[EL] 501c4s/more news

Tue Nov 26 10:26:50 PST 2013

    "Obama Administration Proposes New Curbs on Campaigning by
    Tax-Exempt Groups" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56989>

Posted on November 26, 2013 10:22 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56989>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Huge news in WSJ 
<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304465604579222110598111076>:

    The Obama administration Tuesday proposed a crackdown on the
    widespread use of tax-exempt organizations for political
    campaigning, seeking to reduce the influential role that the
    secretive groups have played in recent elections.

    The new "guidance" issued Tuesday by the Treasury Department and the
    Internal Revenue Service would curtail a broad array of these
    tax-exempt entities' activities, including campaign advertising,
    voter registration, get-out-the-vote efforts, and distribution of
    voter guides and campaign materials.

Here 
<http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-392070/> 
is the government statement. The guidance should appear today in the 
Federal Register, and open for notice and comment.

This is a long time coming. Whether one likes 501(c)(4) involvement in 
campaigns or not, lack of clarity is a problem both for groups which can 
face harassment or the public which is ill served by the failure to 
enforce existing law as written.

The ideal solution here is for Congress to take away the benefits of 
shadow super PACs from forming as 501(c)(4)s, by requiring the same 
disclosure of funding of election-related advertising regardless of the 
organizational form the group takes.  (My thoughts on that point here 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=32374>.)  But Congress is not going to 
act on this any time soon, and so this is a good second-best solution.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, tax law 
and election law <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>

    "Did Hamilton Co. prosecutor Joe Deters vote improperly?"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56987>

Posted on November 26, 2013 9:25 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56987>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Cincinnati Enquirer 
<http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201311252051/NEWS0107/311250137>:

    Did Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, whose office prosecuted
    voter fraud cases stemming from the 2012 election, improperly vote
    in the same election?That's an issue that should be discussed by the
    Hamilton County Board of Elections, board chairman Tim Burke said
    Monday,

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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, 
residency <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=38>, The Voting Wars 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

    "Update: Scope of Potential Recount"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56985>

Posted on November 26, 2013 9:23 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56985>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

VPAP <http://www.vpap.org/updates/show/1415>: "If accurate, the VPAP 
estimate will mean there will be 100 times more ballots recounted this 
year than in 2005, when Democrat Creigh Deeds lost a razor-thin vote to 
Republican Bob McDonnell."

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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, 
recounts <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=50>

    "In Campaign, Cash Flowed Circuitously"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56983>

Posted on November 26, 2013 7:29 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56983>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/nyregion/spending-on-election-unleashed.html?ref=nyregion&_r=0>:

    David Koch retreated in November to his Park Avenue co-op after
    spending a relative pittance. But New York City saw a spasm of
    unregulated campaign money, most of it unleashed by wealthy
    Democrats and unions. And no one channeled those rivulets of cash
    more aggressively than Scott Levenson and the Advance Group, the
    strategic consulting firm he heads.

    The United Federation of Teachers dropped millions of dollars and
    Mr. Levenson took at least a $370,000 cut. A group putatively
    devoted to carriage horses but focused intently on defeating the
    speaker of the City Council, Christine C. Quinn, spent a golden
    lode, and again Mr. Levenson took a cut.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

    "Powerful Philly Union Accused of Funnelling Campaign Contributions'
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56981>

Posted on November 26, 2013 7:27 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56981>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NBC10 reports 
<http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/Powerful-Philly-Union-Accused-of-Funnelling-Money-233448491.html>.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, 
chicanery <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

    "In Virginia, The Count is Finished -- Let the Recounting Begin!"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56979>

Posted on November 26, 2013 7:24 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56979>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

A Chapinblog. 
<http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/electionacademy/2013/11/in_virginia_the_count_is_finis.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HHHElections+%28The+Election+Aacdemy%29>

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Posted in election administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, 
recounts <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=50>

    "'Accentuating the Positive' in Campaign Finance Reform"
    <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56977>

Posted on November 26, 2013 7:22 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56977>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bauer blogs 
<http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/2013/11/accentuating-the-positive-in-campaign-finance-reform/>.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

    "Mutual Funds Increasingly Support Corporate Disclosure of
    Donations" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56975>

Posted on November 26, 2013 7:21 am 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=56975>by Rick Hasen 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bloomberg reports 
<http://go.bloomberg.com/political-capital/2013-11-25/mutual-funds-increasingly-support-corporate-disclosure-of-donations/?alcmpid=politics>.

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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, tax law 
and election law <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>

-- 
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://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org

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