[EL] Check out Study shows who breaks campaign laws- ThePuebloChieftai...

[Larry Levine]

We of the "regulated (slate mail) community" stepped forward last year and
offered to work with the California Fair Political Practices commission
staff and its task force on reforms in helping to identify and clean up some
areas of regulation that were in need of attention. We found that our input
helped the staff understand things better than they had or could have
without our perspective drawn from practical experience. Together, we honed
the regulatory changes to a point where there was agreement. We appeared
before the commission to support the changes presented by the task force
(and staff). 
So far so good. 
Now we enter into the legislative arena. One measure has cleared the state
senate and is pending in the assembly that does two things: it restates
things that already exist in the law, and it proposes new regulations that
are in clear contradiction to findings and decisions from two previous
federal court law suits. This was written and advanced with no consultation
with the "regulated community."
>From the "reform community" has come another stream of proposed statutes
that are either impractical, unrealistic, or also violate those same two
federal court decisions. All of these are coming with no consultation with
the "regulated community". They are borne of the innate suspicion on the
part of "reformers" of anyone who engages in the electoral processes either
as a candidate or a professional and from the ongoing pressure on the
"reform community" to justify its continued existence. Remember, many of
these "reformers" are themselves professionals insofar as their income would
cease if they did not continue to put forward new "reforms". 
We of the "regulated community" have demonstrated our willingness to work
collaboratively with regulators. Too bad the "reformers" and too many
legislators don't share our desire. 
Larry

-----Original Message-----
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of
Scarberry, Mark
Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2011 12:32 PM
To: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu;
law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Check out Study shows who breaks campaign laws-
ThePuebloChieftai...

Isn't there something basically wrong under the 1st Amendment if those who
engage in political speech are "the regulated community"? (This is not a
criticism of Kathay; I suppose the term is accurate.)

Mark

Mark S. Scarberry
Professor of Law
Pepperdine Univ. School of Law
Malibu, CA 90263
(310) 506-4667

-----Original Message-----
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Kathay
Feng
Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2011 11:58 AM
To: Volokh, Eugene; law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu;
law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Check out Study shows who breaks campaign laws-
ThePuebloChieftai...

Automation is certainly a practical solution that would help. In California,
we had a bi- and non-partisan group of reformers, the regulated community,
citizen groups and others that all agreed that greater automation would help
with disclosure, and significantly lower transaction costs for both
campaigns and the government.  The idea is still stuck in the mud, though.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: "Volokh, Eugene" <VOLOKH at law.ucla.edu>
Sender: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2011 10:41:53
To:
law-election at department-lists.uci.edu<law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] Check out Study shows who breaks campaign laws
	-	ThePuebloChieftai...

	A naïve question:  Could some of these problems -- at least to
filing -- be relieved with automation (and might they already be so
relieved), especially with automation that the jurisdiction is willing to
certify as sufficient?  For instance, I certainly sympathize with concerns
about the burden of reporting contributions and expenditures, but what if
State X, when it enacts some such disclosure restrictions, provides that the
obligation is discharged if a campaign worker goes to a particular Web site
and accurately enters all the data he's asked to enter?  Likewise, I take it
that whatever software is used to gather credit card donations via the Web
presumably already creates a data file that can just be sent to the election
authorities to discharge the disclosure obligations.  Or am I missing
something big here?

	Eugene

> On Sun, Aug 14, 2011 at 1:05 PM, Larry Levine <larrylevine at earthlink.net>
wrote:
> > You've touched a nerve. We have "reformed" our way into a time when 
> > one cannot run an election campaign of any size, or a PAC, or 
> > conduct activities of a state or local political party or club 
> > without the cost of a professional treasurer and an attorney on 
> > retainer. At the same time we are placing limits on the amounts of 
> > contributions and the permissible expenditures in campaign without 
> > allowing for these "overhead" items to come from a separate account. 
> > Gone is the day when a volunteer can be the treasurer of a campaign 
> > for a friend if the campaign is of any consequential size. On top of 
> > that, we have created a thicket of regulations and requirements that 
> > differ from state to state and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction 
> > within a state, thus making it virtually impossible for a campaign 
> > and/or a candidate to avoid violations without the services of an 
> > elections attorney who is watching over every facet of the campaign. 
> > And all in aide of stamping out the perception of corruption. Tell 
> > me, is the perception any less now than when we started the "reforms"
some 40 years ago?
> >
> > Larry
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