Category: Campaign Finance

FEC Chairman Warns that McCain May Be Breaking Campaign Finance Law

No Comments

FEC Chairman David Mason is saying that his February 6 request to withdraw from the public financing system for the primaries had not been granted.

Technically, the FEC cannot rule on his request to exit the system (he has not technically received any payments), because the Republicans are insisting on appointing electoral terrorist Hans von Spakovsky to the FEC.

Additionally, he agreed to go back into the system if he flamed out in the primaries in order to secure a loan, which may qualify as using FEC money as collateral, which means that he would be bound by the limits, and could not pull out.

One wonders if perhaps the Senate can approve the other three FEC nominees now that McCain is caught up in all this.

Heh.

McCain Already in Violation of McCain Feingold Campaign Finance Law

No Comments

If not by the letter of the law, then certainly by the spirit.

McCain got a $4 million loan for his campaign, and as part of the deal, he agreed to take public financing if his campaign failed. If he won, or became the front-runner, he would get the necessary donations.

Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason, in a letter to McCain this week, said the all-but-certain Republican nominee needs to assure the commission that he did not use the promise of public money to help secure a $4 million line of credit he obtained in November.

And interesting aside to this is that it gives Barack Obama an out on his promise on opting in to public financing.

John McCain is already in violation of McCain-Feingold, so there can be no deal.

McCain Calls for Obama Honor So-Called Promise on Public Financing

No Comments

Last year, McCain and Obama agreed to go with public financing in the general if they were the nominees, and now McCain is demanding that Obama adhere to his so-called pledge.

Obama is in a no-win situation right now, and it may very well not be his fault.

It appears that the argument regarding the “pledge” is that he made some inquiries regarding going on public financing in the general seem to be statements that have some wiggle room, but considering how far the press has their tongue up McCain’s asshole, it will be sold as a pledge.

I think that a good plan of attack against this is to show how McCain attempted to use public financing as an insurance policy for his campaign, where it would only kick in if he lost to retire his debts.

Negative Ads May Be Hitting Dem Primary Soon

No Comments

The WSJ has a report that some of Clinton’s big donors may run their own ads.

Theoretically, the law can make this very difficult, but since the FEC currently lacks quorum, there is no enforcement mechanism.

When people start running their own ads like this, they tend to go negative, so I’m predicting that this is going to get nasty in the next few weeks.

Hopefully, I’m wrong, which I almost always am, but I fear that I’m not.

The Tweety Effect

No Comments

Emily’s List is using Chris “Tweety” Matthews’ hostile, and generally sexist, statements about Hillary Clinton to raise money for her:

We’ve seen how far pundits like Chris Matthews will go to define Hillary on their terms. We’ve fought back against the gender stereotypes that keep popping up again and again.

But it’s not going to stop just because we want it to. The only way Hillary can talk to voters unfiltered is if she has enough money to deliver her message of change straight to the grassroots.

Mr. Straight Talk Weasels out of Public Financing Limits

No Comments

Yep, he’s opted out after opting in.

Mark Schmitt has a fairly detailed analysis of the legalities, and it basically comes down as follows:

  • There has been an advisory ruling that candidates can change their mind until they actually receive the matching funds.
  • He took out a loan for his campaign, but it was not contingent on matching funds, and he is not in the position of renouncing, “an asset if it’s entangled in another transaction”.
  • Because there is no quorum for the FEC, there can be no rulings.

So he appears legal, although he also appears to be a hypocrite.

Good Analysis of Pushback (Bushback) Against Bush

No Comments

I noticed that Americans United for Change will be spending $8.5 million on ads to keep Bush’s approval numbers down for the rest of his term.

My first reaction was that this was a waste of money, public disapproval has never prevented Bush from doing the wrong thing. After all, he has a year left, and who cares.

Steve Benen, of the Carpetbagger, sets me right, and he makes the point that the Republicans have welded themselves to Bush for at least this election cycle, and they won’t begin to extricate themselves from his toxic embrace until after tie 2008 elections.

It’s true, the weaker Bush is, weaker ‘Phants are, and there is this little bon mot of Mr. Benen.

And, one assumes, if John McCain gets the Republican nomination, this initiative, coupled with a ubiquitous picture of McCain hugging Bush, should help tilt the scales a little.

True.

I just wish that I hadn’t been drinking when I read that. Steve Benen ows me a screen cleaner.

Let’s Get Rid of Bush Dog Leonard Boswell

No Comments

Ed Fallon is challenging Leonard Boswell in the Iowa primary. (I guess that they only do the caucus for presidential stuff, could someone confirm?

It’s a good idea to take

FWIW, Gore barely won in 2000, and Bush barely won in 2004, so it’s a competitive district, but if this isn’t a year for Democrats, particularly given the economy, it I’ll eat my hat.)

You can contribute via Act Blue, Fallon’s web site is not yet up.

Fallon is popular in the district, he carried it in the gubernatorial primary that he lost state wide, and Boswell has never connected well with the district, he moved following redistricting in 2000, and he’s voted for the war without condition and the Patriot act.

The primary is on June 3.

The Cash Crunch is Hitting the Primaries, But Only for Republicans

No Comments

While Obama and Clinton are considering Super Bowl ads, Republican candidates are running short on cash.

Romney appears to be considering spending some more of his own money on the race, while in the Huckabee campaign, some aides are not being paid, and others have left, and insiders in the McCain campaign are admitting that things are tight.

Gee, if you screw up the economy badly enough, I guess that Republican donor Rodney Richpigge* won’t crack open his check book, because high taxes on some profits is better than no taxes on losses.

*Internet high 5 if you pick up the reference.

SCOTUS to Review McCain-Feingold “Millionair’s Amendment”

No Comments

When McCain and Feingold were writing their campaign finance law, they had to deal with the problem of self financing candidates. If a multimillionaire wanted to run, and spend millions of his own money, the court decisions had explicitly made it clear that this was protected by the first amendment.

Their solution was to allow candidates facing a rich self-funding to accept larger donations, which the Supreme Court will now be reviewing the case, Davis v. FEC, which affirmed the law.

This is Harsh

No Comments

Well, it looks like the Republicans are starting to swift boat each other, as shown by this anti-Huckabee ad, put out by Victims Voice, a 527 with unknown funding.

The principal of the organization, one Keith Emis, claims that it was done by him and a friend, and that they only spent money on tape and gas, but I think that this is too well produced for that.

Adblock

Of course, the whole story shows a startling lack of unawareness. The cheerleader who was raped was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, so there was a great hue and cry from the right wing that Wayne Dumond was railroaded because of who was governor at the time.

Mike Huckabee set him free, but he did so because a lot of people, many of them not in Arkansas pressured him, because it doesn’t matter if you are raped, if you are related to Bill Clinton.

Franken Outraising Coleman

No Comments

Whatever side you are on in Minnesota, it’s clear that you will lose, because with the amount of money raised, Franken raised $1.9 million in the last quarter, and Coleman raised $1.7 million, you are going to be getting wall to wall ads.

Once you get wall to wall ads, they go negative, because otherwise they become background noise.

I’m wondering how long before Franken is accused of being a “Thespian”.

Coleman is ahead in cash on hand, about $6m to about $3.1m, and it’s likely that even with Franken out raising his next nearest primary opponent by a significant amount, he will have a serious primary campaign.

Of course, this election is all about him, Al Franken. (Old SNL reference)

Joe Trippi Claims That Hillary Campaign Is Broke

No Comments

Honestly, I don’t see this claim as anything but self-aggrandizement from Trippi.

He thinks that because he blew through $40 million dollars with Dean in 2004, that Hillary must have blown through $100 million or so in 2008.

I place no credence in this, for a number of reasons:

  • It’s Joe bloody Trippi, who has little credibility.
  • You are not getting reports of frantic fund raising emails, and in this day of the internet, if there were a cash flow crisis, emails would be flying fast and furious.
  • This serves his interest as an Edwards campaign advisor.

I Love it When Conservatives Go Hammer and Tongs After Each Other

No Comments

In the left corner, wearing the bible print trunks, Michael Dale “The Gastric Bypass” Huckabee, and in the left corner, wearing currency print trunks with the corporate sponsorship, the Club for Growth.

It appears that the CfG is taking out bunch of nasty ads against Huckabee.

Four years ago, they called me a, “tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show”, so I’m experiencing no small amount of schadenfruede.