[EL] "FEC Deadlock Derail Matters"
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Sat Feb 16 14:25:17 PST 2013
In my post, I also should have noted the following from the article: "In
both of the cases, the FEC's Republican commissioners voted to follow
the recommendations of FEC counsel not to pursue enforcement action,
according to commission documents."
For copyright reasons, I try not to overquote from sources like BNA
which are behind a paywall. But this is an important fact I should have
included.
On 2/16/13 2:18 PM, Smith, Brad wrote:
> This is the type of reporting that is so frustrating.
>
> First, if a faculty, for example, has a rule requiring a two-thirds
> vote for tenure, we wouldn't normally say that a 19-13 vote "derailed"
> tenure. Indeed, if you had a simple majority rule, we wouldn't usually
> say that a 16-16 vote was a "deadlock." We would say the person was
> denied tenure. If the House votes 216-216 on a measure, we don't say
> it "deadlocked," we say the measure lost.
>
> Similarly, when the FEC votes 3-3 not to find reason to believe, it
> has not found reason to believe that the law was broken, the predicate
> for an investigation under the statute.
>
> Second, the article not only tells us that the Commission
> "deadlocked," but that it "deadlocked along party lines." Factually
> accurate, true. But pretty much everyone who follows the Commission
> agrees that partisanship is not the reason for 3-3 votes. It would be
> sort of like writing, "President Obama today nominated one Republican
> and one Democrat to seats on the FEC...," and leaving it at that. Such
> an act would not really be a demonstration of bipartisanship, but if
> it were not explained later why he nominated a Republican, it is
> simply misleading.
>
> /Bradley A. Smith/
>
> /Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault/
>
> / Professor of Law/
>
> /Capital University Law School/
>
> /303 E. Broad St./
>
> /Columbus, OH 43215/
>
> /614.236.6317/
>
> /http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
> [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Rick
> Hasen [rhasen at law.uci.edu]
> *Sent:* Saturday, February 16, 2013 4:05 PM
> *To:* law-election at UCI.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 2/16/13
>
>>
>> "FEC Deadlocks Derail Matters Involving Crossroads GPS,
>> Family-Member Super PAC" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47362>
>>
>> Posted on February 15, 2013 5:50 pm
>> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47362> by Rick Hasen
>> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>>
>> Bloomberg BNA
>> <http://news.bna.com/mpdm/MPDMWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=29745575&vname=mpebulallissues&jd=a0d6m0d6q4&split=0>:
>>
>> The Federal Election Commission dismissed two cases involving
>> allegations of illegal coordination between congressional
>> candidates and outside spending groups after the commissioners
>> deadlocked along party lines regarding whether the cases should
>> be investigated, the FEC announced Feb. 15.
>> One case involved Crossroads GPS, among the most prominent
>> Republican-leaning nonprofit groups involved in recent campaigns.
>> Designated Matter Under Review (MUR) 6368, the case involved
>> allegations that the group's founder, Republican strategist Karl
>> Rove, illegally coordinated efforts with then-Rep. Roy Blunt's
>> (R-Mo.) successful 2010 campaign for U.S. Senate.
>> The other case (MUR 6611) involved a super PAC funded by the
>> mother of Laura Ruderman, an unsuccessful Democratic candidate
>> for the U.S. House in 2012. The case was the FEC's first
>> consideration of a single-candidate PAC financed by the
>> candidate's family, according a written statement from three of
>> the commissioners.
>>
>> Share
>> <http://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D47362&title=%E2%80%9CFEC%20Deadlocks%20Derail%20Matters%20Involving%20Crossroads%20GPS%2C%20Family-Member%20Super%20PAC%E2%80%9D&description=>
>> Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,
>> federal election commission <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24> |
>> Comments Off
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Rick Hasen
>> Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
>> UC Irvine School of Law
>> 401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
>> Irvine, CA 92697-8000
>> 949.824.3072 - office
>> 949.824.0495 - fax
>> rhasen at law.uci.edu
>> http://law.uci.edu/faculty/page1_r_hasen.html
>> http://electionlawblog.org
>>
>>
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>
> --
> Rick Hasen
> Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
> UC Irvine School of Law
> 401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
> Irvine, CA 92697-8000
> 949.824.3072 - office
> 949.824.0495 - fax
> rhasen at law.uci.edu
> http://law.uci.edu/faculty/page1_r_hasen.html
> http://electionlawblog.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
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--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
http://law.uci.edu/faculty/page1_r_hasen.html
http://electionlawblog.org
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