Campaign Finance

In 1918, Henry Ford ran for the Senate and lost. Did he concede? Are you kidding?

A 60-count federal indictment was only a slight impediment to reelection. Whether he serves out his term is another question.

One of the most underreported asininities of modern American politics is the existence of political “consultancies” that rake in money from candidates, fail to get those candidates into office, then go on to rake in even more money from other candidates. Consider:

Hush money and campaign-finance law.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

E.W. Jackson got crushed in the Republican primary, but Sebastian Gorka got paid. The Christian activist running for a chance to challenge Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., cut a check to the former presidential adviser to headline a May fundraiser.

The judge ruled that the circuit attorney could end up being called as a witness by the defense.

The New York Post reports that Rosie O’Donnell, the former actress and talk show host who’s now best known for erratic behavior, has been breaking the law. It seems that she’s given a total of $5,400 over the legal limit to five different Democratic congressional candidates. Federal Election…

An article published by CNS News alleged that the Bernie Sanders campaign was fined $14,500 by the Federal Election Commission for “accepting illegal in-kind contributions during [the] 2016 campaign.” Facebook users questioned the article and flagged it for third-party fact checkers.

Donna Brazile's new book, Hacks, is doing boffo box office. So much so that the day after the book’s official release, Amazon was sold out of hardback copies.

Toothpaste, a 7,000-year-old product, is rarely a leading indicator. But the world’s top purveyor of the stuff—along with laundry detergent, dish soap, diapers, and other sundries—made a decision earlier this year that could portend a big shift in the advertising industry.

Last week the Washington Free Beacon reported that roughly half of Congressman Luis Gutiérrez's campaign expenditures were paid to his wife, who serves as his campaign manager. What is most noteworthy about this is that Gutiérrez does not really need to worry about campaigning.

Van Dyne, Wisconsin

Many readers will doubtless be familiar with some of the tales of intimidation told in Kimberly Strassel's The Intimidation Game: How the Left is Silencing Free Speech. Strassel's great accomplishment is to bring them all together in one place. She identifies a national phenomenon and fleshes it…

On Monday, I wrote about questions surrounding the Trump campaign's finances. Specifically, a Huffington Post report was circulating noting that the topline FEC numbers suggested that the Trump campaign burned through $63 million last month. I contacted the Trump campaign, which offered no comment…

Donald Trump is struggling to raise cash for his campaign against Hillary Clinton.

Nashua, N.H.

Donald Trump went back to the well of his "self-funding" strategy Tuesday, lamenting that voters haven't given him kudos for one of his campaign's central boasts.

In the Obama era, incremental conservative progress that gets signed into law is a rare thing.

At tonight's CBS debate, the topic of Hillary Clinton's campaign donations from Wall Street came up as a question as to whether she was "beholden" to them as a result.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with online editor and Clinton chronicler Daniel Halper on the latest on the Hillary campaign.

Under federal election law, candidates are not allowed to coordinate with the super PACs that support them. But since Hillary Clinton is not yet an official candidate, she's been coordinating with Correct the Record, a project of the Democratic-aligned super PAC American Bridge 21st Century.

Poor Walmart. The Arkansas-based retail giant just can’t catch a break. On Wednesday, employees began striking across the country, demanding higher wages. The move is the latest in a long-standing battle between the company and labor interests. And on Friday, labor’s allies in the world of activist…

Looking for issues to push in this year’s congressional elections, Senate Democrats are proposing a constitutional amendment that would enable government at the federal and state levels alike to heavily regulate campaign contributions and expenditures. The effort is driven by the Democrats’ intense…

The Mackinac Center is reporting that the Michigan SEIU has lost more than 80 percent of its members after Michigan passed a right-to-work law. The hemorrhaging membership is the result of the law ending an appalling extortion racket that siphoned taxpayer money to the union and forced thousands of…

At Slate, Dave Weigel recently reported that the Democrats have been so successful at demonizing the Koch brothers that party fundraising emails mentioning the Kochs can raise three times as much as the emails that don't. However, attacking the Kochs may not be all that motivating to anyone outside…

Thursday, the Washington Post published a piece titled "The biggest lease holder in Canada’s oil sands isn’t Exxon Mobil or Chevron. It’s the Koch brothers."

Since the IRS admitted it improperly targeted conservative and Tea Party groups last Friday, journalists have worked tirelessly to expose the full extent of the growing scandal.

There have been a lot of ill considered articles following the heinous grade school shooting in Connecticut, and I'm afraid this article in the Huffington Post is no exception. The headline, "The Gun Lobby: Why The NRA Is The Baddest Force In Politics," more or less sets the tone. Here's how the…

Matthew Continetti, writing in the Washington Free Beacon: 

The Wall Street Journal published a stunning story this morning, reporting that new analysis shows union political spending is about four times higher than previously thought. Moreover, union political spending now exceeds direct donations: 

Last year, in an article for THE WEEKLY STANDARD I discussed the growing number of existential threats to unions. One of the major challenges facing unions is that their multi-employer pension plans are deep in the hole, and the problems were being masked by accounting standards that allowed them…

Last year, in an article for THE WEEKLY STANDARD I discussed the growing number of existential threats to unions. One of the major challenges facing unions is that their multi-employer pension plans are deep in the hole, and the problems were being masked by accounting standards that allowed them…

Ever since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in January 2010, Stephen Colbert has been satirizing campaign finance laws on his Comedy Central show. In one particularly newsworthy bit this past September, Colbert formed his own 501c(4) non-profit company, which does not require donor…

Last week, Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont., forcefully condemned business that have dealings with Iran. Not surprisingly, Tester used the issue to zero in on Koch Industries. Since the Koch brothers are patrons of many conservative and libertarian causes (at least when the DSCC isn't begging Koch for…

Phil Klein: "Obama reaches out to liberals with budget plan"

Big Labor is finally getting tired of being led on by Democrats. Politico reports:

Politico: "In money race, it’s advantage Democrats"

Bloomberg: "Democrats Balk at Possible Debt-Limit Deal as Deadline Looms"

"Obama move on Social Security puts him at odds with Dem leaders Reid, Pelosi"

"Senate confirms Petraeus as next CIA director with 94-0 vote"

Think Progress reporter Lee Fang has a long history of being spectacularly wrong. However, there's a seemingly unending thirst for his breathless demonization of the Koch brothers and other rants about corporate greed among the low IQ end of the liberal spectrum.

It has been written a million times: The Federal Election Commission is a “dysfunctional” agency. But don’t jump on that bandwagon just yet.

Uh oh:

Well, this is an interesting development:

A proposed draft of an executive order that would require disclosure of political contributions by federal contractors has been circulating in Washington, D.C.:

Jen Rubin has the story about the New York Times's water-carrying for David Callahan, a co-founder and senior fellow at the left-wing group Demos. Callahan's op-ed in the Times on April 4 criticized the Koch brothers for their funding of 501c(4) groups, which don't have to disclose their funding.…

During last year's election cycle, the Obama administration criticized conservative 501(c)(4) political action committees. President Obama himself called the existence of such groups a "threat to our democracy." The Democratic National Committee ran an ad speculating that Republicans taking…