[EL] ELB News and Commentary 7/23/19

[Rick Hasen]

“Republican FEC commissioners let Clinton campaign off the hook for super PAC coordination”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106570>
Posted on July 23, 2019 5:48 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106570> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Open Secrets:<https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/07/republican-fec-commissioners-let-clinton-campaign-off/>

Deadlocked on a party-line vote, the Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint that Hillary Clinton’s campaign illegally coordinated with a super PAC during the 2016 presidential election cycle.
Continuing a recent trend with the embattled regulatory agency that is currently missing two of six commissioners, it was the Republican commissioners, not Democrats, who voted to stonewall<https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7193/19044472525.pdf> enforcement action over the complaint.

Just one month before the 2016 presidential election, Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint<https://campaignlegal.org/document/fec-complaint-correct-record> with the FEC alleging that the Clinton campaign illegally coordinated with Correct the Record<https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cmte=C00578997&cycle=2016>, a hybrid PAC<https://www.opensecrets.org/527s/types.php> run by Media Matters for America founder David Brock.

The group, which Brock himself described in a podcast as a “surrogate arm of the Clinton campaign,” spent millions to “correct” criticism of Clinton on social media and in the news media. The group worked closely with the Clinton campaign on opposition research, fundraising, polling, canvassing, press outreach and messaging. Together, the groups coordinated their response<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3125946-Strategic-Imperatives-Memo.html> to potential threats to the campaign, such as the politicized<https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/14/politics/hillary-clinton-benghazi-committee/index.html> Benghazi hearings.

Able to collect unlimited sums from donors, Correct the Record reported spending nearly $10 million during the 2016 election. The group was funded mostly through big-dollar contributions from wealthy Democratic donors and $1 million from Priorities USA Action<https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=C00495861&cycle=2016>, the super PAC that spent $132 million backingClinton’s unsuccessful 2016 presidential bid.
Campaign Legal Center argued that Correct the Record’s numerous coordinated efforts to help the Clinton campaign were valuable enough to constitute illegal in-kind contributions from an outside group. Correct the Record argued<https://maplight.org/story/hacked-clinton-campaign-memo-lays-out-legal-basis-for-coordinating-with-super-pac/> it could legally coordinate with the Clinton campaign as it posted its communications online — attempting to use an FEC exception<https://www.fec.gov/updates/internet-communications-and-activity/> that allows for individuals and blogs to post political content on the Internet.

FEC attorneys sided with Campaign Legal Center. Noting that the super PAC didn’t limit its efforts to posting content online, they recommended the commission hold both the Clinton campaign and Correct the Record in violation of campaign finance law<https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7097/19044471884.pdf> over unreported, excessive in-kind contributions.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, federal election commission<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>


“Dem front-runners cash in on slippery definition of lobbying”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106568>
Posted on July 23, 2019 5:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=106568> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politico<https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/19/democratic-candidates-lobbyists-2020-1422349>:

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and other leading Democratic presidential candidates have sworn off contributions from Washington lobbyists as a way to insulate themselves from those who might try to shape their agendas if elected.

But they’re hardly walling themselves off from K Street.

Didem Nisanci, global head of public policy for Bloomberg LP, has given $2,000 to Pete Buttigieg’s campaign, according to new campaign finance disclosures. Margaret Richardson, Airbnb’s head of global policy, has donated nearly $2,800 to Harris. And Jay Carney, who’s in charge of Amazon’s public policy efforts, has given to at least four candidates who won’t take contributions from lobbyists, including a $2,800 check he wrote in May to Biden’s campaign.

All three were able to donate because they’re not registered to lobby, a legal requirement for people who meet criteria such as devoting at least 20 percent of the total time they spend working for each client to lobbying and contacting at least two government officials per quarter.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, lobbying<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=28>


--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>
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