Free Republic

A day after snubbing liberal activists who were pushing for tougher campaign-finance regulations, President Obama took a swipe at the Supreme Court Wednesday for its “wrong” ruling five years ago on the issue. “Five years ago, a Supreme Court ruling allowed big companies – including foreign corporations – to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence our elections,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “The Citizens United decision was wrong, and it has caused real harm to our democracy.” The president said it was time to “reverse” the trend of unlimited spending on political ads by third parties, but he...

The secret negotiations that led to one of the most significant expansions of campaign contributions in recent years began with what Republican leaders regarded as an urgent problem: How would they pay for their presidential nominating convention in Cleveland in two years? The talks ended with a bipartisan agreement between Senate Democrats, led by the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and House Republicans, led by Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, that would allow wealthy donors to begin giving more than $1 million every election cycle to each party’s national committees. The agreement drew intense criticism from both liberal...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Obama had anti-Obama filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza arrested for violating campaign finance laws, even though Obama himself had violated campaign finance laws three different times without being arrested In August 2012, Dinesh D’Souza released 2016: Obama’s America, a movie that was critical of Obama.In January 2014, D’Souza was arrested for violating campaign finance laws.In May 2014, D’Souza pled guilty to violating campaign finance laws.In September 2014, D’Souza was sentenced to live in a halfway house for eight months, pay a $30,000 fine, perform 260 days of community service, and receive counseling.However, even though Obama himself had violated...

Conservative author Dinesh D’Souza, one of the most brilliant conservative political writers of the modern era, was sentenced by a judge last week to eight months in a halfway house and probation. He was also ordered to pay a $30,000 fine within 45 days. His alleged crime? He made two contributions to a losing political campaign under the names of friends. D’Souza accepted a plea agreement admitting he used straw donors to donate $20,000 to the U.S. Senate campaign of Wendy Long, a friend of his. Federal campaign law limits contributors to U.S. Senate campaigns to $5,000 each. At first...

According to court documents, federal prosecutors working on behalf of Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice misled U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman in the case against conservative filmmaker and author Dinesh D’Souza during their pursuit of 10-to-16 months of prison time for a federal felony charge. In a reply sentencing memo submitted to the Court on behalf of D'Souza last week, his counsel argues federal prosecutors excluded and misrepresented the facts of “similar” cases in the Government's sentencing proposal to Judge Berman, leaving out crucial facts key to fair and equal sentencing for D’Souza compared to...

Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza spoke out tonight about his five-year probation and eight-month sentence to a community confinement center on Fox News. D’Souza told Megyn Kelly, “My faith in an independent judiciary is affirmed.” D’Souza was indicted in January for campaign finance, and pled guilty in May. D’Souza had suggested on multiple occasions that he was targeted for his criticisms of President Obama, a charge prosecutors strongly denied. D’Souza repeatedly said in his interview tonight that there’s been an “all-out attempt to put me away,” and while he didn’t directly say it was the Obama administration, he did note there’s...

In a decision likely to be framed by conservative media as a vindictive abuse of power, filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza was sentenced Tuesday to eight months in a confinement center and five years probation after pleading in May that he was guilty of violating campaign finance laws. D'Souza's movies, America this year and two years earlier, 2016: Obama's America, are critical of the left — and in the case of the first one, President Barack Obama — and they are among the most successful political documentaries in history. D'Souza was indicted in January after he promised his then-fiancee and his former...

Josh Blackman links to an interesting new speech by (retired) Justice Stevens about the Court’s campaign finance jurisprudence. Among other things, Justice Stevens argues that there ought to be little protection (or no protection?) for campaign contributions made across state lines. He begins . . .: In the first sentence of his controlling opinion [in McCutcheon v. FEC] the Chief Justice correctly states that there “is no right more basic to our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders.” 188 L. Ed.2d 468, 482. And in his concluding paragraph he correctly describes that right as “the...

At a July fundraising event in Chicago, Mrs. Michelle Obama remarked, "So, yeah, there's too much money in politics. There's (sic) special interests that have too much influence." Sen. John McCain has been complaining for years that "there is too much money washing around political campaigns today." According to a 2012 Reuters poll, "Seventy-five percent of Americans feel there is too much money in politics." Let's think about money in politics, but first a few facts. During the 2012 presidential campaign, Barack Obama raised a little over $1 billion, while Mitt Romney raised a little under $1 billion. Congressional candidates...

The Politico story quoted extensively below is a gem, on several levels.  By way of background, Senate Democrats are hopping mad because Republicans have complicated their game plan to stage a series of quixotic, poll-tested, pre-election show votes.  The GOP's specific sin?  Agreeing to proceed to a debate on the first proposed measure -- which just happens to be a Constitutional Amendment imposing unprecedented new federal limits on political speech: Several Senate Republicans joined Democrats on Monday to advance a constitutional amendment that would give Congress and the states greater power to regulate campaign finance. But the bipartisanship ends there. Many of the Republicans only voted for the bill to foul up...

OPINION Harry Reid is mad that Republicans didn't obstruct his bill BY ASHE SCHOW | SEPTEMBER 9, 2014 | 10:57 AM After all his complaints about Republican obstruction this year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed frustration last night after Republicans helped guarantee a floor vote on a measure he supports. The Nevada Democrat has accused Senate Republicans of chicanery for voting to advance to the Senate floor a Democratic constitutional amendment allowing Congress to regulate all campaign speech and spending. After Monday's bipartisan 79-18 vote, Reid vented to reporters that Republicans were trying to "stall" the Senate, indicating that...

The Kentucky Senate race is going to be close, but Democrat Alsion Lundergan Grimes might have to explain an in-kind campaign contribution that could be illegal. Ms. Grimes has been traveling across the state in a 45-foot long bus, which was acquired by her father, Jerry. He’s renting it to her campaign for a fraction of the market price, which violates campaign finance laws (via Politico): Federal campaign finance law bars a campaign from receiving goods and services below the fair market value from a corporation, regardless of whether it is owned by a family member. A review of Federal Election...

More than a week after convicted felon and former state Sen. Gary George was expected to disclose who is funding his longshot bid for Congress, he has still not done so. Until George files the report, voters will not find out who, if anyone, is backing his longshot bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, a Milwaukee Democrat. In an abrupt phone interview Wednesday with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, George declined to explain himself, telling a reporter he had no time to talk and would only take questions by email. “I’ve got to go,” George said. By email, George’s campaign...

You’ve seen the ads, luring you to a website if you support Col. Allen West or another conservative running for office. They’re flashy and loud and all over the Internet. But where is the money going? Many political activists find themselves frustrated at putting in long hours working unpaid on campaigns, while a few consultants at the top of the food chain are raking in disproportionately big bucks. The Center for Public Integrity, which has been investigating the spending habits of 300 super PACs and hybrid PACs, concluded, “Many of these committees operated as piggy banks for golf expenses and...

Find and filter the latest electronic campaign finance filings made to the Federal Election Commission. Use the tabs below to filter and sort the type of filings showed. Only House candidates who have raised money are shown in the candidate dropdown menu. For more details, see the about page. Senate candidates do not file electronic reports.

Democrats are giddy over the unsealing of “secret” documents that charge Scott Walker’s recall campaign with illegal coordination with outside conservative groups. To name just a few: USA Today: “Prosecutors: Wis. Gov. Scott Walker in criminal scheme.” Associated Press: “Prosecutors: Gov. Walker part of criminal scheme.” Washington Post: “How the State of Wisconsin alleges Scott Walker aides violated the law, in 1 chart.” If you didn’t know better, you might think this is a big story, highly damaging to one of America’s most successful governors. In fact, the current frenzy merely demonstrates the laziness and bias of reporters who don’t...

WASHINGTON — There are three big winners from the recent Supreme Court decisions that Senator John McCain says might “dismantle entirely” campaign finance laws: wealthy interests, greedy politicians and investigative journalists. The decisions, culminating in another loosening of restrictions last month, were crafted by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and a slim majority. They essentially contend that limitations on campaign financing impede speech and that the system profits from more money. The consequence will be record sums of cash in the midterm races this year, and for the 2016 presidential election. Wealthy individuals, corporations and unions will spend unlimited...

Dinesh D’Souza faces more than a year in prison for giving away his money. Guilt lies with the law and not the lawbreaker here. The conservative author pled guilty to violating campaign finance laws, which is another way of saying he opened up a lemonade stand without a license or ripped the tag off a mattress. The case stems from D’Souza’s 2012 donations through intermediaries to a friend’s senatorial campaign. Congress, made up of incumbents, has placed restrictions of dubious constitutionality on the amount individuals can legally donate to candidates. They haven’t, tellingly, placed any such limits on what they...

Koch brothers, move over. A group back by billionaire George Soros and other millionaires with progressive political slants are charting a course to give out nearly $40 million to various entities that can further their favored policy reforms — in 2014 alone, documents show. The documents, reported by the Washington Free Beacon, give a glimpse at the oft-guarded membership make-up of the Democracy Alliance, the umbrella network that’s funded by powerful liberals — including the noted progressive-minded Mr. Soros — to win crucial electoral battles. Within the pages obtained by the Free Beacon is the group’s core hope: to fundraise...

It's no longer news when Majority Leader Harry Reid takes to the floor of the Senate to denounce the Koch brothers. But most Americans probably don't know that Reid and many of his Democratic colleagues now want to amend the U.S. Constitution in far-reaching ways to put an end to the conservative billionaires' political influence. "The shadowy Koch brothers are attempting ... a hostile takeover of American democracy," Reid charged recently. "No one should be able to pump unlimited funds into a political campaign." Reid urged his fellow lawmakers to support a proposed constitutional amendment, written by Democratic Sen. Tom...