Category Archives: Campaign finance

They Can’t Just Take the Gift

You’d think the Tea Party folks would just take the gift-wrapped IRS bias scandal and exploit it for all it’s worth, which is a lot actually.

But noooooooo, because they’re crazy, they have to over-reach.

Michele Bachmann is running around saying that because the IRS is involved in Obamacare (they will administer the monetary penalties for those who choose not to buy health insurance), the IRS is going to delay or deny health care itself to conservatives.  So they’re not just giving your group a hard time about getting a tax exemption, they’re going to kill you!

And so the tide turns back against them because they can’t resist one-upping the IRS on being outrageous.

Feeding the Paranoia

So you have a bunch of people yelling and screaming that the government can’t be trusted and is coming after us.

What does the government do?  It feeds and justifies that narrative by the IRS specifically targeting these groups and subjecting them to extra scrutiny.

The IRS has admitted and “apologized” for the fact that tax-exempt groups with “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in their names were singled out for heightened review during the 2012 election cycle, including unlawfully demanding names of individual donors, that left-leaning groups didn’t receive.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

This Brightened My Day

From “Former chief of staff to break silence on Michele Bachmann,” Kevin Diaz, Minneapolis Star Tribune:

“GOP operative Andy Parrish, a former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, is expected to tell an Iowa Senate ­ethics panel that her 2012 presidential campaign made improper payments to its state chairman.

“…Parrish referred questions Wednesday to his attorney, John Gil­more, who said his client will corroborate allegations from another former Bachmann aide, Peter Waldron.

“Waldron, a Florida pastor, claims that the campaign hid payments to Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson, in violation of Iowa Senate ethics rules that bar members from receiving pay from presidential campaigns. …

“Waldron’s accusations are also the subject of inquiries by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the independent Office of Congressional Ethics. The investigations are part of a growing web of legal problems facing Bachmann, including a lawsuit by former staffer Barbara Heki alleging that Sorenson stole a proprietary e-mail list of Iowa home-school families from her personal computer. Those allegations also are the subject of an ongoing police investigation in Urbandale, Iowa.

“Gilmore said Parrish can provide the ethics panel documentary evidence that Sorenson was paid $7,500 a month to work on Bachmann’s campaign, money that was funneled to him indirectly through C&M Strategies, a Colorado-based company controlled by Bachmann fundraiser Guy Short.

“Among the sources of the funding, Waldron contends, was Bachmann’s independent political organization, Michele­PAC, also headed by Short.”

It would be fantastic to see Bachmann go to the Big House, but I’ll be thrilled just to get her out of the people’s House.

The PAC Scam

When I went to Drudge this morning, the paid ad at the top urged me to contribute to Sarah Palin’s PAC to help 2014 GOP candidates.

If you check out SarahPAC’s latest FEC filing, you’ll learn that while she raked in $5.1 million in the last election cycle, she gave only $298,500 to candidates she supposedly supported.

My first response to reading this was wondering why she wears such cheap and tacky wigs.  With millions flowing in, she can obviously get the quality human hair ones.

Look, if you want to support a candidate whom Palin supports in 2014, donate to that candidate directly (and then please get yourself some help…).  Otherwise, you’re just giving money to prop up Palin’s increasingly pathetic attempts at celebrity and relevance.

We worry about these PACs having outsize influence on elections.  Really many of them are just slush funds, just another clever scam.  They threaten our wallets much more than our democracy.

Is the Bachmann Joke Nearing Its Punch Line?

“The Daily Beast has learned that federal investigators are now interviewing former Bachmann campaign staffers nationwide about alleged intentional campaign-finance violations [from her 2012 presidential run].  The investigators are working on behalf of the Office of Congressional Ethics, which probes reported improprieties by House members and their staffs and then can refer cases to the House Ethics Committee.”

John Avlon, “Exclusive:  Congressional Ethics Probe Adds to Michele Bachmann’s Political Woes,” The Daily Beast

Rove Cries Over Mitt’s Loss — All the Way to the Bank

From Matt Latimer, a former speechwriter for Bush 43*:

“When I worked with Rove briefly at the White House, I found him to be a smart, energetic, capable man.  Maybe more than I even realized.  In the past two election cycles, he and his acolytes have personally helped Barack Obama get elected and yet made millions in the process.  You tell me who the dummy is — Rove or the people who keep listening to him and funding him.”

* “Republicans Allowed Karl Rove to Mislead Them Again,” The Daily Beast

NRSC Dips Toe in Water for Akin

I posted earlier that the GOP is moving back to supporting Missouri Senate candidate Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) just issued a statement that they “hope Todd Akin wins in November and we will continue to monitor this race closely in the days ahead.”

Translation — Those ads buys we cancelled in August?  We’ll be reinstating them.

The tiff with Todd is over; the war on Claire McCaskill is just beginning.

Is Wisconsin Really a Battleground?

After the effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker failed, there were noises that the state was now competitive for the GOP in the presidential race.  President Obama carried Wisconsin in 2008 by 14%.  He consistently leads in polls there by 6-8%.

The GOP hasn’t put their money where their mouths are because so far they’re not running ads in Wisconsin.

As Journal Sentinel reporter Craig Gilbert notes,* Wisconsin is being treated as a second-tier state for the GOP, below places like Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, Florida, and New Hampshire.

I think Obama will carry Wisconsin again, although not by 14%.  But it’s still the same number of electoral votes.  The electoral college map just doesn’t favor Mittens.

* “Wisconsin:  a very quiet presidential battleground.”