by Jonathan Singer [courtesy of MyDD]

Conflict of interest, anyone?

John McCain's campaign asked a prominent Republican consultant, Craig Shirley, to leave his official campaign role Thursday after a Politico inquiry about Shirley's dual role consulting for the campaign and for an independent "527" group opposing the Democratic presidential candidates. The campaign also released a new conflict of interest policy barring such arrangements.

Shirley, a conservative public relations veteran, doubled as a consultant to McCain and to the group Stop Her Now, a 527 group barred from coordinating its activities with presidential campaigns. He is not currently on the McCain campaign's payroll, but would also step down from his role on McCain's Virginia Leadership Team, a McCain spokesman, Brian Rogers, said.

"If you're working for a 527 involved in the presidential race, you won't have a named role in our campaign," said Rogers.

I'm not quite sure what that means -- people can't have named roles in the McCain campaign and still work on 527 organizations trying to impact the outcome of the presidential race. Does that mean that the McCain campaign is alright having people working on such 527s secretly advising the campaign in non-named roles? Is there another meaning to such a statement that I'm missing? Either way, campaign finance experts aren't terribly impressed.

Campaign finance experts expressed surprise that a McCain consultant would moonlight for a 527, a dual role that could trigger inquiries from the Federal Elections Commission.

[...]

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by Phoenix Woman [courtesy of Firedoglake]

First, there was Doug Goodyear, who'd been tapped by the McCain campaign to oversee the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul this summer but quit after his paid lobbying for Myanmar was discovered. Next, there was Doug Davenport, who quit his job with the McCain campaign after his lobbying for the Myanmar junta was discovered. Now, we find that Senator Norm Coleman and Congressmember Michele Bachmann have their own Myanmar ties.

by Mark Green [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

This week three below-the-fold scandals threatened three politicians, but Barack Houdini easily escaped the chains of Rev. Wright. "The math" looks like it's too late for Clinton to stop him.

by The Huffington Post News Team [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

CNN reports: Barack Obama's campaign has filed a formal complaint over a pro-Hillary Clinton group running ads attacking the Illinois senator on jobs and the...

by mcjoan [courtesy of Daily Kos]

Netroots hero Darcy Burner proves time and again that she's got the goods as a candidate. She does it with solidly progressive and forward-looking policy stands, and she does it with outstanding political skills, which include an ability to raise money. Lots of money. Via e-mail from her campaign:

Bellevue, WA (April 15) – Darcy Burner, the Democratic candidate for Congress in Washington State's 8th Congressional District, today reported having raised well over half a million dollars over the first three months of 2008, a result that is expected to place her first among challengers in Western states and among the top tier nationwide.

Burner will file documents with the Federal Elections Commission showing a total of $516,740 raised over the January to March quarter, putting her total raised over this election cycle at $1,374,866. After accounting for expenses, Burner reported $921,615 in the bank, up from $607,000 at the beginning of the year....

Burner's fundraising represents a major improvement over the pace she set during the last election cycle, when she lost narrowly to incumbent Republican Dave Reichert. Burner raised $334,000 in the first quarter of 2006, and this election cycle has banked more than two-and-a-half times the $357,000 she had saved at this point in the previous race.

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by DHinMI [courtesy of Daily Kos]

Tomorrow morning the Democratic National Committee will file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission against John McCain.  Why?  In the words of DNC Chair Howard Dean:

We want John McCain to obey the law with his own name on it.

This afternoon Dean and officials at the DNC held a conference call in which they spelled out why they will file a complaint with the FEC against McCain.  The background is that in December and January, McCain was broke and had to tap in to a massive amount of lobbyist money to keep his campaign afloat.  Doing so put him in danger of exceeding the spending limits attached to participation in the federal matching funds program, in which an eligible candidate can receive monies voluntarily contributed by taxpayers to match low-donor campaign contributions in exchange for abiding by spending limits.  

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani had opted out of the federal matching funds program.  John Edwards and several other candidate had opted in, but since there was insufficient money in the fund, they had to secure a loan against the money they were certified to receive.    

McCain publicly declared that he would accept the matching funds (and therefore abide by the spending limits).  But since he was broke, he had to go to a bank and secure a loan under dubious conditions.  Since he appears to have secured the loan by using his eligibility to accept the federal matching funds, it seems fairly clear that he is committed to the federal matching funds system.