Tag: campaign finance
By John Stark
After the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, some people feared that unregulated contributions would pour into politics and buy elections.
NPR has a report outlining several key Senate races in which massive amounts of SuperPAC money failed to buy the desired outcome for SuperPAC contributors.
I don’t want to minimize the impact that money has on our political processes. But the fear that advertising money will buy voters’ allegiance has always seemed more than a little elitist. At its core, that argument boils down to “Political advertising will sway the ignorant masses.” Nobody making this argument claims to be a part of the ignorant masses. Nobody ever says, “I’m afraid political advertising will hypnotize me into voting Republican.” The fear is that some other guy–that dumb guy down the street–won’t be smart enough to do his own thinking and is at risk of political hypnotism.
Advertising may get me into a car company’s showroom but it won’t make me buy the car. Advertising may get me to try your brand of beer or eat at your restaurant, but if I don’t like your beer or your restaurant I won’t be back.
From Stark
Attorney General Rob McKenna has announced the settlement of a lawsuit against Moxie Media, accused of serious campaign finance law violations in an Edmonds state senate campaign.
Here’s the press release from McKenna, with a link to the original complaint and to the settlement:
OLYMPIA – The Attorney General’s Office today (AGO) settled a lawsuit against Moxie Media, its principals Lisa MacLean and Henry Underhill, and two political action committees (PAC) formed by MacLean and Underhill, Conservative PAC and Cut Taxes PAC.
The suit stemmed from a complaint filed with the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) as well as a citizen action letter filed on behalf of Sen. Jean Berkey (D-Edmonds).
The defendants were accused of multiple violations of the state’s campaign finance disclosure laws including an effort to conceal the source of the funding behind last-minute independent expenditures until after the primary election in the 2010 38th Legislative District State Senate race. The expenditures were for mailings and robo-calls in support of the Conservative Party candidate and were targeted against Sen. Berkey, who lost her re-election bid that year.
“This settlement holds Moxie Media, Lisa MacLean, Henry Underhill and their two political action committees accountable for their campaign finance disclosure violations and preserves the integrity of state law while avoiding the additional expense to taxpayers of taking this case to trial,” said Attorney General Rob McKenna.
Under the terms of the settlement filed in Thurston County Superior Court today, the defendants are required by pay $250,000 in fines and $40,000 in attorney’s fees and costs—one of the highest penalties levied against individuals. As is common in these types of cases, a portion of the penalty ($140,000 in this case) has been suspended based on the defendants’ future compliance with campaign reporting laws. If any one of the parties is found to have committed a new violation between now and December 31, 2015, the full suspended amount will be owed. The defendants also agreed to obtain training from the Public Disclosure Commission staff on proper disclosure reporting.
The AGO explored the feasibility of setting aside the election (one possible remedy for violations of campaign finance disclosure laws) and hired an expert to review the facts of the case. The expert could not conclude with any certainty the defendants’ campaign finance violations probably affected the outcome of the election. As such, the AGO did not pursue that remedy in this case because it could not meet the legal burden.
End press release
From Stark
In this report from the Sunlight Foundation, Bill Allison outlines plans for a new Republican “SuperPAC.” Apparently the SuperPAC would siphon off political contributions to local, state and federal Republican candidates that are above legal limits.
Instead of having to reject those contributions, the candidates could ship the excess money to the SuperPAC, which could then legally spend that money for independent efforts on behalf of candidates. As long as those efforts are not coordinated with or controlled by the candidate, this apparently would be legal under recent Supreme Court rulings.
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