Campaign Finance

How Much Do Corporations Get For Political Spending?

November 24, 2014 Bill Allison and Sarah Harkins, www.sunlightfoundation.com Educate! Campaign Finance, Corporatism, Law, Lobbying

Between 2007 and 2012, 200 of America’s most politically active corporations spent a combined $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. A year-long analysis by the Sunlight Foundation suggests, however, that what they gave pales compared to what those same corporations got: $4.4 trillion in federal business and support. That figure, more than the $4.3 trillion the federal government paid the nation’s 50 million Social Security recipients over the same period, is the result of an unprecedented effort to quantify the less-examined side of the campaign finance equation: Do political donors get something in return for what they give?

Five States Voted To Overturn Citizens United

November 7, 2014 Move To Amend, www.movetoamend.org Organize! Campaign Finance, Citizens United, Law

In Massachusetts, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Florida, citizens voted overwhelmingly yesterday for their legislators to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling and declare that only human beings – not corporations – are entitled to constitutional rights and that money is not speech and campaign spending can be regulated. Residents in dozens of cities had the opportunity to vote on measures calling for an end to the doctrines of corporate constitutional rights and money as free speech, and in every single town the vote was supportive. Often by an overwhelming margin. In WI where all eyes were on Republican Scott Walker's victory, twelve communities voted in support of an amendment. Walker and Burke voters alike support amending the Constitution, as not a single measure garnered less that 70% support.

Midterms Prediction: Billionaires to Retain Control of Government

November 2, 2014 Andy Borowitz, www.newyorker.com Educate! Campaign Finance, Democracy, Money As Speech

With just days to go until the midterm elections, a new poll indicates that billionaires are likely to retain control of the United States government. The poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota’s Opinion Research Institute, shows that the proxy candidates of billionaires are likely to win ninety-eight per cent of next Tuesday’s races, with the remaining two per cent leaning billionaire. Although the poll indicates that some races are still “too close to call,” the fact that billionaires funded candidates on both sides puts the races safely in their column. Davis Logsdon, who supervised the poll for the University of Minnesota, said that next Tuesday should be “a big night for oligarchs” and that both houses of Congress can be expected to grovel at the feet of their money-gushing paymasters for at least the next two years. Calling the billionaires’ upcoming electoral romp “historic,” Logsdon said, “We have not seen the super-rich maintain such a vise-like grip on the government since the days immediately preceding the French Revolution.”

A Dozen Wisconsin Communities Challenge Corporate Personhood

October 30, 2014 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org Organize! Campaign Finance, Citizens United, Law, Wisconsin

Wisconsin residents in 12 communities will vote next week on whether to amend the U.S. Constitution to overturn Citizens United, end corporate personhood, and get big money out of politics. In Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court found that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the outcome of elections. In Milwaukee County, Dunn County, Green Bay, Appleton, Fond du Lac, Neenah, Menasha, Ripon, Stoughton, Oregon, Wausau, and the Village of Park Ridge, voters will cast their ballots on a proposed amendment that would essentially reverse the Court's 2010 decision by stating that corporations are not people and money is not speech.

Democrats Increasingly Backing Oil & Gas Industry

October 27, 2014 Amy Harder, www.online.wsj.com Educate! Campaign Finance, Democratic Party, Energy, Environment, Fracking, Oil & Gas

When House Republicans took up a measure to speed the government's reviews of applications to export natural gas, a move long sought by energy companies, the unexpected happened: The bill won "yes" votes from 47 Democrats. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Cory Gardner (R., Colo.), anticipated some Democratic backing, but not that much. Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who leads the Democrats' House campaign arm, was a yes, as was House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Both voted in 2012 to restrict oil and gas exports. The energy boom is shaping a new kind of Democrat in national politics, lawmakers who are giving greater support to the oil and gas industry even at the risk of alienating environmental groups, a core of the party's base.

Walking 400 Miles To Get Money Out Of Politics

October 14, 2014 Occupy SoapBox, http://www.occupymysoapbox.com/ Resist! Campaign Finance, Direct Action

Meet Rhana Bazzini. She is 81 years old and was inspired by Granny D’s walk across the country for campaign finance reform. Rhana decided to walk across the Sunshine State from Sarasota to Tallahassee, talking and listening to folks along to the way. She is promoting campaign finance reform, and declaring Corporations are NOT People & Money is NOT Speech Jim Hightower entertained us all at the kickoff event on Sunday. But if you want to hear what Rhana herself has to say and you are in Florida, come walk with her or join her at a potluck. Tuesday (Oct. 14) she walks through Bradenton. If you want to walk or break bread with Rhana further north on her journey to Tallahassee, you can find out where she will be on her Facebook page

Hong Kong: US Should Be Protesting For Democracy Too

October 3, 2014 Lawrence Lessig, www.huffingtonpost.com Organize! Campaign Finance, China, Corruption, Democracy, Hong Kong, US

There's not much particularly Chinese in the Hong Kong design, unless Boss Tweed was an ancient Chinese prophet. Tweed famously quipped, "I don't care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating." Beijing's proposal is just Tweedism updated: a multi-stage election, with a biased filter at the first stage. Today, in the US, there's a "green primary." To run in any election, primary or general, candidates must raise extraordinary sums, privately. Yet they raise that money not from all of us. They raise it from a tiny, tiny few. In the last non-presidential election, only about .05 percent of America gave the maximum contribution to even one congressional candidate in either the primary or general election; .01 percent gave $10,000 or more; and in 2012, 132 Americans gave 60 percent of the superPAC money spent.

Holder Prosecuted Whistleblowers & Journalists, Not Bankers & Torturers

September 25, 2014 Kevin Zeese, greenshadowcabinet.us Educate! Bankers, Campaign Finance, Chelsea Manning, Corporate crime, Edward Snowden, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Freedom of the Press, Julian Assange, Marijuana, Media, Medical Marijuana, Militarized police, NSA, Occupy, Occupy Movement, Police abuse, police brutality, police murder, spying, Torture, War On Drugs, Wars and Militarism, Whistleblowers, Wikileaks

We urge President Obama to replace Holder with a public interest not a corporate lawyer; that will put the rule of law before corporate power. This appointment is an opportunity to shut the revolving door between big business and government. We also hope the next attorney general will put rule of law ahead of the security state, prosecute torture and other war crimes, protect privacy from US intelligence agencies and protect Freedom of Speech, Assembly and Press. Finally, we hope to see an attorney general that will confront the war culture that has allowed the president to ignore the constitutional requirement that Congress is responsible for deciding when the US goes to war, not the president; and one who respects international law and requires UN approval before the US attacks another nation.

The Senate Vote On The Constitutional Amendment

September 12, 2014 Staff, www.MoveToAmend.org Organize! Campaign Finance, Corporate Personhood, Democracy, Elections

The hubbub created by Washington insiders and political operatives around SJR 19 was little more than a sideshow to divert our attention, before an election, from the appalling records of both major parties on economic, environmental, and social justice issues. "We the people" have seen our human rights shrink, along with dwindling economic opportunities and environmental desecration, while "corporate personhood" and "money as speech" have flourished under both party’s leadership. SJR 19 failed to receive the necessary 60 votes in the Senate yesterday. It was never the magic pill to right the wrongs wrought on our Democratic Republic. The bill did not address the root of the rot infecting our democracy: Corporate Personhood. Our democracy is in crisis; SJR 19 and the proposal to overturn Citizens United merely addressed a symptom of our diseased democracy, but left the cause of the disease — large corporations wielding Constitutional rights — untreated. Move to Amend is the only grassroots organization building a real amendment movement in all 50 states to pass an amendment that actually solves our root problems by ending corporate Constitutional rights and money as speech.

Follow Government Corruption This Election Season

August 31, 2014 Nicholas Goroff, www.occupy.com Organize! Campaign Finance, Elections, Plutocracy

Navigating the intricate webs in which money influences politics can be a tricky business. Some reporters try scanning state and federal electoral financial reports, for example, then balancing those numbers with politicians' legislative agendas and voting records – a daunting task, to say the least. With an additional torrent of dark money contributions flooding the scene of late, and a proliferation of shadowy "non-profit" advocacy groups further muddying the waters, one's tempted to give up the hunt for fiscal political truth altogether. However, even as those doling out cash in exchange for policies continue to inject more green into our elections with every passing Supreme Court decision, a group of watchdogs at Maplight has upped the ante by introducing a new interactive tool to track not only the level and location of political donations, but how the money impacts specific pieces of legislation.

Reform To Expose Big Political Donors Losing In California

August 31, 2014 David Dayen, www.salon.com Strategize! Campaign Finance, Elections, Labor, Unions

The biggest reason why it will be so hard to get money out of politics is that there’s so much money in politics. The system favors incumbents, from incumbent politicians to their incumbent funders. And they have little incentive to shake up the status quo that brought them to power, even if their constituents and their ideological principles call out for reform. This is precisely what’s playing out in California. One of the most liberal legislatures in the country has struggled to pass a campaign finance measure that would merely force disclosure on political advertising, because several labor unions that spend heavily on campaigns oppose it. This has infuriated progressive groups in California and across the nation. The bill, known as the California DISCLOSE Act, is based on the national DISCLOSE Act that came within one vote of passage back in 2010.

FEC Failure To Investigate Rove’s Crossroads GPS In Court

July 31, 2014 Staff, www.campaignlegalcenter.org Resist! Campaign Finance, Democracy, Elections

Reform groups asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to declare unlawful the dismissal of a complaint against the secretive political spending group Crossroads Grassroots Political Strategies (GPS) by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The motion for summary judgment stems from the FEC’s failure to investigate Crossroads GPS for not registering as a political committee. The FEC Office of General Counsel had strongly recommended that the agency investigate in the face of evidence against the group but the Commission deadlocked along party lines leading to the dismissal of the complaint. The lawsuit, Public Citizen v. FEC, was brought by the parties to the 2010 complaint: Public Citizen; Craig Holman, campaign finance expert for Public Citizen; ProtectOurElections.org; and Kevin Zeese, an attorney for ProtectOurElections.org. The Campaign Legal Center and Public Citizen are handling the legal work on the case as co-counsel for the parties. The groups contend that Crossroads GPS – an organization created by Republican strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie to influence the 2010 midterm elections – fits the legal definition of a political committee: any group that receives or spends more than $1,000 during a calendar year to influence elections and whose major purpose is federal campaign activity. Political committees must disclose information about their donors and expenditures. The FEC’s refusal to investigate Crossroads GPS for failing to register as a political committee has allowed the organization to continue to keep its donors secret for the last three election cycles.

Mudslinging At The FEC Over Disclosure

July 29, 2014 Julie Patel, www.publicintegrity.org Resist! Campaign Finance, FEC, Law

Federal Election Commission Chairman Lee Goodman and two of his fellow Republican colleagues skewered Vice Chairwoman Ann Ravel — a Democrat — on Thursday because she didn’t vote to defend the agency last month against litigation from campaign finance reform-minded organizations. “Not only does this effort derail longstanding Commission practice, but more troublingly, it contravenes well-established legal precedents and evinces a flippant disregard for judicial review,” wrote Goodman, along with FEC commissioners Caroline Hunter and Matthew Petersen. "Commissioner Ravel has gone to extraordinary and unprecedented lengths to try to censor presentation of the agency’s rationale for its prosecutorial decision in the Crossroads GPS matter," they continued. The blistering four-page statement came less than four months after Goodman and Ravel vowed to work together to improve the nation’s campaign finance watchdog and to overcome the bitter ideological divide that has for years plagued the agency. Whether abstaining from the vote draws “furor or not, I’m here to do what’s best for the public and to fulfill the purposes of the FEC,” Ravel told the Center for Public Integrity. “It’s about disclosure.”

Change How Political Campaigns Are Funded–Starting Now

June 24, 2014 Steven Rosenfeld, www.alternet.org Organize! Campaign Finance, Corruption, Democracy, Elections

In May, Harvard Law Professor Larry Lessig sent shockwaves through the democracy reform movement by creating a SuperPAC and raising $2 million—half in small online donations; half from wealthy individuals—to be spent on making political corruption a decisive issue in five 2014 U.S. House races. He’s trying to raise another $5 million by July—all to demonstrate that a new way of raising big money and winning is possible. Many reformers see this gambit as being akin to Mahatma Ghandi picking up a gun. In the Q&A with AlterNet’s Steven Rosenfeld, Lessig’s explains his fighting fire with fire strategy. He says the campaign finance reform community has backed the wrong remedies for decades. He says Democratics missed their chance to make real reforms when it had that power. And he said why he’s optimistic that Americans—if given a change and pathway—will break the cycle of corruption that starts in fundraising. Steven Rosenfeld: Let’s start with the basics. How much has the MayDay PAC raised? How close are you to raising the next $5 million by July 4th? Larry Lessig: The total so far is just over $3 million.

IRS Delays New Rules For Dark Money Groups

May 26, 2014 Theodoric Meyer, www.propublica.org Educate! Campaign Finance, Corruption, IRS

After intense criticism from both ends of the political spectrum, the Internal Revenue Service has delayed indefinitely proposed rules that would have imposed new limits on social welfare nonprofits, which have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars from anonymous donors into recent elections. The agency said yesterday it would postpone a hearing on the proposal it released in November defining more clearly what constitutes political activity for such groups, and would revise the plan to reflect some of the more than 150,000 comments it triggered. Officials put no timeline on the process, disappointing those who had hoped the new regulations might kick in before this year's mid-term elections. "I think it's unfortunate that new rules will be delayed even further and that we're going through another election cycle" without them, said Paul S. Ryan, senior counsel with the Campaign Legal Center. Others called the delay a prudent step that would give the IRS an opportunity to get a crucial change right. "They're not going to put out some slapdash rule just to check it off their list," said John Pomeranz, a Washington lawyer who works with nonprofits that spend money on politics. He doesn’t expect the agency to finish the rules any time soon. “I think we’ll be lucky if they’re in place for the 2016 election.”

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