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Blog
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Welcome to the Holtzman Vogel Law Blog. We aim to keep you
up to date on important legal developments and other items of interest. On this
blog, we'll track developments in the news and changes to the rules and regulations
affecting political committees, corporate PACs, trade associations, non-profit groups
and advocacy organizations. We'll also keep you updated on the lobbying and ethics
arena. The Law Blog is designed to supplement our regular newsletter.
On behalf of the Holtzman Vogel team, I hope you find this site helpful and interesting.
And we hope you'll become a regular visitor. (If you'd like to receive our newsletter,
please click here to sign up.)
Jill Holtzman Vogel
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Thursday, September 02, 2010
The Hill: New details emerge in ethics probe of fundraising, vote on Wall Street bill
Click here to read the entire post.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Wash. Post: Maryland Sen. Currie indicted on charges of taking bribes from grocery chain
The Washington Post reports "Longtime Maryland Sen. Ulysses Currie, one of the most powerful and popular figures in the General Assembly, was indicted Wednesday on charges that he took more than $245,000 in bribes to use his position and influence to do favors for a grocery chain."
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Political Wire: $3 Billion in Political Ads
From Political Wire: "Kantar Media/CMAG's Evan Tracey tells Ad Age that the nation's political ad spending is on pace to set a record. Said Tracey: 'Spending so far on political and issue TV ads is $864 million, $50 million more than 2008, and $185 million ahead of 2006 at the same period of time. Historically, two-thirds of all election spending comes during the final 60 days, so we are on track to approach $3 billion in total spending on political and issue ads.'"
Click here to read the entire post.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Wash. Post: Mixed reaction to new FEC rules on candidates, interest groups working together
If one single, solitary person objects to something, does it warrant a newspaper report noting "mixed reaction"? If the subject is the FEC, then yes, a full report is apparently warranted.
The Washington Post reports that "[s]ome campaign finance reformers, however, say the rules don't go far enough and leave loopholes allowing broad coordination between candidates and outside groups that support them." Actually, the only public complainer, so far, is Fred Wertheimer, the one-man-band interest group known as Democracy 21. His usual allies - the Campaign Legal Center and Craig Holman at Public Citizen - haven't chimed in yet.
But we should listen to what Mr. Wertheimer has to say, because he offers a reasoned, expert analysis, right? Actually, he carps that the new coordination rules are nothing but a "huge loophole" and "[a]s a practical matter, it means we don't have coordination rules." So, the "mixed reaction" that the Post reports is little more than the hyperbolic letting-off-steam of one lobbyist feeding patently absurd claims to the media.
Click here to read the entire post.
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Bopp Challenges State Contractor Contribution Prohibition, PAC Requirements in Hawaii
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports here. "The lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court on behalf of A-1 A-lectrician Inc. seeks to strike down the state's ban on political donations by state and county contractors. The suit also challenges state law guiding corporations to register as political action committees before making donations, political advertising reporting requirements, political advertising attribution and disclaimer provisions, and the $1,000 donation limit for political action committees....But open-government groups -- Common Cause Hawaii, the League of Women Voters of Hawaii, Americans for Democratic Action/Hawaii and Voter Owned Hawaii -- said Bopp's intent is to dismantle campaign finance regulations nationwide."
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
NYT: 3 Congressmen May Face Further Inquiry
The New York Times reports "The Office of Congressional Ethics has found enough evidence of wrongdoing to recommend further investigation of three House members who held fund-raising events just days before they voted on financial regulatory legislation last year. The referrals to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct came as the office recommended dismissing investigations of five other lawmakers, whose fund-raising just before the December 2009 vote had also come under scrutiny. The investigation focused on lawmakers who raised money from lobbyists or executives of financial firms that had objected to provisions of the legislation. Each of the three House members — Representatives John Campbell, Republican of California; Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York; and Tom Price, Republican of Georgia — criticized the referrals on Tuesday, with two of them saying the quasi-independent ethics office had not produced evidence of wrongdoing."
An earlier report is here.
The Wall Street Journal reports here. One of the five lawmakers not referred by OCE released a statement submitted to investigators earlier: ""If holding a general fund-raiser while Congress was in session voting on legislation that went through one of my committees is in violation of House Ethics Rules, then that is a broad new limitation on members' fund-raising activities."
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
FEC Adopts New Coordination Rule, Effective Dec. 1
Last Thursday, the FEC adopted a new rule on coordination, which was made necessary by a 2008 court ruling. The new rule goes into effect on December 1. After December 1, ads and other public communications issued outside the 90/120 day election windows may be deemed "coordinated" if there was sufficient collaborative conduct between the parties involved, and if the communication constitutes express advocacy or the functional equivalent of express advocacy. The "functional equivalent" standard is the new addition to the coordination test, and is also known as the Wisconsin Right to Life test.
Professional "reform" lobbyist Fred Wertheimer, who sometimes goes by the name "Democracy 21," has already publicly objected to the new coordination rule, so the FEC may be heading back to court. Wertheimer and a small handful of fellow travelers in the "reform" lobby have successfully deprived everyone involved in federal political campaigns of any stability on the matter of coordination since 2003 through their repeated court challenges.
We will have more on these developments shortly.
Click here to read the entire post.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
NYT: Why Wall St. Is Deserting Obama
The New York Times examines the shift in Wall Street political giving: "Less than two years ago, Democrats received 70 percent of the donations from Wall Street; since June, when the financial regulation bill was nearing passage, Republicans were receiving 68 percent of the donations...."
But not to worry, they presumably still have the "[s]enior executives, on-air personalities, producers, reporters, editors, writers and other self-identifying employees of ABC, CBS and NBC" locked up tight. This group "contributed more than $1 million to Democratic candidates and campaign committees in 2008.... The Democratic total of $1,020,816 was given by 1,160 employees of the three major broadcast television networks, with an average contribution of $880. By contrast, only 193 of the employees contributed to Republican candidates and campaign committees, for a total of $142,863. The average Republican contribution was $744."
Friday, August 27, 2010
New Technologies = New Political Ads
CNN reports "Voters standing in line at polling places and searching for candidate information on mobile devices are increasingly becoming the target of Google advertisers hoping to pick up every last vote. Candidates have for years placed ads on Google platforms to attract the attention of searchers. But Tuesday's elections saw a large number of down ballot candidates buying Google mobile ads with the goal of capturing the attention of people waiting on line at the polling stations. While Google Mobile Ads have existed since 2007, this year candidates could target specific carriers and devices. Since mobile devices have become more sophisticated, users are searching more and more on mobile browsers."
Click here to read the entire post.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
MoveOn's Executive Director Explains The Target "Boycott"
MoveOn's Executive Director, Justin Ruben, explains his organization's call for boycotting Target over a recent political donation in this Los Angeles Times piece.
Ruben casts the boycott call as a stand against "pervasive corporate influence" in politics. What he fails to mention, though, is that MoveOn only called for boycotting Target after the company refused to be extorted into making political contributions to candidates that MoveOn supports. As Politico reported here, "despite pressure from MoveOn, Human Rights Campaign and other gay rights groups, Target declined to contribute $150,000 to pro-gay rights candidates."
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
WSJ: Big Unions to Pool Money for Fall Elections
The Wall Street Journal reports "The leaders of the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union have agreed to coordinate spending millions of dollars in the midterm elections to support pro-union candidates, most of them Democrats. The two labor organizations say they have a combined $88 million or more to deploy in this year's election cycle....The renewed alliance between the two big labor groups comes as Democrats are battling to retain control of both houses of Congress. The AFL-CIO and SEIU plan to target elections in 26 states, all but five of which they consider battleground territory, including California, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio."
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
CRP: Not Just News Corp.: Media Companies Have Long Made Political Donations
The Center For Responsive Politics points out that News Corp. is not alone: "The parent companies of six major media outlets have all donated anywhere from five to seven figures to political organizations during the 2010 election cycle alone...." And those parent companies cover all the major television/cable news outlets.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Katrina vanden Huevel on "Citizens United aftershocks"
Katrina vanden Huevel (of The Nation) has this op-ed in the Washington Post. She warns that "corporations might want to think twice before jumping deeper into political races, attracting more attention in the process."
Note: this op-ed refers to Target's recent contribution and the MoveOn.org boycott flap, which generated "angry institutional shareholders." Several media reports have suggested that Target is facing a shareholder revolt over its contribution to Minnesota Forward ( here, for example). Rather than a widespread revolt, though, three institutional shareholders that own less than 1% of Target's stock sponsored a resolution calling for a review of Target's political activity.
Monday, August 23, 2010
NYT Editorial on "Tom Delay's Legacy"
The New York Times has this editorial on the Tom Delay and the Justice Department investigation that just ended. Predictably, the Times calls for more ethics laws.
But this one is a real puzzler: "Mr. DeLay, the Texas Republican who had been the House majority leader, crowed that he had been 'found innocent.' But many of Mr. DeLay’s actions remain legal only because lawmakers have chosen not to criminalize them" (emphasis added).
Makes you wonder who ghostwrites this stuff for them. Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 highlights the Times editorial here.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Wash. Post: Ruling sets up IRS as overseer of groups' gifts to campaigns
According to the Washington Post, "The Supreme Court's decision this year in Citizens United, which lifted campaign spending restrictions for companies and interest groups, has indirectly thrust the Internal Revenue Service into the more prominent role of overseeing those expenditures....Long-standing IRS regulations require some groups to reveal their donors, and that is why the agency suddenly finds itself with what some might see as a more crucial watchdog role, stepping in to monitor disclosure in the absence of the FEC. But the IRS rules also have long-standing loopholes and, with limited resources and enforcement tools, the nation's tax collector is not set up to be a campaign regulator."
This article seems to focus on 501(c)(4) organizations, which have never been required to publicly disclose their donors. And what exactly the IRS should be doing about them is not explained. In addition, two recent FEC advisory opinions (not mentioned in the article) call for political organizations making independent expenditures (the subject of Citizens United) to register and report to the FEC as "political committees," which involves donor disclosure.
Click here to read the entire post.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
AP: Obama challenges GOP on campaign finance ruling
AP reports "President Barack Obama says Republicans should join him in opposing a Supreme Court ruling that vastly increased how much corporations and unions can spend on campaign ads."
The comments come from the President's weekly radio address, and follow reports that Senate Democrats plan to bring the DISCLOSE Act up for another vote.
Click here to read the entire post.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Wash. Times: Ethics office warns about waivers
The Washington Times reports "The U.S. Office of Government Ethics is warning federal agencies against retroactively waiving ethics rules for federal employees who've taken actions that pose potential conflicts of interest. Saying it has learned of 'several situations' of employees getting waivers after making questionable moves, the government's independent ethics office issued a memo to agencies across government in April saying such after-the-fact practices are prohibited."
Thursday, August 19, 2010
More on Target and the MoveOn.org Boycott
Washington Post: Exercising new ability to spend on campaigns, Target finds itself a bull's-eye ("When Target gave money in July to a pro-business group in Minnesota, the company thought it was helping its bottom line by backing candidates in its home state who support lower taxes. Instead, the retailer has found itself in a fight with liberal and gay rights groups that has escalated into calls for a nationwide boycott and protests at the company's headquarters and stores.").
Meanwhile, MoveOn.org released this TV ad, which seems to badly misrepresent their actual position and grievance. The ad complains that "Target and other big corporations are trying to buy our elections." But what prompted MoveOn's call for a Target boycott was not the company's contribution, but it refusal to cough up an equal amount for candidates that MoveOn supports.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
DISCLOSE Act, Part II?
According to Hotline, Senate Democrats are planning on bringing the DISCLOSE Act up for another vote. They hope to win a cloture vote with help from Senator Snowe, Collins, or Brown, perhaps by delaying implementation of the legislation until after the 2010 elections.
Click here to read the entire post.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Contributed $1 Million to Republican Governors Association
The Wall Street Journal reports " News Corp., owner of the Fox network, Fox News and newspapers including the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, gave $1 million in late June to the Republican Governors Association, making it one of the largest corporate donors to the GOP group this election season. The donation, disclosed in Internal Revenue Service filings, marks a shift for the media giant, which traditionally has given smaller sums to candidates and committees and spread them relatively evenly between the two parties. News Corp. spokesman Jack Horner said the contribution was intended to promote the company's core beliefs. 'News Corporation has always believed in the power of free markets and in organizations like the RGA, which have a pro-business agenda and support our priorities at this most critical time for our economy,' he said. ... The Democratic Governors Association draws more of its large donations from unions, including the American Federation of State, City and Municipal Employees, which has given $3.2 million this year."
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