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Disclosure
Excessive disclosure comes to Congressman Perriello’s campaign
Published on September 8, 2010 12:20 PM
Category: Disclosure
The Center for Competitive Politics has long argued that while there may be some minimal benefit to disclosure of large contributions to candidates for office, most other disclosure measures are intrusive, unnecessary, and potentially dangerous. Hence, our opposition to the DISCLOSE Act, the latest effort by the so-called campaign finance "reform" community to stifle unwelcome political speech. But our focus has generally been on the contributor side, pointing out how ex
Ed Schulz: Our hero on campaign finance disclosure
Published on August 30, 2010
Category: Disclosure
On his August 25th show, liberal MSNBC host Ed Schulz expressed concern about publication of personal information of people based on their political participation. Said Ed, "A tea party blog in Maine listed the D.C. home addresses of [various prominent Democrats]. Can somebody tell me why? What is the usefulness of this? Do they actually want people to show up outside their door, maybe help them get the morning paper? ... This sets the table for intimidation and har
Responding to Obama on DISCLOSE
Published on August 23, 2010 11:00 AM
Category: Disclosure, First Amendment
This Saturday's weekly Presidential radio address was devoted to resurrecting the DISCLOSE Act, the bill designed to stifle free speech rights recognized by the Supreme Court in the Citizens United decision. Reviewing the transcript of his comments, I had a few thoughts: 1. Most noticeable for its absence was any mention of unions. President Obama refers to corporations no fewer than 9 times in his comments, plus the insurance and banking industries. But there's not one mention of unions, ev
The Ground Zero mosque, DISCLOSE, and the abuse of power
Published on August 19, 2010
Category: Disclosure, Other
On August 18, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a rather incredible comment. With polls showing roughly 70 percent of Americans believe the Cordoba Project mosque near Ground Zero is a bad idea (though a constitutionally protected one), and further that the apparent support voiced by the President and various liberal commentators for the mosque was causing a bleeding in Democratic support barely two months before the next election, the Speaker suggested that it would appropriate to have an i
DISCLOSE back from the dead?
Published on August 17, 2010 01:58 PM
Category: Disclosure, Independent Speech
Yesterday, the Hotline reported that Senate Democrats plan to force another vote on the DISCLOSE Act "to score political points." This is not exactly a surprise, as Schumer has said he planned to bring up DISCLOSE multiple times: "[W]e will go back at this bill again and again and again until we pass it," he told The Hill last month after the DISCLOSE Act failed to clear a procedural vote in the Senate.
Campaign finance “reformers” surrender on DISCLOSE Act (but only for 2010)
Published on August 3, 2010 03:00 PM
Category: Disclosure
Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 today ran up the white flag on getting the DISCLOSE Act passed in time to affect the 2010 elections. In a post chastising Maine's two Republican Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, for not standing with the so-called campaign finance "reform" community in ramming through the DISCLOSE Act, Wertheimer notes the following: Prior to the vote last week, Senators Snowe and Collins raised a major concern about enacting a new campaign finance la
No “shadow” groups out there, un-DISCLOSEd donors or not
Published on July 30, 2010 06:00 AM
Category: Disclosure
Much wailing and sobbing has been heard from the so-called campaign finance "reform" community over the issue of disclosure of contributions to so-called "shadow" groups freed by the Citizens United decision to spend money urging the election or defeat of candidates for public office. Since the defeat of the DISCLOSE Act on Tuesday, the hysteria among "reformers" has kicked into overdrive. As the Center for Competitive Politics has pointed out repeatedly, there is no "loophole"
Citizens United, DISCLOSE, and "these important issues"
Published on July 28, 2010
Category: Disclosure
With the failure of the misnamed DISCLOSE Act, now, goes the logic, the onus is on "moderate Republicans" to "come out with their own proposal to do the important things that need to be done with campaign finance disclosure after Citizens United." The reality is that there are no "important issues" that are addressed by DISCLOSE, or that need to be addressed (and can constitutionally be challenged) because of Citizens United. Moderates will oppose the incumbent self-dealing, partisan moti
DISCLOSE Act fails on party-line, procedural vote
Published on July 27, 2010 04:12 PM
Category: Disclosure, First Amendment, Independent Speech
The Center for Competitive Politics and fellow travelers who support First Amendment rights in politics won a major battle today as the DISCLOSE Act failed on a party-line, procedural vote (57-to-41). But the fight is not over. Minutes after the vote, Democracy21 and other pro-regulation groups vowed a lame duck effort to pass this bill in September. The Hill quotes the bill's Senate sponsor, Chuck Schumer, as saying the majority will attempt to "go back at this bill again and again and again u
DISCLOSE done for?
Published on July 27, 2010 02:30 PM
Category: Disclosure, First Amendment, Independent Speech
Fox News reports that Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who had been considered a swing vote on the DISCLOSE Act, will vote against cloture later this afternoon: Complaining that there have been "no hearings, no vetting, no attempt to bring people together," Snowe touted her own past work on the issue and added, "I know the new routine on legislation these days is to ram and jam...but it really does take time...It really does require building a consensus." Also, a spokesman for Sen. Dianne Fei
