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NEWS ABOUT: Campaign Finance Reform

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Colbert: How I Spent $773K in Super PAC Cash

It went to charity. It's what Ham Rove would have wanted

(Newser) - Legally, Stephen Colbert doesn't have to tell you what happened to the funds his super PAC raised, but last night he went ahead and did so anyway. Turns out the $773,704.83 was "anonymously" donated to the Ham Rove Memorial Fund, of which Colbert is, of course,... More »

Supreme Court Agrees to Reconsider Citizens United

Ginsburg, Breyer think Montana ruling will be a chance to reverse decision

(Newser) - The Supreme Court has agreed to take a case that justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer say will give it a chance to rethink its infamous Citizens United v. FEC decision. The court is being asked to look into a Montana Supreme Court decision stating that its law restricting... More »

GOP's Roemer Mounts Indie Run

He'll jump into fray with Americans Elect and Reform Party

(Newser) - A GOP candidate is dropping out of the presidential primary race—not that most people ever knew he was in it. Buddy Roemer is ending his long-shot GOP bid , and exchanging it for an even longer-shot independent bid, the former Louisiana governor announced today. "I have decided to take... More »

Nancy Pelosi Lobs Attack Ad at Colbert

Joke ad meant to drum up DISCLOSE Act support

(Newser) - Nancy Pelosi is trying to drum up support for the long-languishing DISCLOSE Act, and she's found the perfect foil: Stephen Colbert. "Stephen Colbert used to be my friend," she says in a new YouTube ad. "But since the day he started his super PAC, taking secret... More »

Rick Brought Home $1B in Pork—and Big Donations

Former senator was a 'vigorous practitioner' of securing earmarks

(Newser) - In Rick Santorum's days in the Senate, lawmakers didn't have to disclose their earmarks—but a New York Times analysis shows that Santorum had a lot of them, and that they were often followed by large campaign contributions from the companies they benefited. In one defense bill, for... More »

Politicians Should Swear Off Wall Street Cash

Harold Meyerson says going clean could be deceptively brilliant

(Newser) - Washington is too dysfunctional to pass any laws in response to Occupy Wall Street, but if Democrats want to stand with the protesters, Harold Meyerson has a modest proposal: Refuse all campaign contributions “from the whole financial sector,” he suggests in the Washington Post . “Sign a pledge... More »

Colbert's PAC Less Silly Than Real Ones

Dana Milbank on just how ridiculous campaign finance is now

(Newser) - Stephen Colbert went to some lengths to create a SuperPAC parodying the nation’s campaign-finance laws. “But there was a flaw in his plan,” writes Dana Milbank in the Washington Post : “The campaign-finance system already is a parody.” Indeed, as ridiculous as Colbert’s unlimited donations... More »

High Court Strikes Campaign Finance Reform Law

Arizona law violates First Amendment, says ruling

(Newser) - The Supreme Court struck down an Arizona law today in a decision that advocates for stricter campaign finance regulation see as a blow, the National Journal reports. The law allowed the state to give additional subsidies to publicly financed candidates for every dollar their wealthier, privately financed opponents raised over... More »

Obama Looks to Crack Down on Secret Donations

Administration actions would replace law Congress fails to pass

(Newser) - The Obama administration has drafted an executive order that would force all companies seeking government contracts to disclose their donations to groups airing political ads, as part of a multi-pronged attack on the kind of anonymous campaign spending Republicans walloped Democrats with last year. The FEC is also moving to... More »

Supreme Court Takes New Campaign-Finance Brouhaha

Arizona law seeks to level playing field

(Newser) - In a potential revisit to Citizens United, the Supreme Court will take on an Arizona law that tries to level the playing field in campaign spending, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Arizona's Citizens Clean Elections Act provides state funding for candidates who agree to a certain spending limit—and more... More »

Democrats: McCain Violated McCain-Feingold

They say ad helping other GOP candidates is illegal

(Newser) - Democrats are accusing John McCain of violating the campaign finance law he championed based on some new ads in which he supports GOP congressional candidates Ruth McClung and Jesse Kelly. This, says the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in a complaint to the Federal Election Commission, represents an “in kind”... More »

Here Come the Rich Candidates

Sorry, politics aren't a level playing field

(Newser) - “Career politicians be warned; you now face your worst nightmare!” Meg Whitman declared last night, basking in the glow of a gubernatorial primary win that cost her a mere $71 million. And she’s sort of right, writes Gail Collins in the New York Times . For career politicians,... More »

Democrats Ready to Revamp Campaign Finance

A look at the draft bill

(Newser) - Democrats have completed a draft of their new campaign finance reform bill, and plan to introduce it as soon as next week. The bill, which is designed in part to blunt the effects of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, would require CEOs to publicly attach their names to ads... More »

Democrats to Play Offense in Court Fight

Will attack 'conservative judicial activism,' citing Citizens United ruling

(Newser) - “Judicial activism” isn’t just a conservative buzzword anymore. Democrats intend to use the upcoming confirmation battle over John Paul Stevens’ successor to argue that it’s the conservatives on John Roberts’ court who are litigating from the bench, high-ranking Democrats tell Politico . Exhibit A: The wildly unpopular Citizens... More »

Obama Aide: Change Is Out, Reform Is In

Plan is to scale back agenda, focus on government clean up

(Newser) - President Obama’s new 2010 strategy, arrived at after weeks of internal debate, is to replace his sweeping “change” agenda with a more modest push for government reform. First up: a tough new campaign finance law, pushing back against the deeply unpopular Citizens United Supreme Court ruling. “Americans... More »

Dems Fight High Court's Campaign Finance Ruling

New law would seek to limit flood of corporate cash

(Newser) - Democratic legislators introduced a bill yesterday designed to mitigate the impact of the landmark Supreme Court ruling that gutted decades of campaign finance reform efforts. They’re hoping to get the bill passed ASAP, so corporate money can’t dominate the 2010 election—something that many fear would favor Republicans,... More »

Where Has Our Favorite Maverick Gone?

A John McCain fan laments the senator's new 'reflexive opposition'

(Newser) - Narry a whimper when the Supreme Court gutted the campaign finance laws he vowed to fight for "until I draw my last breath." No support for a bipartisan commission on the national debt that he had sponsored. Hectoring an admiral who supports the end of "don't ask,... More »

Clarence Thomas: State of the Union 'Too Partisan'

Justice makes a point of skipping them

(Newser) - Clarence Thomas says he skips State of the Union addresses—including President Obama’s last week—“because it has become so partisan,” he told a Florida law school this week. “It’s very uncomfortable for a judge to sit there,” he said. “There’s a... More »

Judge Stevens Decries Court's Corporate Turn

89-year-old gives impassioned opinion but sounds weary

(Newser) - Justice John Paul Stevens railed against the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning decades of campaign finance reform, invoking the names of such revered justices as Sandra Day O’Connor, Thurgood Marshall, and Byron White. In giving the minority opinion yesterday, Stevens spoke for 20 minutes, twice as long as Anthony... More »

High Court Rips Up Corporate Campaign Donation Limits

5-4 ruling repeals part of McCain-Feingold

(AP) - The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns. By a 5-4 vote, the court today overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their... More »

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