Campaign finance regulation
September 8, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Today, Harry Reid justified the partial repeal of the First Amendment on the ground that it is necessary to keep “dark money” out of politics. This makes no sense, of course, since the Democrats’ proposed Constitutional amendment gives Congress the power to ban or limit all spending on politics, “dark” or otherwise. But, as we have pointed out repeatedly, the Democrats love “dark money,” as long as it is spent
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September 2, 2014 — Scott Johnson
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s diatribes against the Koch brothers on the floor of the Senate might be evidence of certifiable insanity if anyone took them seriously. But the attitude of the mainstream media, to the extent one can be detected, is ho-hum. The fact that no moderately well informed citizen of sound mind takes Reid’s diatribes seriously should be news all by itself. Reid renders his diatribes on the
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August 27, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Someone–possibly an attendee, possibly a member of the hotel staff–audio taped a Koch-sponsored conference that was held in California last June. This, I take it, was one of the twice-a-year seminars that Koch puts on, by invitation, for conservative donors and others. Three Republican Senate candidates, Joni Ernst, Tom Cotton and Cory Gardner, participated in a panel titled “The Senate: A Window of Policy Opportunity for Principled Leaders.” Whoever recorded
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July 23, 2014 — John Hinderaker
We wrote here about the Democrats’ effort to clamp down on 501(c)(4) organizations–the only entities where Republicans raise more money than Democrats–by requiring such groups to disclose their donors. They have proposed the DISCLOSE Act, which would require such disclosure of 501(c)(4)s, but not of 501(c)(3)s–where the Left is strong–or unions. In the linked post, I wrote about the fact that a hearing on the DISCLOSE Act was scheduled today
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July 18, 2014 — Scott Johnson
Don’t miss John’s post on the Democrats’ ongoing efforts to drive conservatives out of politics. Next door in Wisconsin we have an example in small of the Democrats’ skullduggery, combining the use of campaign finance regulation, a lawless witch hunt by partisan prosecutors conducting a John Doe investigation and the possible connivance of the state’s Government Accountability Board (i.e., the regulatory agency enforcing the state’s campaign finance law). The victims
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July 17, 2014 — John Hinderaker
The Democratic Party is engaged in a long-term, multi-faceted effort to drive conservative money out of politics so that competing messages won’t be heard. There is evidence that the Democrats’ campaign is succeeding, as David Drucker notes at the Washington Examiner: The Wall Street Journal reported this month that the largest Democratic-aligned super PACs had raised $82 million so far this election cycle, compared to just $47 million for the
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July 14, 2014 — Scott Johnson
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan today wrote the Federal Election Commission regarding another mysterious hard drive crash, this one involving FEC attorney April Sands. Sands tweeted under the fitting handle ReignOfApril. The voluble Ms. Sands has admitted to disparaging Republicans and campaigning for President Obama in violation of the Hatch Act. J. Christian Adams wrote about the Sands case here for PJ
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July 10, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Don’t worry, nude dancing and flag burning will still be secure. But supporting candidates for elective office will no longer be a constitutional right, if Senate Democrats have their way. Rather, your right to participate in the political process will be subject to the whim of Congress, which can make it essentially illegal to run against an incumbent. Every entrenched politician’s dream! Today the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10-8, along
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June 19, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Democrats are giddy over the unsealing of “secret” documents that charge Scott Walker’s recall campaign with illegal coordination with outside conservative groups. To name just a few: USA Today: “Prosecutors: Wis. Gov. Scott Walker in criminal scheme.” Associated Press: “Prosecutors: Gov. Walker part of criminal scheme.” Washington Post: “How the State of Wisconsin alleges Scott Walker aides violated the law, in 1 chart.” If you didn’t know better, you might
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May 19, 2014 — John Hinderaker
I wrote here about Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi’s bizarre plan to team up with Robert Greenwald, a far-left video maker in screening Greenwald’s “Koch Brothers Exposed.” The film, which we have written about several times, contains little or nothing but misinformation. The screening is scheduled for tomorrow evening at the Visitor Center of the Capitol building. The affair is in grotesquely bad taste. Greenwald is a low-rent purveyor of
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May 17, 2014 — Scott Johnson
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has extended his campaign against Charles and David Koch to amendment of the Constitution. Reid supports amendment of the Constitution to allow Congress to regulate the Kochs campaign contributions. The amendment is phrased in impersonal terms — Byron York quotes the text in this column — but Reid has the Kochs on his mind: The Kochs’ bid for a hostile takeover of American democracy is
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February 21, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Everywhere we look, our friends on the right are under attack. Dinesh D’Souza is being charged with multiple felonies for an alleged chickenfeed campaign finance violation. Mark Steyn and National Review are being sued. Organizers of conservative grass roots groups like Catherine Engelbrecht are being harassed by federal agencies including IRS, OSHA, FBI and EPA. Various conservatives of our acquaintance, who will remain nameless to protect the innocent, are being
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February 13, 2014 — Scott Johnson
Brad Smith is the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law at Capital University Law School and the former chairman of the Federal Election Commission. He is also the chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics as well as the author of Unfree Speech: The Folly of Campaign Finance Reform. Professor Smith brings his expertise on campaign finance law and regulation to bear on the prosecution of
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February 12, 2014 — Steven Hayward
As I eagerly await the daily announcement from the media and the organized Left about the latest purported outrage of the Koch brothers spending money on politics, it is worth taking in the data compiled by the lefty Center for Responsive Politics about the top donors to political campaigns. The data on campaign spending from 1989-2014 show that all of the lefty talk about “corporate money” in politics is a
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February 3, 2014 — John Hinderaker
The “IRS scandal” consists of the fact that the agency targeted Tea Party groups and other identifiably conservative organizations for special scrutiny, denying them tax-exempt 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) status in advance of the 2012 election. The tactic worked, as many conservative groups were effectively taken out of action during that election cycle. In the aftermath of the scandal, the Obama administration is moving to institutionalize its discrimination against conservative groups
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January 21, 2014 — Steven Hayward
Today is the fifth anniversary of the blessed Citizens United decision, which the loony left has compared to Dred Scott (no really—they do). Remy Munasifi puts down his guitar in this video and in two crisp minutes walks us through the sense and nonsense about this terrific decision.
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November 22, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Obamacare is getting hammered, and deservedly so. But for the Democrats, it’s just another fundraising opportunity. They can’t run a health insurance program, but they are great at raking in cash. This communication from the Democratic Party arrived in my inbox yesterday: From: DCCC Breaking News [mailto:
[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2013 3:46 PM To: Hinderaker, John H. Subject: New York Times: New York Times: G.O.P. Maps Out Waves of
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