The MacArthur Foundation on Monday dumped $4.8 million onto various non-profit organizations that lobby or advocate for campaign finance reform. The big winner is the Aspen Institute, which will get $1.8 million to pay for congressmen to go on nice weekend retreats where they can meet with advocates of limiting the amount that others can spend [...]
Hey, this political speech stuff costs money! The high cost of political campaigning
Published on April 16, 2012
Filed Under: Blog, Aspen Institute, Bear Stearns, Brennan Center, Citigroup, Coca Cola, Committee for Economic Development, Democracy 21, Enron, Fred Wertheimer, Hartford, MacArthur Foundation, Phillip Morris, Travelers
Campaign spending and voter knowledge: Posner posts a most unPosner-like post
Published on April 15, 2012
Federal judge Richard Posner, erstwhile University of Chicago Law School professor, icon of the law and economics school of legal theory, author of numerous books covering everything from sex to national security to the banking collapse of 2008, and in recent years a blogger, is certainly one of the most prolific and entertaining writers, and [...]
Filed Under: Blog, campaign spending, Citizens United, posner, super PACs
Public Broadcasting Must Also Follow the First Amendment
Published on April 13, 2012
Yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court struck down a ban on political and issue advertising in public broadcasts. The opinion, which targets the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) ban on non-profit and political advertising, leaves intact bans on commercial advertisements. The opinion concluded that the ban on political and issue advertising violated the First Amendment’s free speech clause. Although the [...]
Filed Under: Blog, First Amendment, Independent Speech, Uncategorized, ban on advertising, free speech, PBS, District Of Columbia
Is Asking Organizations to Boycott ALEC Protecting Speech or Intimidation?
Published on April 11, 2012
Addressing conservative complaints that liberal groups campaigning to get corporations to drop funding for the American Legislative Exchange Council are engaged in intimidation of speech, Election Law Blog’s Rick Hasen responds that ”it looks to me like protected First Amendment boycott-like activity.” Of course, it can be both. One question society is going to to have to ask itself is whether it [...]
Filed Under: Blog, Disclosure, ALEC, boycott activity, First Amendment speech, Scalia, District Of Columbia
Van Hollen Decision: Disclosure No Matter Why You Gave
Published on April 9, 2012
On March 30th, D.C. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered the Federal Election Commission (FEC) back to the drawing board with instructions to rewrite disclosure regulations enacted after 2010′s Citizens United decision. According to Eliza Newlin Carney of Roll Call, “At issue is whether trade associations or tax-exempt advocacy groups must report the donors [...]
Filed Under: Blog, Disclosure, Disclosure, FEC, McCain-Feingold, Van Hollen, District Of Columbia
Campaign Funding Not Just About Super PACs
Published on April 6, 2012
It’s tempting to feel sorry for Obama because it would appear he’s having some trouble raising money for his re-election campaign through his super PAC Priorities USA Action. Billionaire investor George Soros and insurance executive Peter Lewis – who together have donated more than $50 million to Democratic political groups since 2004 – are among [...]
Filed Under: Blog, Disclosure, Featured Content, Super PACs, Democracy Alliance, Obama, Soros, super PACs, District Of Columbia
Taking on the State Integrity Investigation
Published on April 4, 2012
CCP Academic Advisor David Primo and the Institute for Justice’s Paul Sherman have an op-ed in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal discussing “good government” groups’ claims about political corruption. The article looks at the State Integrity Investigation, spearheaded by the Center for Public Integrity, which ranked New Jersey as the state with the lowest risk of [...]
Filed Under: Blog, Contributions & Limits, Taxpayer Financed Campaigns, Uncategorized, David keating, David Primo, New Jersey, State Integrity Investigation, Virginia, New Jersey, Virginia
Moyers Pushes Scary Rhetoric on Campaign Disclosure
Published on April 2, 2012
I don’t what’s more offensive about this piece by Bill Moyers that appeared in today’s Huffington Post: that he uses scare-tactic rhetoric such as “plutocrats” and “media monolith” in an effort to get people to make a little trip down to their local TV stations and request copies of those stations’ ad buy invoices, or [...]
Filed Under: Blog, Disclosure, Featured Content, Bill Moyers, broadcasters, campaign ads, Huffington Post, District Of Columbia
Dickerson: Non-profits Should be Wary of DISCLOSE Act
Published on March 30, 2012
CCP Legal Director Allen Dickerson recently penned an op-ed in Campaigns & Elections on the danger that passage of the DISCLOSE Act poses to non-profits. The problem with this legislation is that in its zeal for disclosure, it would impose enormous requirements on precisely the sort of traditional, widely favored actions nonprofit advocacy groups have been [...]
Filed Under: Blog, Disclosure, Featured Content, First Amendment, Independent Speech, Campaigns & Elections, Dickerson, Disclose Act, District Of Columbia