Campaign Finance

Watchdogs Demand Investigation Into 'Brazen' $1 Million Pro-Romney Donation

Benjy Sarlin | August 4, 2011, 3:08PM

Mitt Romney Holds Campaign Event In Front Of Valley Plaza Mall in Los Angeles, July 20, 2011

Watchdog groups are demanding that state and federal officials investigate a $1 million donation from a mysterious firm to an independent political group backing Mitt Romney's campaign in order to determine whether it violates federal campaign laws.

In a letter to Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, the Public Campaign Action Fund claims that the giant contribution to Super PAC "Restore Our Future" from the firm W Spann LLC is out of bounds. As first reported by NBC's Michale Isikoff, records show the firm was incorporated in the state in March and then dissolved in July with little apparent activity besides its donation and virtually no publicly available information on its owners.

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Campaign Finance

Mysterious Firm Gives $1 Million To Pro-Romney Group, Closes Shop

Benjy Sarlin | August 4, 2011, 9:54AM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney (MA)

A firm with no apparent purpose or even clear address donated $1 million to Restore Our Future, a Super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, before closing up shop.

The cash and its mysterious origins, first reported on by NBC's Michael Isikoff, raise significant questions about the limits of campaign money in the post-Citizens United era. Super PACs, which can accept unlimited corporate donations to run independent political ads, are required to disclose their donors. But the firm, W Spann LLC, which was formed in Delaware in March by a Boston lawyer and dissolved in July, is a private company and can thus conceal details of its backers and agenda.

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Robert Menendez

Dems: If Corporate Donations Are Free Speech, Let Shareholders Speak Too

Igor Bobic | July 13, 2011, 3:45PM

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)

Congressional Democrats introduced a bill today that would take some of the sting out of last year's controversial Citizens United decision by empowering shareholders to weigh in before a corporation makes any political contribution.

The Shareholder Protection Act is a last ditch-effort by Democrats to stem the tide of unlimited political expenditures that corporations will surely use to influence the 2012 election, and one wisely crafted on the conservative premise that shareholders' wallets ought to have the same level of free speech protection as the corporations they helped create.

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2012

Priorities USA Counters Karl Rove With New Ad

Benjy Sarlin | June 29, 2011, 10:06AM

Progressive Super-PAC Priorities USA is hitting the airwaves in five states in an effort counter ad buys from Karl Rove's anonymous-money organization, Crossroads GPS.

The ads specifically target Rove for playing "politics at its worst" and highlight the House GOP's plan to turn Medicare into a private voucher system with stingier benefits. They'll run in Iowa, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Colorado, all highly competitive states in 2012 that President Obama won in his first election.

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Allyson Schwartz

Top Dem: Maybe Democratic Super PACs Should Disclose Their Donors

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 23, 2011, 12:01PM

Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA)

Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA), the DCCC official in charge of recruiting new Democrats to run for the House next year, isn't phased by warnings from former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) that Democrats bellying up to the Citizens United-created money trough next year could spell disaster for the party.

But at a breakfast meeting hosted by The Third Way think tank in Washington this morning, Schwartz suggested Democrats could take advantage of the fundraising afforded them by doing it a little differently.

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Netroots Nation

Russ Feingold: Democratic Super PACs Are 'Dancing With The Devil'

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 16, 2011, 10:21PM

Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI)

MINNEAPOLIS -- Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) took direct aim at a key part of the Democrats' 2012 electoral strategy during his keynote address at Netroots Nation here Thursday evening.

The Super PAC Priorities USA, which was founded by former Obama White House aides to collect and spend the unlimited corporate funds allowed under the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, and other Democratic Super PACs are nothing short of a disaster for the party, Feingold said.

"It's dancing with the devil," he told hundreds of liberal activists gathered at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

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Citizens United

Republicans Push Back On Obama Plan To Force Disclosure Of Political Contributions

Susan Crabtree | May 6, 2011, 1:56AM

GOP Leaders

Republicans are predictably pushing back against President Obama's proposed executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose their political donations to third-party groups.

House GOP leaders and 19 other Republicans sent a letter to Obama Friday urging him not to issue the executive order, arguing it would introduce politics into the federal-government contracting practice and stifle political speech.

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Priorities USA

Watchdogs Target New Democratic Super PACs

Susan Crabtree | April 29, 2011, 4:33PM

President Barack Obama

That didn't take long.

Just hours after the launch Friday of two new Democratic Super Pacs designed to keep President Obama in the White House and counter deep-pocketed GOP groups who helped Republicans win control of the House in 2010, a prominent watchdog group announced plans to file a complaint against them with the IRS.

The two new groups, Priorities USA and Priorities USA Action, were formed by former Obama White House aides Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney to take advantage of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling last year and will collect unlimited funds -- with the goal of $100 million -- from corporations and unions. Only one of the two groups will disclose their donors to the Federal Election Commission.

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2012 elections

In 2012 Money Race, Democrats Say Game On!

Susan Crabtree | April 29, 2011, 12:22PM

President Barack Obama

Democrats, still smarting from the 2010 midterm defeats, are determined not to sit on the fundraising sidelines and be caught flat-flooted again. Leading Democratic strategists are building a new arsenal for control of the White House and Congress in 2012, employing the same unlimited, secret donor activities that President Barack Obama and many Democrat have vociferously opposed.

Two new groups, Priorities USA and Priorities USA Action, have launched to counter deep-pocketed GOP groups and are planning to raise $100 million to keep Obama in the White House and elect more Democrats to Congress, according to a report in Politico.

The twin Priorities committees will mimic the example of Karl Rove's American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, the two groups that drew widespread criticism from Obama and Democrats during the 2010 cycle for taking full advantage of the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United that allowed unlimited, undisclosed corporate and union donations to outside groups. One will disclose its donors while the other will not.

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DSCC

Outside Groups Dominate Campaign Ad Spending In 2010 (CHARTS)

Brian Beutler | October 18, 2010, 10:04AM

Karl Rove

Anonymous outside interests have gone from being a relatively minor source of funding for campaign-season television ads to being the dominant player in 2010, according to figures compiled by the Sunlight Foundation.

A new (and effective) Democratic messaging strategy -- criticizing Republicans and their conservative backers for letting outside, anonymously funded groups run ads attacking candidates -- isn't an example of a party desperately looking for a new bogeyman. It's backed up by data, freely available from the Federal Elections Committee.

The sea change is largely the result of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, overturning a ban preventing pressure groups and corporations from running so-called independent expenditure ads for or against a candidate (these are distinct from issue ads, which only mention candidates vis-a-vis their policy positions). As a result of that shift, the official party committees and candidates face direct contribution limits and must disclose their funders. PACs have a bit more leeway -- they still face disclosure rules, but no donation limits and can make unlimited independent expenditures. Groups organized as non-profits, though, are unencumbered: they can take in as much money as they want, without having to disclose any of their donors.

The result has been extraordinary.

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DE-SEN

Christine O'Donnell's Confused Debate Night: Candidate Asks For Hint On Recent SCOTUS Cases

Christina Bellantoni | October 13, 2010, 9:46PM

DE-SEN candidate Christine O'Donnell (R) in a debate with Chris Coons (D)

Delaware Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell may have mastered her debate talking points and had a "Saturday Night Live" laughline, but had a tough time this evening with some basic questions about issues she'd face if she is elected to the Senate.

The most striking example of that in her CNN-televised debate against Democratic nominee Chris Coons came at the end of the 90-minute forum when O'Donnell could not name a recent Supreme Court case.

The debate moderator Nancy Karibjanian of Delaware First Media asked O'Donnell to talk about a recent high court opinion she disagreed with. The Republican, who defeated Rep. Mike Castle in a primary last month, paused.

"Oh gosh. Give me a specific one," O'Donnell said after a deer-in-the-headlights moment which you can watch below. Karibjanian said, no, because that was the point: she needed O'Donnell to name one.

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MN-GOV

Target Shareholders Demand Review After Pro-Emmer Donation Fiasco

Eric Kleefeld | August 20, 2010, 4:15PM

Minnesota Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Emmer

Target is running into yet another backlash as a result of its $150,000 donation to a business group supporting Republican Tom Emmer in the Minnesota gubernatorial race. And as the Los Angeles Times reports, this time it's not from liberal activists and pro-gay rights consumers in Target's deep-blue home state -- it's from shareholders, who are worried about the damage the flap has done to the company itself.

Target shareholders are demanding that the retail giant review and revamp its political donation process -- to avoid embarrassment and bad press in the future.

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MN-GOV

Target's Misfire On Emmer Support Shows Perils Of Post-Citizens United World

Eric Kleefeld | August 9, 2010, 9:36AM

The recent firestorm over the Target Corporation's support for Tom Emmer in the Minnesota gubernatorial race illustrates a major pitfall for companies in the post-Citizens United world: They are now free to spend money on political races -- but are at risk of being identified with a candidate's whole agenda, and not just the key issues they might like.

The lesson here is obvious: If you want to keep your brand clean of politics, keep your wallet out of the whole enterprise, too.

As we'd previously reported, Target gave $150,000 to MN Forward, a pro-business group backed by the state Chamber of Commerce, which is running TV ads supporting Emmer. However, this triggered a backlash from gay rights activists and some consumers in this liberal state, due to Emmer's support for a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and his close associations with the religious right.

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MN-GOV

Target CEO Apologizes For Company's Support Of Tom Emmer

Eric Kleefeld | August 5, 2010, 2:52PM

MN Gov. candidate Tom Emmer (R) and the logo of the Target Corp.

The head of the Target Corporation is now taking the amazing step of apologizing for the company's financial support of Tom Emmer, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor in the company's home state of Minnesota, after coming under fire from gay rights activists.

And in a further sign of how tricky corporate political spending can actually be in practice in the post-Citizens United world, the company will also set up a review process for any future political donations.

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MN-GOV

Human Rights Campaign Slams Target And Best Buy For Supporting Anti-Gay Tom Emmer

Eric Kleefeld | August 2, 2010, 10:13AM

The political fallout from the post-Citizens United spending by Target and other Minnesota companies on the state's gubernatorial race continues, with gay-rights activists attacking business interests for supporting the anti-gay Republican Tom Emmer.

As we noted last week, Target's donation of $150,000 to MN Forward, a business group supporting Emmer, has been causing a backlash among gay rights activists in the state, due to Emmer's support for a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and his close associations with the religious right.

Target and other companies supporting MN Forward and Emmer have made it clear that their support is based on Emmer's position on economic issues, and that the companies remain committed to their own pro-LGBT business policies. Still, that hasn't stopped pro-gay rights Minnesotans from boycotting Target and returning already purchased goods.

Now the Human Rights Campaign has entered the fray, taking out a full-page ad in the Star Tribune -- directed at both Target and Best Buy, which contributed another $100,000 to MN Forward, and signaling that the companies' support for Emmer could be a "horribly short-sighted business decision." See the ad here.

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Citizens United

Sessions Compares Citizens United To Landmark Civil Rights Case

Brian Beutler | June 29, 2010, 10:50AM

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

With all the discussion at Elena Kagan's confirmation hearing of the recent Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case, many Americans are probably in need of an easy primer to understand the decision, which holds that corporations, like individual citizens, can make unlimited political contributions. According to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the top Republican on the Judiciary committee, it's just like the time the Supreme Court desegregated public schools!

Last night, elaborating on his criticisms of former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Sessions made the unusual comparison of Citizens United v. FEC to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

"[Marshall] was right on Brown v. Board of Education. It's akin in my view to the Citizen's United case. The court sat down and we went back to first principles--What does the Constitution say? Everybody should be equal protection of the laws," Sessions told me after a Senate vote last night.

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2010 elections

Leadership To Blue Dogs In Campaign Finance Fight: Get With The Program

Christina Bellantoni | June 24, 2010, 4:28PM

(Clockwise from top left) Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), NRA President Wayne LaPierre, conservative activist Grover Norquist, and a blue dog

This morning at the Democratic caucus, the message from leadership to Blue Dogs unwilling to support a new campaign finance measure requiring more disclosure in political advertising -- wise up.

The bill -- a response to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision -- passed this afternoon, 219-206. There were 36 Democrats -- members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and Blue Dogs -- who voted against it. Many Blue Dogs feared retribution from the business community in an already tough election year if they had voted for the legislation.

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Gun rights

Friendly Fire: Gun Rights Advocates In Shootout Over Campaign Finance Bill

Christina Bellantoni | June 17, 2010, 11:16AM

Gun rights supporters gather in Washington, D.C.

Gun rights activists are accusing the National Rifle Association of "selling out" to Congressional Democrats over a new measure aimed at requiring more disclosure from corporations getting involved in political races. The NRA was granted an exemption from legislation that would require other groups to disclose top donors, prompting one Virginia group to accuse them of being "bought off" and 45 groups to lodge a formal protest with Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Democratic leaders cut a deal with the NRA, fearing that, if they didn't, the bill's passage this summer would be doomed by members spooked by the potential backlash from the group, an important source of support for gun-friendly lawmakers.

The NRA now supports the so-called DISCLOSE Act, which was written by Democrats in response to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision loosening campaign finance regulations. The bill would require CEOs to stand by their ads and other transparency measures.

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2010 elections

Citizens United PAC Pumps $200K Into 2010 Races

Rachel Slajda | April 27, 2010, 4:02PM

The U.S. Supreme Court building

CongressDaily (sub. req.) crunches the numbers and finds that the Citizens United Political Victory Fund has given almost $200,000 to candidates in 2010 races, all to Republicans.

The PAC, which is behind the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that opened the door for campaign contributions directly from corporations, donated thousands to conservative and tea party-type candidates.

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Campaign Finance

Democrats Craft Citizens United Response -- Talking Points Frame Bill As Non-Partisan

Christina Bellantoni | April 23, 2010, 9:25AM

The U.S. Supreme Court building

Democrats will be casting their legislative response to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision as nonpartisan and will say that the majority of Americans favor transparency requirements in the wake of allowing corporations to get involved in elections.

TPMDC obtained House Democrats' talking points on the new measure and a summary of the legislation that's being sent to members. Already Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has a Republican co-sponsor, Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE). No Republicans have signed on to Sen. Chuck Schumer's version on the Senate side.

"This is not a partisan issue," members are instructed to say. "We hope that people on both sides of the aisle can agree that Americans have a right to know who is spending money on elections."

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Republicans

'Got Trust' Slogan Creator: 'Lot Of Options' For GOP Donors

Christina Bellantoni | April 7, 2010, 1:42PM

National Republican Trust PAC Executive Director Scott Wheeler

We told you earlier about the National Republican Trust PAC, which started a new advertising aimed at Republican donors that included the slogan, "Got trust?" I just interviewed executive director Scott Wheeler, who said his PAC aims to remind Republicans there are plenty of options for donating to groups that "don't squander their money."

Wheeler avoided directly criticizing Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, but said his group knows how to manage donations. He said the Trust PAC wouldn't spend fundraising money on "nightclubs" or "fancy offices," a reference to Steele's woes over spending that have gotten worse in recent weeks.

"People have a right to be outraged by that. I'm not going to tell people not to donate to a Republican group, but there are a lot of options for donating money that match the values of the donor," Wheeler said. His group spent heavily in the 2008 presidential election and in recent special elections in Massachusetts and New York.

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Supreme Court

Gibbs: Supreme Court Shouldn't Have Been Uncomfortable At SOTU -- Citizens United Was Their Decision! (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | March 11, 2010, 3:01PM

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

The clash between the White House and Supreme Court sparked anew this afternoon as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs challenged Chief Justice John Roberts' criticism of the president's State of the Union address.

"It didn't seem like a pep rally to me," Gibbs said today at his daily briefing with reporters, responding to Roberts telling law students this week he didn't seen the point in the high court attending the State of the Union.

The spat started at the address when President Obama said he strongly disagreed with the court's decision in the Citizens United case on campaign finance. At the time as cameras zoomed in for the rate moment of judicial branch criticism, Justice Samuel Alito mouthed "not true."

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Supreme Court

White House Pushes Back Against Chief Justice's Criticism: Citizens United Decision Was 'Troubling'

Christina Bellantoni | March 10, 2010, 8:41AM

Supreme Court Justice John Roberts and President Barack Obama (D)

The White House issued a rare statement smacking back at Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' criticism of President Obama disagreeing with the high court's Citizens United decision on campaign finance rules.

It all started during the State of the Union, when Obama said the high court made the wrong decision in the Citizens United case (and Justice Samuel Alito mouthed 'Not true'). Yesterday Roberts told a group of University of Alabama law students he found the whole incident "very troubling" and said the annual speech to Congress had "degenerated to a political pep rally."

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Citizens United

Poll: Everyone Hates The Citizens United Ruling

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 17, 2010, 8:45AM

The United States Supreme Court

New numbers from the ABC News/Washington Post poll reveal Americans of all political stripes are overwhelmingly upset with the Supreme Court's decision to allow more corporate money into electoral politics.

As the Post reports, the results from the poll are undeniably negative toward the decision. Sixty-five percent of respondents said they were "strongly opposed" to the ruling, with 72% saying they supported congressional action to reinstate the campaign fundraising limits the Supreme Court removed in the Citzens United case.

The negativity cuts equally across party lines, according to the poll.

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2010 elections

Dems Call For CEOs To Stand By Their Ads In Wake Of Citizens United Decision

Christina Bellantoni | February 11, 2010, 1:13PM

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

Democratic leadership today released the first details of legislation aimed at swiftly responding to the Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United case, calling for strict disclosure for corporations who get involved in political adversiting.

"If we don't act quicikly the court's decision will have an immediate and lasting impact on this fall's elections," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who said he will introduce the bill after the Senate recess this month.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) will drop the partner legislation in the House.

An Obama administration official told TPMDC the White House has played an "active role" in talking with Capitol Hill about how to respond to the decision, which both Republicans and Democrats have told pollsters they don't like.

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