This evening, the Campaign Legal Center officially dedicated the Ham Rove Memorial Conference Room, with an assist from comedian Stephen Colbert, in order to meet the sole condition for accepting a generous check from the Ham Rove Memorial Fund. The popular host of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report provided videotaped remarks (link below) for the occasion and personally donated a life-sized portrait of himself, which now hangs at the Legal Center.  

The Ham Rove Memorial Fund was created by Mr. Colbert with money he raised though his Colbert Super PAC. Legal Center President Trevor Potter, through his private law practice, was a frequent guest on the show serving as Mr. Colbert’s attorney and explaining the intricacies of campaign finance and tax law. Mr. Potter helped to create the Colbert Super PAC, the related 501(c)(4) Colbert Super PAC SHH and ultimately the Ham Rove Memorial Fund where the hundreds of thousands of dollars from Colbert Super PAC had vanished in November 2012 without a trace, courtesy of loopholes in the IRS regulations.

“You have to admire a man who gives you his untraceable 501(c)(4) money, knowing you’ll use it in an attempt to shut down untraceable 501(c)(4) money,” Legal Center Executive Director J. Gerald Hebert, remarked at the event beneath Colbert’s portrait. “We hope to use Mr. Colbert’s generous donation to bring about much needed reforms in the campaign finance arena.” 

"Stephen Colbert did an amazing job of distilling the complexities of Super PACs and 501(c)(4)s into something that the general public could instantly grasp," Legal Center President Trevor Potter said before unveiling Colbert's portrait at the event. "That coverage did more to educate the American public on the fallout from the Citizens United decision, secret money in campaigns, and the problems with the FEC's and IRS's non-enforcement of the laws, than anything else in the last election cycle," said Potter.

Potter noted that the contribution was an unexpected bonus above and beyond the valuable public service Mr. Colbert provided in airing the segments on his show. The Colbert Report was awarded with a prestigious Peabody Award for the segments of the show related to the Super PAC and the nation’s completely dysfunctional campaign finance system in the wake of the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision and a series of failures by regulatory agencies, including the Federal Election Commission and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The contribution of $136, 852.41 was officially made by The Ham Rove Memorial Fund of Coastal Community Foundation on the recommendation of Stephen Colbert.

To watch the dedication speech taped for the occasion by Stephen Colbert, click here.

Today, a proposed consent judgment and decree was presented to a three-judge court in Washington, DC, granting a Voting Rights Act bailout to the City of Wheatland, California. If approved, Wheatland will add to the growing list of state or local governments to bailout from the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Those provisions known as Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act are being challenged in a case currently being weighed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder.  Numerous critics of Section 5 argued in briefs to the court that the bailout process was far too arduous and cost-prohibitive, neither of which is true. Earlier this year, Brown’s Valley Irrigation District (CA) bailed out, as did the State of New Hampshire. Two other local governments (the City of Falls Church, VA, and California’s Yuba County Water Agency) have bailout lawsuits pending in the DC Court.

 “The continuing string of successful bailouts make a mockery of the arguments that the bailout process is illusory, too arduous and too expensive. Further, these bailouts prove that the coverage formula self-tailors, and therefore Section 5 coverage adjusts to current needs required to protect the franchise,” said Campaign Legal Center Executive Director J. Gerald Hebert, who serves as legal counsel for the California jurisdictions, the State of New Hampshire, and the City of Falls Church in his capacity as a solo practitioner.  “The Voting Rights Act remains a vital bulwark of our democracy but these jurisdictions, like many others, have proven that they maintain nondiscriminatory voting practices and no longer require Section 5 coverage. Still more bailouts are in the works proving beyond a doubt that the bailout process is working effectively.”

 To read the joint motion to enter consent judgment and decree, click here. To read the proposed consent judgment and decree, click here.

The Campaign Legal Center filed a friend of the Court brief discussing bailout in Shelby County v. Holder.  To read the brief, click here.

Today, the Campaign Legal Center joined Democracy 21 in asking President Obama whether his involvement with Organizing for Action (OFA) is consistent with the statutory ban on the solicitation of gifts by the President and executive branch officials. In a letter, citing numerous media accounts of OFA and its ties to the President and his 2012 campaign, the watchdog groups questioned whether the President’s involvement with the organization contravenes the Ethics in Government Act and its explicit ban on the soliciting of gifts by executive branch officials. The President is exempted from the law’s executive branch prohibition on accepting gifts, but remains subject to the ban on soliciting gifts, directly or indirectly, from sources with interests that may be substantially impacted by the decisions and policies of the Administration.

“The President’s involvement with OFA not only raises policy concerns relating to the purchase of influence over the Administration, but also may cross the line in terms of the federal law banning the soliciting of gifts by any member of the executive branch, including the President,” said J. Gerald Hebert, Campaign Legal Center Executive Director. “This unprecedented use of a tax-exempt organization to accept unlimited contributions and to serve as what appears to be an arm of the executive branch is not the hope and change touted by then-Senator Obama in 2008. Instead it represents yet another example of the race to the bottom in political fundraising that we have seen following Citizens United. We sincerely hope that the President will reconsider his involvement with OFA and step back from the precipice by shutting down OFA. He should recommit his efforts and the power of his office toward fixing a broken political money system rather than simply riding it further into the ground.”

The letter outlines in detail for the President the “multiple factors” that suggest that OFA’s role as “a private-sector arm” of the Administration may well contravene the solicitation ban of the Ethics in Government Act. Included in the letter to the President is a summary of those activities:

• You have been personally involved in the creation and public announcement of OFA and in the promotion of OFA to your campaign supporters and the public.
• You have personally endorsed and embraced the work of OFA, which you have said is important to “finishing the job” started by your first term.
• You intend to appear at and participate in OFA events that will be attended by OFA’s large donors and bundlers, including the “founders’ summit.”
• OFA was also created, and is being operated, by former top White House officials in your Administration and by your close political associates and former campaign operatives.
• OFA is a direct outgrowth of your 2012 presidential campaign, and reportedly, by purchase or lease, will become the beneficiary of key assets of your 2012 presidential campaign, including voter database information and email distribution lists.
• OFA Chairman Jim Messina, reportedly has stated that you will help direct OFA and will be “intimately involved” in its operations.
• OFA is managing your Twitter account and Facebook page.

The letter urges the President to shut down OFA with all due haste.

To read the full letter sent by Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center, click here.