Citizen Cartwright

Lawmakers press SEC, invoking IRS scandal

House Republicans on Thursday told the new chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Jo White, that they were disturbed to learn that her agency is considering a petition that would require publicly traded companies to disclose their political contributions.

They described the initiative as highly partisan and said it would undermine the agency’s credibility if adopted, especially in light of the current controversy over the IRS.

The initiative got more than 500,000 mostly favorable written comments from the public, a record for the agency.

The SEC subsequently added the issue it to its agenda, signaling that it may consider formally proposing a rule.

The big unknown is whether White, who joined the SEC a month ago, will back the plan and move it forward.

“We’re giving you an opportunity today to make a clear and emphatic statement that you will refuse to be bullied by these outside radical groups that are trying to exploit the corporate disclosure process,” said Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., at Thursday's hearing by the House Financial Services Committee.

Mark Sanford wins back his old House seat

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, "There are no second acts in American lives."

My husband and I increasingly comment on how mistaken Fitzgerald was, as we see disgraced politicians making ever-speedier comebacks.

And now former South Carolina GOP Gov. Mark Sanford has handily defeated Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of comedian Stephen Colbert.

Many voters say it was Sanford's record of looking out for taxpayers while he was in Congress for three terms and governor for two terms that convinced them to support him.

Sanford's second gubernatorial term was marred by an adultery scandal.

Obama donor Penny Pritzker nominated

Pritzker, a longtime Chicago donor and fundraiser for Obama and an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, was nominated Thursday for commerce secretary.

She was a leading candidate for that post after Obama’s election in 2008 but withdrew from contention amid public scrutiny at the time, says The New York Times.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement after Thursday's announcement, “Every nominee’s offshore tax avoidance activities should be examined as part of the nomination process,” suggesting that Pritzker is “associated with the kind of tax avoidance activity that the president dismisses as fat cat shenanigans for others.”

Those secret campaign donations

Officials from states including California, New York, Alaska and Maine are talking about ways to "force tax-exempt advocacy organizations and trade associations out of the shadows," says the Los Angeles Times.

Legislation has been proposed in more than a dozen states to require the groups to disclose their donors.

The states are motivated by the lack of progress at the federal level in pushing those groups to disclose their contributors if they engage in campaigns, as candidates and political action committees are required to do, the Times says.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., plans to use his post as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to press for greater oversight of the groups.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering a rule to require publicly traded corporations to reveal their political donations.

And Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, last month unveiled a disclosure bill.

Opponents say making donors public would infringe on their privacy and could intimidate some, keeping them from participating in politics.

More on gun lobby money

The NRA and its allies in the firearms industries, along with the group Gun Owners of America, together have spent nearly $81 million on House, Senate and presidential races since the 2000 election, according to federal disclosures and a Center for Responsive Politics analysis.

And more than $46 million of it has been in the form of independent expenditures made since court decisions in 2010 — especially the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision — "essentially redefined electoral politics," says the Center for Public Integrity.

Amid hope of retaking Senate, GOP eyes candidates

After embarrassing losses in Republican-leaning Indiana and Missouri last year, the new Republican Senate campaign leadership is wading deeply into the early stages of the 2014 races, says The Associated Press.

Strategists are conducting exhaustive research on would-be candidates, making hard pitches for those they prefer and discouraging those they don’t — to the point of advertising against them, says AP.

The hope is to limit the number of divisive primaries that only remind voters of their reservations about Republicans, AP says.

Petition to SEC seeks corporate campaign donation disclosure

The petition already has gotten nearly half a million comments — far more than any petition or rule in the agency’s history, with the vast majority in favor of it, says The New York Times.

While relatively few petitions typically result in action by the SEC, a rule on this issue could be proposed by the end of the month.

House Republicans introduced legislation last Thursday to make it illegal for the commission to issue any political disclosure regulations applying to companies under its jurisdiction.

If you want to weigh in one way or another, you'll find sample letters to the SEC here.

Supreme Court to eye campaign donation limits

Three years after easing limits on corporate political donations in its Citizens United ruling, the Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to consider whether to lift caps on how much individuals may contribute to candidates.

"It's not a watershed case in the sense Citizens United was, but it could extend that case's logic to contribution limits, which could be very significant," says Richard Hasen, a campaign finance expert and law professor at the University of California at Irvine.

If the court lifts the contribution limits, it "would do extraordinary damage to the nation’s ability to prevent the corruption of federal officeholders and government decisions,” says Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21.

"The limits distort the system by forcing people to give money to SuperPACs and advocacy groups, when they would rather give money to individual candidates and parties," says James Bopp, a lawyer for Shaun McCutcheon, an Alabama resident, and the Republican National Committee, challengers of the contribution limits.

"That drives money away from the most accountable and transparent actors in our political system, in favor of entities that are basically unaccountable to the voter," Bopp says.

Pew eyes problems at the polls

It goes without saying that the will of the people is pretty important in a democracy, and the people make their will known when they vote.

But there are "deep and widespread" flaws in the American election system, The New York Times says, citing a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The worst performing states in the 2008 and 2010 elections included Alabama, California, Mississippi, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia, Pew says.

Democrats' push to make voting easier

Studies suggest that long lines at the polls in November cost Democrats hundreds of thousands of votes, and party leaders want to make voting and voter registration easier — likely setting in motion a new conflict with Republicans, says The New York Times.