Fair Elections/Campaign Finance
O’Donnell Wants IRS to Punish Watchdog
Former Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell (R) wants the IRS to revoke CREW’s tax-exempt status.
 
Conservative Group Asks Court to Cut Disclosure Rules
A lawsuit in Florida on the requirement that two or more people spending $500+ on a ballot measure needing to form a political committee.
“The Institute for Justice, financed in part by billionaires Charles and David Koch, who also helped fuel the tea party movement, is representing three Sarasota-area activists in the case before U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle. The institute wants Hinkle to block state campaign laws from being applied to citizen activists looking to run advertising on ballot issues.”
- More here: http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20110728/CAPITOLNEWS/107280328/Campaign-finance-laws-challenged?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
 
Crossroads GPS, Priorities USA Violate Tax Laws: Reform Groups Allege in IRS Petition
Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center filed a petition yesterday to “ask the IRS to revise its regulations regarding eligibility for 501(c)(4) status on the grounds that current IRS enforcement allows far more political activity by a social welfare groups than the actual law intended.”
 
Eshoo Leads Democratic Push for Campaign Finance Reform
“Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) is leading a charge of House Democrats asking President Obama to formalize rules that would require federal contractors to broadly disclose their political activities.”
 
Smartphoning Campaign Donations
Texting donations might be an innovative tactic – but what will the implications be?
 
Congress/2012
Pols Cash in on Debt Debate
Members of Congress can’t agree on how to handle the debt crisis – but they can agree that they need campaign cash – and are using this as an opportunity to fundraise.
 
K Street Eager for Debt Fight to End
K Street is starting to whine about the debt crisis getting in their way, wah!
·      “Everybody in the country is anxious for the debt talks to end,” Hogan Lovells partner Mike House told The Hill. “We need to get this resolved not just for lobbying business, but for the corporate and everything else. I mean, we’re like every business in America.”
 
Powerful GOP Group Backs Boehner Plan
Crossroads GPS is backing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) with big money.
 
Podestas Lead FEC Bundling Money List
Not a huge surprise here.
·      “To outside watchdogs, few things are as controversial as the role of big money bundlers and big money lobbyists. Lobbyists bundling large amounts of cash “raises the specter of this quid pro quo that is so disturbing,” says Mary Boyle, vice president of communications for Common Cause. She describes bundlers as the “power brokers” of the regulated financial system, who do a valuable service for candidates that, in return, “buys them access, influence and, certainly prestige within the campaign.”

WH to Issa: No Impropriety in President Obama’s Fundraising
“The White House’s response—delivered a day after a deadline the House committee chairman set—may be courting a showdown with Issa because it did not include any of the records Issa demanded.”
 
Advocates Pay to Tout Oil, Debt Agendas at Iowa Straw Poll
Public Campaign’s Nick Nyhart: “The consultants most likely have access to the special-interest group’s supporter lists, direct mail plans and other strategies — and it would be illegal to share them with the campaign for free, he said.
“The opportunities to break the law are significant,” he said. “You have to be very careful.”
Nyhart added: “The bigger thing that bothers me is API finding ways to have impact on process. That industry has a huge ability to reward candidates and bring candidates to their side in a way that consumers don’t have.”
 
Other
“Government is Broken…”
Common Cause President (and former Congressman) Bob Edgar spoke with the Philadelphia Inquirer.