Rebuttal to the IRS
We were greeted with and interesting email this morning from Cleta Mitchell, Esq. at Foley & Lardner LLP. Cleta represents a number of our clients as well as many 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 groups. In the memo, Cleta gives proof that the IRS acknowledged that they told her that her conservative client’s application had been handed over to the “Washington, DC office for additional review.”
This information is contrary to the IRS’s claim that the DC office was not involved.
Revolt DC Hackathon Hits DC This Summer
CMDI is honored to be sponsoring the #RevoltDC Hackathon
#RevoltDC Hackathon is designed to bring together the best and brightest developers absent of party labels, to build the next generation of citizen/voter engagement tools. The tools designed will be open sourced and available to anyone who wants to engage citizens/voters. The goal is to encourage and promote the use of digital political technology across the country.
In support of the June 22 hackathon, CMDI will be providing APIs to Crimson, the national Republican campaign platform. Attendees will be able to leverage the Crimson APIs to pull and push data into Crimson’s robust supporter and donor contact management system. Read the full article…
Friday Afternoon Political Trivia Game
Question: Which Republican was the first to be president of all fifty states?
Post your answer on the CMDI Facebook page.
48 Hour Report Phobia and Political Transparency
When federal candidates are needlessly embarrassed publicly, for failing to follow basic disclosure rules,
the FEC wins,
the First Amendment is assaulted, and
candidate credibility goes out the window.
Such is the case with Friends of Sharron Angle, the US Senate campaign who just forked over more than $25k of the hard-earned money of its loyal contributors to the US Treasury. Read the full article…
Do Political Campaigns Have ADHD?
I was recently reading about a list of questions medical clinicians use to diagnose Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD) in the WSJ. It occurred to me that if we asked the same questions of a political campaign, we would come up with a positive diagnosis. I do know that if you interview any successful campaign manager, the reoccurring theme is their singular focus on “getting votes.” As “singular focus” and ADHD are diametrically opposed, let us commence the testing! Read the full article…
FEC Allows “Partial Reporting” Exemption
This is interesting. I didn’t realize that if you believe your supporters might suffer “threats, harassment, or reprisals from either government officials or private parties” for supporting your political organization, you can apply to be exempted from certain FEC disclosure rules.
First thing this morning, the FEC announced their opinion on The Socialist Workers Party and the Socialist Workers National Campaign Committee request for an advisory opinion on the following:
Do the SWP, the Socialist Workers National Campaign Committee, other SWP party committees, and authorized committees of candidates of the SWP qualify for an extension of their previous partial reporting exemption? Read the full article…
FEC Rules on Political Donations from Same-Sex Married Couples
Federal Election Commission new advisory opinions update:
Advisory Opinion 2013-02 on political donations from same-sex couples married under state law has just been released. The opinion request was made by Dan Winslow who is running in the Massachusetts special election for US Senate. Here is what Mr. Winslow’s team asked,
When a candidate’s committee receives contributionsfrom same-sex couples married under state law, may the committee apply 11 C.F.R. 110.1(i) to these contributions?
Basically 11 C.F.R. 110.1(i) says that a spouse with no separate income may make a contribution in his or her own name “through the checking account of the other spouse.” The FEC’s offical respons is a solid “no.” Read the full article…
Good Republican Fundraising News from New Jersey
Well done New Jersey Republicans!
Per the New Jersey Star-Ledger:
N.J. Republicans keep fundraising advantage over Democrats, analysis shows
State Republican committees extended their fundraising dominance over Democrats in the first quarter of this year, raising $810,923 to the Democrats’ $653,110, according to an analysis released today by the state Election Law Enforcement Commission… Read the full article…
Technology Driven Voter Life Cycle
How do you win a campaign?
You win a campaign by focusing your limited resources on getting more votes than your opponent.
Every one of your decisions should be directly linked to determining the most efficient way to get more votes.
How do you get more votes? You build positive relationships with people who will vote for you.
How do you build relationships? Just like your mom told you, “I am not your cleaning lady.” Wait, wrong mom quote. Here it is, “just be yourself and be a good listener.” It all comes down to communicating at the personal level with an individual, even when you are running a campaign. Read the full article…
PayPal Compliance Issues
Hidden dangers of using PayPal for political contributions
We’ve noticed a number of Republican congressional challenger campaign websites popping up recently who are using PayPal to process their donations.
This is all well and good as long as the candidates are:
- posting the correct FEC disclaimers, and
- collecting employer and occupation information.
Unfortunately the majority of the people using PayPal are not. Read the full article…