ETHICS.GOV LAUNCH. Story here. “The new website fulfills a campaign promise made by President Barack Obama to centralize ethics and lobbying information for voters.”
OBAMA AND LOBBYING. Naivete? “So when the Republican National Committee uses those words from Obama 2008 to ding Obama 2012, it has a point. But the administration’s real sin isn’t being hypocritical. It’s being naive about how Washington works and elevating ethical style over substance.”
ADS AND SUPER PAC PACT IN MA. Here. “This support by the Romney PAC seems a bit suspicious, to say the least. As I discussed a few weeks back, Brown and his opponent Elizabeth Warren signed a pledge to limit the involvement of third-party advertising in the campaign. Under the terms of the pledge, each campaign agreed to donate to charity half the cost of any third-party ad that either supported their campaign or attacked their opponent. The Romney super PAC ad was a clear violation of the terms of the agreement, and the Brown campaign asked the PAC to take down the ad. They declined to do so, and the Brown campaign responded with the $250 donation. Interestingly, all of this seemed to happen in a matter of minutes.” Are online ads covered by the agreement? More here. I tried to find a signed version of the final agreement but had no luck after my extensive two minute search. Early drafts I found didn’t cover online ads.
SUPER PAC DONOR SPOTLIGHT. Story here. “Maher, host of HBO’s ‘Real Time,’ recently announced a $1 million donation to the Priorities USA group helmed by Burton.”
WHERE’S THE CORPORATE MONEY? Politico. “But so far this campaign season, publicly traded companies have shied away from the outside groups — giving less than one half of a percent of all the contributions raised by the most active super PACs.”
AUDITOR INDEPENDENCE AND LOBBYING. Story here. “Corporate audit giant Ernst & Young operates a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., that has been hired in recent years by several corporations that were at the same time E&Y audit clients, prompting two senior lawmakers to demand closer regulatory scrutiny.”
LA PANEL MOVES ON LIMITS. Story here. “The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission voted Thursday to hike campaign contribution limits for candidates in the upcoming municipal election, despite warnings that the panel is tipping the scales in favor of well-connected incumbents.”
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.
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