Don’t forget to spread the word about our protest this evening: http://www.campaignmoney.org/march16

Protest
Labor brawl lands on K Street

Groups to protest GOP fundraiser in DC

Wisconsin GOP Senators head to Washington to collect their payoffs, er, campaign contributions

Wisconsin Republicans to attend DC fundraiser March 16

Campaign Finance/Ethics
Campaign Finance Advocates Urge Obama to Overhaul FEC
The LA Times editorializes on the state of the Federal Election Commission, noting that 3 members’ terms are up.
 
Ethics Complaint Filed Against Claire McCaskill

• “Missouri Republicans have filed a complaint against Sen. Claire McCaskill with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, calling for an investigation into whether the Missouri Democrat improperly used taxpayer funding to cover the cost of at least one airplane trip to a political event.”

Ron Paul Aide Files Complaint Over Donald Trump’s Private Jet
#Planegate take two: “The complaint, first reported by The Daily Beast, accuses Trump of violating election laws because an adviser, Michael Cohen, used the developer's personal jet to travel to Iowa to measure support for a campaign.“
 
RNC Considers Selling TV Rights of Presidential Primary Debates

• “Larry Noble, an election law attorney with Skadden, Arps, described it as a "novel" concept but also said it raises a "serious question" as to whether it is even "possible under the law" to make such a payment beyond the federal contribution limits.”

Vermont Says No to Citizens United
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Citizens United:

• “To create a real fix, we need to develop a system for public funding of elections. The Fair Elections Now Act, sponsored by Sen. Durbin, moves us toward a level playing field, limits the power of big money in our elections, and would be an extremely important step forward in creating fair elections.”

Congress
Democrats Pushing Kaine Replacement
Donna Brazile is moving up the ladder as a choice to lead the DNC if Tim Kaine leaves to run for Senate. Brazile is a Fair Elections supporter and keynoted Public Campaign’s 2006 conference.
 
Other
Bill Would Require ID at Voting Booth
New Voter ID legislation in North Carolina would also eliminate public financing of campaigns for some offices.

• “It also eliminates some public campaign funding such as council of state and judicial, but Democrats say it’s all noise compared to the bigger issue of voter ID.”

The Economy Has Been Bad to Both Public and Private-Sector Workers
Ezra Klein:

• “The effort to raise one or another up as a privileged class is smart politics on the part of those who want elections dominated purely by corporations, but it doesn’t point toward any answers for either group. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Walker agenda — which plenty of other governors would like to emulate — is to take both benefits and power away from public-sector employees, and then use the political space opened up by weakening unions to tilt policy toward corporate interests and away from poorer constituencies. That’s a world in which both private and public-sector workers end up worse off.”

Michigan Passes Financial Martial Law Bill
In what is seen by many as another attack on unions, Michigan has passed legislation to allow financial martial law.