Clips Round-up for 6/24/11

Submitted by akumar@publicam... on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 13:57
Campaign Finance/Fair Elections

Garrett Epps writes of the Virginia court's decision to allow direct corporate contributions to candidates: "Judge Cacheris's opinion is a prime example of right-wing judicial aggressiveness and simple-minded constitutional mythology."

Good: "A federal appellate court Thursday rejected a former congressman’s assertion that constitutional protections for legislative 'speech and debate' precluded his prosecution for allegedly promising to enact some legislation in response to a private transaction that brought him hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Congress/2012
There is absolutely no connection between the $9 million Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) spent in self financing for his campaign and the $10 million in deferred compensation he received after he won election. Sen. Ron Johnson says so himself!

Mitt Romney's the money man this cycle, but this Politico article handicaps the rest of the field too.

- And a new super PAC put together by his supporters is run by a casino lobbyist: http://campaignmoney.org/blog/2011/06/23/romney-backers-launch-super-pac-run-lobbyist

"There will be several intriguing things to keep an eye on when Republican presidential candidates file their financial disclosure reports in July. Among them: How much of his own money did Jon M. Huntsman Jr. invest in jump-starting his campaign?"

More on the AT&T merger. "The Capitol Hill lobbying campaign surrounding the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile continues to escalate."

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) introduced legislation yesterday that would 1) require lobbyists to report which offices they meet with, 2) do away with the 20% threshold on registering, and 3) require lobbyists to register new clients within 5 days (it's 45 now). 

President Obama was in NYC last night for a high-dollar fundraiser.

More details on this weekend's Koch event in Colorado. Colorado Common Cause will be there!

"Consumer Watchdog is telling the White House that its cozy relationship with Google is inappropriate, given ongoing reviews by both the FTC and the Department of Justice."

The Congressional Black Caucus PAC "has paid a $5,000 fine and recently filed close to two dozen amended campaign finance reports in a bid to clear up its books."

Other
PFAW's Michael Keegan writes about Justice Thomas and "the mounting concerns that he has flouted ethics and financial disclosure rules in accepting gifts and favors from wealthy friends who have a stake in the cases he decides."
NJ Gov. Christie may have have added some transparency to government, "As far as his politicking, however, transparency is another matter."

NC Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed a voter suppression bill in NC yesterday.