Free Republic

This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire Topline: A relatively new program in New York State will use $39.5 million of taxpayer funds to match small donations to political campaigns for state offices, expanding them up to 12 times their original value. Key facts: The Public Campaign Finance Program multiplies campaign contributions of $250 or less. If an individual donates $10 to a legislative candidate, the politician will receive an extra $120 from the government Candidates running for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general or comptroller receive funds at a 6 to 1 ratio. Politicians running for the state...

An Axios article is delivered to present the contrast between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis around small donor contributions to highlight the scale of grassroot support for Trump over DeSantis. However, there’s a buried lead in there. According to the article, “82% of the total raised from individual contributions by Trump’s campaign since the start of the year came from small-dollar donors — amounting to more than $44 million, according to FEC data.” A few paragraphs later, “Biden’s re-election campaign raised roughly $10 million during the second quarter from donors giving less than $200.” Put another way, President Trump has...

Pay to play is legal in California as there are no statewide prohibitions. California Governor Gavin Newsom has quietly solicited millions of dollars in campaign donations from state vendors, key people, employees, or their affiliated corporate political action committees. While progressives decry corporate money in politics, Governor Gavin Newsom has embraced the highly unethical practice of soliciting campaign cash from state contractors. ... Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found 979 state vendors who gave $10,561,828 in political donations to Newsom during his 2010, 2018, recall election, and 2022 election cycles. Meanwhile, these companies reaped $6,201,978,173 in state payments. ... These donations...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Wednesday introduced a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, which eliminated restrictions on corporate campaign spending. The amendment would allow Congress and states to put forth limits on campaign contributions, according to a statement from Schiff's office. "The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United overturned decades of legal precedent and has enabled billions in dark money to pour into our elections," Schiff said in a statement. The amendment would also allow states to enact laws creating public financing of campaigns. "Amending the Constitution is an extraordinary step, but it is...

The FBI raid on the office and hotel room of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer provoked visceral rage from the president and a burst of misstatements. Here's a look at his remarks: TRUMP: "So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and it's a disgraceful situation." — Comments at a meeting with military advisers Monday. THE FACTS: It was not a break-in. The FBI executed a search warrant obtained from a judge in conducting the raid and seizing records on a variety of matters, among them a $130,000 payment...

Clinton's secret arms dealing -- and how it led to disaster in Libya. Hillary Clinton led the charge in the Obama administration to go to war in Libya. Her objective was to overthrow the regime of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Not one to be deterred by opponents in the Pentagon and Congress to her reckless interventionist plans, Hillary decided to end-run them. Her State Department helped facilitate what Andrew P. Napolitano in his scathing article has called “Hillary’s secret war.” When the secret war began to backfire, as arms ended up in the hands of anti-American jihadists, Hillary Clinton and other...

MIAMI -- An ousted Filipino congressman pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of tax evasion and one count of election financing fraud. Mark Jimenez, 56, agreed that he owes up to $1.5 million in income tax for 1995 and 1996 and will serve at least 21 months in prison. He will be sentenced at a later day, federal prosecutors said. Jimenez was extradited in December to Miami, where he was charged with using money from his Miami company and a closely related one to reimburse employees for illegal donations to former President Bill Clinton and other Democrats. Jimenez made...

The revelation that Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is facing a federal investigation related to campaign donations could complicate Hillary Clinton's effort to win the state in November. The ties between McAuliffe and the Clinton family run deep -- both personally and professionally. McAuliffe often refers to Bill Clinton as his best friend. He served as Clinton's handpicked chair of the Democratic National Committee. Hillary Clinton was an early and enthusiastic supporter of McAuliffe's run for governor in 2013. Several of McAuliffe's key campaign staffers have graduated to the Clinton campaign.. McAuliffe has denied any wrongdoing and said "Investigations happen, no...

Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the Allied Veterans of the World case are disputing whether Attorney General Pam Bondi must answer a subpoena and testify. Court records show the state has asked a judge to quash a subpoena for Bondi, who is scheduled for a deposition next week by attorneys for several defendants in the gambling and money laundering case. Bondi argued in her motion that her testimony is no different from what other witnesses could offer and she is entitled to “testimonial immunity” due to her rank. Defense attorney Curtis Fallgatter argued in court documents that Bondi was briefed...

In a five-minute video compilation, Veritas showed senior members of Mrs. Clinton’s team appearing to accept a donation from a Canadian women at Mrs. Clinton’s campaign announcement rally in exchange for hats and pins bearing the candidate’s name. The staff members — Molly Barker and Erin Tibe — express awareness that they cannot except a donation from a foreigner but agree to allow the Canadian woman to give the money to an American citizen standing next to her who made the transaction on her behalf.

When House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy headlined a fundraiser in early June the room was packed with defense industry lobbyists, but reps from one megacontractor were missing — Boeing. Not only was Boeing absent at that fundraiser, the contractor has cut off all political contributions to the No. 2 House Republican over his support for killing the Export-Import Bank, which facilitates billions of dollars in low-interest loans to U.S. exporters like Boeing. General Electric, also a major supporter of renewing Ex-Im and a benefactor of the agency, has followed suit and has not contributed to the California Republican this year....

The Chinese government hacked into U.S. defense systems. What makes Americans think that the Chinese—or the Russians, the Iranians or other foreign interests—are not also hacking into U.S. elections? They may well be doing it on a large scale. But Americans have no way to know. We have certainly made it easy for them, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, handed down five years ago. U.S. law prohibits foreign nationals from making a contribution or donation in connection with any federal, state or local election. The prohibition includes contributions to candidates and political action committees, as well...

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - Suspended California state Sen. Leland Yee could face a jury as early as June for charges of political corruption and conspiracy to import guns. At a scheduling conference on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said Yee will be tried along with his political consultant Keith Jackson, who also faces drug and murder-for-hire charges. Breyer said those charges will be tried separately, but lawyers for the defendants, including Yee's lawyer James Lassart, were not satisfied. "The firearms charges are going to be extremely prejudicial. The government has acquired 50 to 70 different firearms that, undoubtedly to...

What is this about? New to me. Any more insight on it? PAW (which I despise) posts this without any explanation.

The engineering firm Birdsall Services Group was built of New Jersey steel, the kind forged in a fire of wheeling and dealing and political influence that made the company a titan in the brawl for millions of dollars worth of public contracts. Now it’s all melting down. Birdsall, bankrupt and a shadow of its former self, admitted in state court this month to dumping loads of illegal campaign donations into the coffers of elected officials, a practice one former employee said “regularly won contracts” for the company. It was classic Jersey: Banned by law from giving more than $300 to...

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Thursday demanding an investigation into online campaign contributions to the president's reelection campaign. "[T]he President's campaign committee does not use the industry standard practices to guard against receiving fraudulent or excessive contributions via the internet," Priebus alleges in the letter. "As a result, the President's campaign committee is vulnerable to the receipt of prohibited contributions. Their failure to adhere to the industry standard has caused these questions regarding whether the campaign is deliberately inviting prohibited contributions." The Priebus letter is based on a report the...

Noam Neusner, a former White House speechwriter for President George W. Bush, thought he had given $250 to Ohio GOP Senate candidate Josh Mandel. He hadn't. Instead, Neusner was one of nearly 3,000 donors who stumbled onto a network of look-alike campaign websites that have netted more than $570,000 this year in what some are calling a sophisticated political phishing scheme. The websites have the trappings of official campaign pages: smiling candidate photos and videos, issue pages, and a large red "donate" button at the top. Except that proceeds from the shadow sites go not to the candidates pictured, but...

Money may not be buying Mitt Romney much Republican love, but it’s going a long way toward helping him buy the next best thing: endorsements in the GOP primaries. Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC and its affiliates states have lavished close to $1.3 million in campaign donations to federal, state and local GOP politicians, almost all since 2010. His recipients include officials in the major upcoming primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina, and in three southern Super Tuesday states where he was trounced four years ago. In New Hampshire, a U.S. senator, a congressman, 10 state senators...

Solyndra, the solar-cell company whose collapse last week triggered a national debate over green jobs, filed its bankruptcy papers Monday, listing $859 million in assets and $784 million in secured loans. The company's biggest lender was the federal government, which loaned Solyndra $528 million in 2009 to build a new factory near its Fremont headquarters. As part of an effort to boost renewable power companies, the government offered Solyndra as much as $535 million for the project, but the factory cost slightly less to build than expected. The government will not, however, be the first creditor in line during Solyndra's...

House investigators said they have uncovered evidence that White House officials became personally involved in an Energy Department review of a hot-button $535 million loan guarantee to the now-failed California solar company Solyndra. The allegation surfaced in a letter House Energy Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) sent to the White House Thursday night, saying he planned to accelerate efforts to understand an investment deal that may have left taxpayers out half a billion dollars. "We have learned from our investigation that White House officials monitored Solyndra's application and communicated with [Department of Energy] and Office of Management and Budget officials...