a top priority, as the Daily Journal’s Bobby Harrison reported Tuesday.
There will be multiple controversial and impactful bills considered during the scheduled 90-day session, but campaign finance will be a priority after a debacle in the 2016 session in which the House leadership could not garner the votes to pass a campaign finance proposal…
It’s time our state leaders and elected representatives start walking the walk and not just talking to the talk when it comes to campaign finance reform.
Lawmakers need to be held to higher standards when it comes to how the money raised during campaigns is spent. No longer should individuals be able to spend funds on extravagant items or get away with turning over incomplete campaign finance reports.
We must raise the bar and make long-lasting changes to our state’s campaign finance laws.
Florida Politics: Ted Deutch calls for 28th Amendment to overturn Citizens United decision
By Mitch Perry
Palm Beach County Democratic Representative Ted Deutch took to the floor of the House on Thursday to introduce a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in the Citizens United case, the ruling that opened the campaign spending floodgates…
Deutch said the amendment would include three sections; The first would allow congress and the states to regulate and set “reasonable limits” on he raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections.
It would also give congress and the states to power to implement and enforce this article by appropriate legislation, “and may distinguish between natural persons and corporations or other artificial entities created by law, including by prohibiting such entities from spending money to influence our elections.”
And Deutch emphasized, it would expressly not give congress or state legislatures to power to abridge the freedom of the press…
In November, voters in California and Washington state passed separate measures calling for their elected officials to work on overturning the Citizens United decision.
Treasure Coast Palm: Investigation: Florida elections loophole empowers special interests
By Lucas Daprile
Special interests have used a loophole in Florida law to pump money into Treasure Coast elections while skirting donation caps and obscuring the source of the money.
An ongoing TCPalm investigation found the donors – predominantly real estate and development companies, business owners and political action committees – have contributed $120,000 to local campaigns since 2015 – half of it through the loophole…
The loophole, sometimes referred to as “bundling” or “the LLC Loophole,” allows donors to give the maximum, allowable amount of $1,000 from each of their subsidiaries or affiliated PACs. Campaign finance reports require the name of the donating LLC or PAC, but not the name of the person behind it…
Though the Legislature set the $1,000 campaign contribution limit, local governments have the authority to lower it for city and county elections. In 2014, Tallahassee voters approved a referendum capping donations to city commission races at $250.
Fox News: Seattle sending voters tax-funded vouchers – to spend on campaigns
By Jennifer G. Hickey
Seattle politicians have it figured out: The city is now giving taxpayers their own money back, on the condition they “donate” that cash back to political candidates.
The new program, which was funded by a property tax hike and approved at the ballot box in 2015, launched this week. More than a half-million registered voters in Seattle will receive $100 worth of taxpayer-financed “democracy vouchers” that can be used to contribute to a political candidate of their choosing.
The catch: That money has to be used in this way, or it goes back into the same government program…
“The tax system is being used to force people to contribute to candidates whom they likely would never contribute to on their own. It is constitutional, but these public financing efforts are never popular,” John Samples, a campaign finance expert with the Cato Institute, told FoxNews.com.
