This story will be updated. After languishing in limbo for nearly five-and-a-half years, one of the most controversial, politically active 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations in the country has been granted nonprofit status by the IRS. The ruling was made official last Nov.Source: IRS gives nonprofit status to Rove’s controversial dark money group...
America’s campaign finance laws are often a convenient scapegoat for all of our country’s ills. Witness Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders invoking campaign spending in response to seemingly every other debate question. Now comes Republican Rep.Source: An alternative to nonstop political fundraising...
The Federal Election Commission has not solved the “Super PAC problem,” but then again the Commissioners cannot agree on what the problem is. Others outside the agency are divided in this same way. A number of questions in contemporary campaign finance are like that.Source: The Federal Election Commission's Role in A Reform Program -...
“[W]e don’t know how to deal with rumors. Rumors that confirm people’s biases are now believed and spread among millions of people. . .We tend to only communicate with people that we agree with, and thanks to social media, we can mute, un-follow and block everybody else.Source: Politics and Techno-Consciousness...
On Saturday night, I received an interesting tweet. Indianapolis resident PJ Hinton had seen some TV ads run by a group he didn’t recognize, Indiana Jobs Now, and thought he would look into them.Source: What happened when a super PAC listed Sunlight’s phone number on its ad filing...
Manchester, NH – Don’t like Jeb Bush’s $100 million-plus super PAC? Neither does he.Source: Jeb Bush calls for amendment to fix Citizens United...
WASHINGTON — Nearly half the money pouring into all federal super PACs came from just 107 people or groups that each gave $1 million or more to influence the outcome of this year’s presidential and congressional races, a USA TODAY analysis of new campaign finance reports shows.Source: Meet the super-rich driving the 2016 election...
Here is a paper Bob Bauer gave this weekend at the Stanford Law Review symposium. Bob’s solution is more transparency and letting the parties raise more money and spend it in coordination with candidates. Some might say this is a cure worse than the disease.Source: “Getting a Handle on the Super PAC Problem”...
Nashua, N.H. Speaking at a country club in New Hampshire on Monday, Jeb Bush said he wants the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision to be overturned.Source: Jeb Bush: Overturn Citizens United...
Update, Jan. 30, 2016: A voter in Iowa tweeted about receiving a mailer from the presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that hopes to goad him into heading to caucus by sharing the voting records of people he knows. The Cruz campaign confirmed that it had sent the mailer.Source: Do those ‘we know whether you voted’ warnings actually work?...
