October 25, 2024

FEC

Daily Caller: Exclusive: Ted Cruz Campaign Accuses Political Opponent Of Violating Federal Law With Chuck Schumer, Fellow Democrats

By Henry Rodgers

.....Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign filed a complaint Thursday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against Democratic Rep. Colin Allred. The senator is claiming his opponent is operating illegally in coordination with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).

The Daily Caller first obtained a copy of the complaint, which states that Allred and his Senate campaign are illegally coordinating with Schumer and the DSCC on television ads that exceeded the coordinated party expenditure limit, resulting in potentially millions of dollars in excessive in-kind contributions from DSCC to Allred.

The Courts

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Appeals court sides with Wauwatosa, mayor in First Amendment rights related to curfew

By Bridget Fogarty

.....The nighttime curfew Wauwatosa and Mayor Dennis McBride imposed in October 2020 during protests against police violence didn't violate peoples' First Amendment rights, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in an Oct. 16 decision.

That appellate decision upheld the summary judgement findings of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in a four-year long federal lawsuit that ultimately favored the city and its mayor over the plaintiffs affected by the curfew.

The city's win on the First Amendment challenge concludes one of many cases that came up in the wake of Wauwatosa's 2020 protests, including those related to Wauwatosa police officer Joseph Mensah's fatal shooting of Alvin Cole, a Black teenager.

Read the opinion here.

Nonprofits

Washington Post (Tech Brief): Nonprofit bashed by Musk disputes his unfounded election meddling claims

By Cristiano Lima-Strong

.....Substack writers Paul Thacker and Matt Taibbi on Tuesday published what they called leaked internal documents from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), in which the group purportedly said one of its priorities for this year was to “Kill Musk’s Twitter,” now called X.

The writers cited the fact that Morgan McSweeney, now chief of staff to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the left-leaning Labour Party, initially helped launch the watchdog group to suggest that British officials are working with CCDH to “meddle in our elections.”

Musk seized on the allegations in X posts on Tuesday, declaring “war” on CCDH, calling it a “criminal organization” and vowing to go after it and its donors.

He also claimed the report was evidence that the group violated federal laws against “foreign interference in elections.” ...

The CCDH chief declined to say whether the documents in the Substack report are authentic, saying the group by policy does not “comment directly on proprietary information that may or may not have been disclosed without authorization.”

But he did confirm that CCDH has used the phrase “Kill Musk’s Twitter” — which trended on the platform this week — as “an internal shorthand for our accountability work.”

Washington Examiner:  Republicans have ‘speech concerns’ over George Soros radio deal: Gabe Kaminsky

By Asher Notheis

.....Washington Examiner investigative reporter Gabe Kaminsky overviewed the repercussions that “massive Democratic megadonor” George Soros and a nonprofit organization reached with a radio network could have on conservative radio stations.

The deal, which was reached only a few weeks before the 2024 election, saw the Fund for Policy Reform, a nonprofit group largely funded by Soros, purchase “a major stake” in the radio company Audacy. The move, approved by the Federal Communications Commission in a 3-2 vote, puts Audacy and over 200 radio stations within the hands of the Soros family, as Soros’s son Alex is on the board of Fund for Policy Reform.

“And to Republicans, not only are they concerned and have speech concerns about a Democrat taking on this task of having all these radio stations under his empire, they’re also concerned because they say that the Biden-Harris Administration bypassed standard procedure for reviewing companies with 25% or more in foreign ownership to allow George Soros to take control of these stations,” Kaminsky said on NewsmaxTV’s Greg Kelly Reports. “And that’s something that is under congressional investigation in the House Oversight Committee and by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. So we’ll just have to see what happens.”

National Review: Foreign Billionaire Bankrolls Dark-Money Group behind Progressive Ballot Initiatives, Watchdog Finds

By James Lynch

.....A foreign billionaire-funded dark money progressive organization is spending tens of millions of dollars on statewide ballot initiatives this election cycle.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund, an organization bankrolled by left-wing Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, has funneled $23 million into statewide ballot campaigns this cycle, including $17 million over the last six months, according to a new report from right-leaning watchdog Americans for Public Trust.

Free Expression

FIRE: POLL: Free speech a top concern for Americans in 2024, more important than crime, immigration, and health care

.....A new poll from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression finds that free speech is a critical issue for most Americans in the 2024 presidential election, topping other hot button issues like health care, immigration, crime, and guns.

The Intercept: ACLU Leadership Rejects Staff Demands to Condemn U.S. Role in Israel's Gaza War

By Jonah Valdez

.....Staffers at the American Civil Liberties Union began to circulate an internal petition earlier this year urging its leadership to take a public stance against the U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza and Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories. 

The petition — which also calls on the ACLU to disclose and divest potential investments in Israel and oppose U.S. military aid to Israel — cites previous moments in history when the ACLU condemned international events, such as its opposition to the Vietnam War and South African apartheid. As of early October, 681 staffers from across the free speech organization’s national office and local chapters had signed on to support the petition, about one-third of its overall staff.

In early October, the ACLU’s national board of directors convened to vote on the petition. The governing body rejected the staffers’ calls with a 50-4 vote and one abstention, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. This week, after continued requests from staffers, ACLU leadership also rejected requests for a town hall meeting where staffers could hear leaders’ reasons for dismissing the petition. 

ACLU leadership explained its rejection to staff in a memo, sent by Board President Deborah Archer and Executive Director Anthony Romero, stating that while the organization is committed to fighting for the free speech rights of those who are protesting around the war in Gaza, “a position on the war is not needed to carry out this essential domestic work.”

Several months before the vote, Romero had recommended against the petition, stating that “weighing in on this international matter is beyond the ACLU’s remit,” the memo said.

Candidates and Campaigns

Washington Examiner: Why this Never Trumper can’t possibly vote for Harris

By Quin Hillyer

.....Meanwhile, where freedom of assembly and of speech intersect, in what the Supreme Court describes as the “freedom of association,” Harris is so radical that the high court rebuked a stance she took that would negate a landmark victory not of some right-wing group but of the NAACP. And where modern-day press, in the form of social media, intersects with speech, Harris and running mate Tim Walz both repeatedly have insisted that government should be able to demand that platforms pre-censor content and also that “hate speech” should be curtailed.

The Center Square: Americans can now check if they are part of political donor fraud

By Casey Harper

.....U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., promoted a new website on Thursday that allows Americans to see if fraudulent actors have used their name to make illicit political donations to Democratic candidates.

The site comes amid growing allegations that ActBlue, an online donation processor for Democrats, has received an influx of cash for Democratic candidates that, according to lawsuits and investigations, used the names of Americans who had no knowledge of the donations at all.

Washington Post (Tech Brief): Her billionaire marriage broke up. Her VP campaign fizzled. Now she’s a Trump-world star.

By Elizabeth Dwoskin, Ashley Parker, Meryl Kornfield and Aaron Schaffer

.....Shanahan became aware of reporting for this article when she and Kennedy were still campaigning. In June, she texted an associate who had been contacted by The Post to suggest a deal: Shanahan said she would “pay your friend” — The Post reporter — “half a million dollars to be a whistleblower” to expose people Shanahan claimed were spreading false information about her.

The contact relayed the offer to a Post reporter, who did not respond. After multiple requests for interviews with Shanahan since April, The Washington Post sent a detailed list of questions to her last week. She said she rejected parts of The Post’s reporting, but did not offer specific answers. “I’m so sorry you feel it is appropriate to do this for political motivations,” she said. “It’s a very sad state our country is in.”

The States

The Federalist: Judge Tosses ‘Objectively Outrageous’ Charge Against Arizona Mom Arrested For Speaking At City Meeting

By Shawn Fleetwood

.....On Wednesday, an Arizona judge dismissed the criminal case brought against a state resident who was arrested after criticizing her city government during a public meeting.

“The Defendant should not have faced criminal prosecution once for expressing her political views,” Justice of the Peace Gerald Williams wrote.

Bangor Daily News: Maine could crack down on illegal secret political donations

By Billy Kobin

.....Maine ethics regulators want lawmakers to crack down on “straw donor” contributions that have gone to both Democratic and Republican causes in recent years and made news across the country.

The Maine Ethics Commission shared several proposals Wednesday that it intends to review during its Oct. 30 meeting before submitting to the Legislature ahead of its 2025 session, which begins in earnest this January. 

The legislation would create stiffer penalties for straw donations, which involve a funder giving money to an intermediary who then donates to a group or candidate in order to illegally hide the original source’s identity.