Relatively inexperienced IRS managers could take the reins of gatekeeping panels with significant sway over dark money groups under the terms of a memo sent to agency managers last week and obtained by OpenSecrets Blog.Source: New IRS process for recommending nonprofit audits draws critiques...
California is getting a new statewide voter registration system after nearly a decade of development and delay. The state's existing voter registration system is aging, and isn’t compatible with modern technology. So as far back as 2006, the state started looking to modernize.Source: Nine Years Later, California Gets New Voter Registration System...
CHICAGO — Federal judges who tossed several of Rod Blagojevich's corruption convictions endeavored to answer a question legal observers said Wednesday had gone largely unanswered: Just when does an elected official cross the line between legal and illegal political horse-trading? The 7th U.S.Source: Blagojevich ruling draws line on what is, isn't corruption...
WITH THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL campaign season fully underway, the candidates have begun to outline their vision for the future of the country. In a policy speech in Tallahassee, Fla.Source: Presidential Candidates and Lobbying–Where They Sit...
Among those who decry the levels of money being spent on elections, the villain is almost always Citizens United, which unleashed corporations and permitted them to make unlimited independent expenditures in support of or in opposition to candidates for elected office.Source: It’s Buckley, not Citizens United, that created massive spending...
One of the fundamental arguments in the “Political Realism” debate is whether or not strong political parties could make government work better. One way to assess party strength is to look at how much money parties can raise and spend.Source: The debate over state polarization and campaign finance laws continues...
Former Sen Russ Feingold (D-WI) and California State Attorney General Kamala Harris did something that no other non-incumbent US Senate candidates did: They electronically filed copies of their campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission.Source: Senators resist the Internet, leave voters in the dark...
Bloomberg BNA: The Federal Election Commission apparently has struggled for nearly four years to decide what to do about allegations that millions of dollars in contributions to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign super PAC violated rules against making contributions under another name.Source: “Delayed FEC Cases Match Romney Super PAC Complaints”...
John Ellis Bush gushed with love for Silicon Valley, hanging in the offices of Thumbtack, causing a spectacle with his pre-announced Uber hail, and flashing around his Apple Watch, as he talked about how Washington needs to learn a few things from the Silicon Valley way.Source: Republicans' crush on Silicon Valley not returned...
In 2008, it was the Google election. 2012 was Twitter’s turn as the campaign centerpiece. Facebook populism rang in the ’14 midterms. And now, as 2016 approaches, prepare for the presidential politics of Snapchat. Enter Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT).Source: The Snapchat Elections Begin With Bernie, Hillary and Jeb...
