Photograph by Greg Johnston

Cayman Islands

Social welfare nonprofits, which can keep their donors secret, are a lot like Russian nesting dolls: Open one, and you’ll find a smaller version inside.

That’s what courts in California discovered last year when they tried to figure out who paid for TV ads attacking Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax increase plan. The courts forced an out-of-state nonprofit to reveal its donors only to find out that the ad money came from … another out-of-state nonprofit. That’s where the trail ended.

Prompted by a revelation last week that the Internal Revenue Service improperly targeted Republican-leaning nonprofit applicants, Congress is plunging  into the thicket of tax rules governing those entities. Hearings continue next week.

Campaign-finance watchdogs such as the Sunlight Foundation, Democracy 21, Common Cause and the Campaign Legal Center are imploring lawmakers to look broadly at whether politically active nonprofits are misuing their tax-exempt status. A Bloomberg story today highlights two groups — one Democratic and one Republican — that appear to be gaming the system by buying campaign-style ads and doing most of their work in election years.

There’s yet another way social welfare nonprofits participate in politics: They move dark money, Cayman Islands style. Sometimes a nonprofit gives money to a political committee that can more freely spend on politics, in effect keeping the real donors hidden. Bill Allison, editorial director of the Washington-based Sunlight Foundation, has called that phenomenon a “campaign-finance haven.”

Those tactics can bump up against stricter state campaign-finance laws, as was the case in California with the Americans for Responsible Leadership.

Two days before the November 2012 election, a California Supreme Court judge ordered the nonprofit based in Phoenix to reveal who gave it the $11 million that it in turn contributed to a business group opposing Brown’s California tax initiative.

Americans for Responsible Leadership reported that it received its money from the Center to Protect Patient Rights — another nonprofit with secret donors.

An October 2012 Bloomberg News investigation of the Center to Protect Patient Rights, also based in Phoenix, revealed that it raised $62 million for the 2010 elections and parceled out most of its money to other nonprofits.

The center’s donors remain a secret.

Original post is Nonprofits: Cayman Islands of Political Money by Political Capital.

Photograph by Ryan Anson/Bloomberg

Two of four 1,060-foot catwalks connect to the 525-foot main tower from the eastern end of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

So dozens of over-sized bolts built into the soon-to-be-opened $6.4 billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge snapped when they were tightened earlier this year.

What does California Gov. Jerry Brown have to say about it?

“Look, s— happens,” Brown said when asked today by a reporter whether the public should be concerned or lose faith in the project.

He had just finished delivering remarks at a memorial service for highway patrol officers killed on the job.

The Golden State is replacing the eastern span of the bridge, which was damaged when a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck in October 1989, killing one motorist. It’s supposed to open in September after a decade of construction.

Earlier this year, more than 30 of the rods, each three inches wide and up to 24 feet long and a critical component of the new bridge’s earthquake safety features, snapped after they were tightened.

The state is testing the rest of the rods on the bridge and is developing a plan to fix those that failed.

“Very professional engineers are looking into it,” Brown said.

Remember, this is the governor who wants to “get s— done.’‘

That’s what he said at a press conference  last year announcing plans to build two massive, 40-mile underground tunnels to ship water to Southern California. He had asked the Legislature to build a canal for the same purpose 30 years ago, he noted, when he was California’s youngest governor. Now that he is back, as its oldest, he said in July:  “Analysis paralysis is not why I came back 30 years later to handle some of the same issues. At this stage in my life, as I see many of my friends dying — I just went to the funeral of my best friend a couple of weeks ago — I want to get s— done.”

Original post is Jerry Brown Channels Forrest Gump by Political Capital.

Photograph by Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Texas Gov. Rick Perry visits with fans prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series NRA 500 on April 13, 2013 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has  picked Chicago as his latest job-recruitment target, running print and Internet advertisements through a weekly business newspaper urging Illinois companies to move to the second-most populous state.

In February, radio ads launched by Perry asked California business owners to consider relocating to Texas, citing lower taxes and a more favorable regulatory environment. Those ads prompted California Gov. Jerry Brown to mock the campaign as a “burp, barely a fart.”

“This is part of the governor’s ongoing efforts to reach out to companies whose policies make it difficult to live and do business,” spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said in an e-mailed statement.

Texas has no income tax, compared with a 5 percent levy in Illinois, and union membership is much lower, Nashed said.

A call to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s press aide, Brooke Anderson, was not immediately returned.

Texas had a 6.4 percent unemployment rate as of February, compared with a 9.5 percent rate in Illinois. Illinois has the lowest rating among the U.S. states by Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s and both companies have it on negative outlook, meaning the grade could be cut further.

TexasOne, a public private partnership, is paying for the $38,450 of advertising in Crain’s Chicago Business, according to Perry’s statement.

Original post is Texas to Chicago: Send Us Your Overtaxed, Underemployed Masses by Political Capital.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a 60-year-old Democrat and one of the most prominent Latino politicians, gets asked a lot about his future these days. After eight years of leading the second-largest city, Villaraigosa must leave office at the end of June due to term limits.

So what’s next for Villaraigosa, who was the chairman of the Democratic National Convention last year?

In an interview on Bloomberg Television, Villaraigosa offered no hint of his political ambitions, saying instead that he’s interested in joining a university or a think tank or taking an (unspecified) job in the private sector. He didn’t mention the possibility of running for California governor or U.S. senator.

In any case, Villaraigosa’s options would be limited if Gov. Jerry Brown, a 74-year-old Democrat, opts to run for another term next year, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, a 72-year-old Democrat, runs again in 2016.

After President Barack Obama’s reelection last year, Villaraigosa’s name emerged in news reports as a contender for a Cabinet seat. He quashed the speculation with a Feb. 1 statement saying he was “firmly committed” to staying in Los Angeles and finishing his term.

Original post is Villaraigosa Mum as L.A. Term Closes by Political Capital.

Photograph by CBS News

Gavin Newsom, lieutenant governor of California, is pitching a new book. Photo by CBS News.

“Government should be as smart as Google,” Gavin Newsom said Friday at a party to celebrate the release of his book “Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government.”

The fete brought the Democratic lieutenant governor of California and former mayor of San Francisco to Washington to dispense some advice.

Newsom urged all freshmen members of Congress to get Twitter accounts — and tweet more than just their schedules and press releases.

“It has to be a two-way conversation,” he said. “Otherwise, don’t even engage.”

In the book, Newsom argues that Washington should embrace the digital revolution to better engage a disgruntled citizenry. For research, he talked to tech pioneers such as Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, and Evan Williams, co-founder and former chief executive officer of Twitter.

Newsom said his own staff was “petrified” when he opened his Twitter account (@GavinNewsom). Today the one-time host of a show on Current TV has more than 1,253,000 followers.

Politicians “have to meet people where they are,” he said.

Newsom, 45, has “a particular bias” toward running for governor — and “every expectation” that California Gov. Jerry Brown will seek reelection. For now, he’s determined to push through an economic development plan for his state.

Later this month, he’ll walk the red carpet at the Academy Awards with his wife, Jennifer Siebel, director of the 2011 documentary “Miss Representation,” about the lack of positive images of women in the media.

Tammy Haddad hosted the book party at the Jefferson Hotel. Guests included former Rep. Ellen Tauscher, Democrat of California and “Meet the Press” executive producer Betsy Fischer Martin. Newsom was scheduled to appear on the show on Sunday.

Stephanie Green writes for Bloomberg Muse — @stephlgreen @bloombergmuse

Original post is @GavinNewsom: Jerry Brown Watch by Political Capital.

Photograph by Ken James/Bloomberg

Jerry Brown, governor of California, in Sacramento, California.

Gov. Jerry Brown isn’t worried about the miniscule amount of money that  Texas Gov. Rick Perry is spending on radio ads airing in California urging companies there to leave for the Lone Star state.

The 30-second ad features Perry knocking California over a recent tax increase that Brown himself championed and a lingering perception that California isn’t business-friendly. The ad coincides with the launch of a new  Web-site from Perry’s state touting its business climate versus California’s.

“Building a business is tough, but I hear building a  business in California is next to impossible,” the Republican Perry says in the ad. “I have a message for California businesses. Come check out Texas.”

Perry, who tried to run for president last year, emailed a release announcing the radio spots to the entire Sacramento statehouse press corp yesterday, getting him wide coverage in both states.

Brown, a Democrat who served two previous terms as governor during the 1970s and 80s, fired back today. He blasted the press for making too big of a deal out of Perry’s ads, calling the $24,000 media buy barely noticeable in a state as big as his.

“It’s not a burp,” Brown said of Perry’s ad-buy. “It’s barely a fart. If they want to get into the game, let them spend $25 million, then I will take them seriously.”

Brown didn’t shy away from taking a dig at Texas as well, at one point saying it didn’t make any sense for someone to leave California for Texas. “They aren’t going to go to Lubbock or someplace like that.”

Original post is Jerry Brown: Rick Perry’s Radio Ads ‘Barely’ (Ahem, Register) in California by Political Capital.

Photograph by Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo

Gov. Jerry Brown responds to a questions about the plan to build a giant twin tunnel system to move water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farmland and cities, with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, right, in Sacramento, Calif., on July 25, 2012.

Jerry Brown was California’s youngest governor when he was first elected in the 1970s. Now back in the statehouse at age 74, he’s California’s oldest. Apparently he isn’t afraid to admit that, at his age, he can’t dilly-dally around anymore.

At a press conference in Sacramento today to announce plans to build two massive, 40-mile-long underground tunnels that would ship water to thirsty Southern Californians, Brown was asked by a reporter why he was moving forward with the project even though all the scientific and environmental analysis hasn’t yet been completed.

When Brown, a Democrat, was governor before, he got the Legislature at the time to put a ballot measure before voters asking for permission to build a canal for the same purpose. Voters in 1982 said no.

“Analysis paralysis is not why I came back 30 years later to handle some of the same issues,” Brown said. “At this stage in my life, as I see many of my friends dying — I just went to the funeral of my best friend a couple of weeks ago — I want to get s— done.”

Original post is Jerry Brown Wants to `Get S— Done’ by Political Capital.