[EL] ELB News and Commentary 9/24/13
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Tue Sep 24 07:52:14 PDT 2013
"A Moveable Court" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55457>
Posted on September 24, 2013 7:48 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55457>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Pam Karla
<http://www.bostonreview.net/karlans-court/windsor-shelby-scotus>n in
/Boston Review/ on DOMA and the VRA.
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Posted in Supreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>, Voting
Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>
"The next Citizens United could affect campaign spending in the
states" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55455>
Posted on September 24, 2013 7:44 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55455>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo reports
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/09/24/the-next-citizens-united-could-affect-campaign-spending-in-the-states/>.
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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
"The Opacity of 'Transparency'" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55453>
Posted on September 24, 2013 7:34 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55453>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bauer
<http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/2013/09/the-opacity-of-transparency/>
on David Keating v. Sen. Durbin.
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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
"Trader Lost Millions Betting on Romney"
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55451>
Posted on September 24, 2013 7:33 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55451>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Political Wire
<http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/09/23/trader_lost_millions_betting_on_romney.html>:"
A new academic paper
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2322420> digging
into presidential betting in the final weeks of the 2012 election finds
that a single trader lost between $4 million and $7 million placing a
flurry of Intrade bets on Mitt Romney --- perhaps to make the Republican
nominee's chance of victory appear brighter," the Wall Street Journal
<http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/09/23/one-big-trader-lost-millions-betting-on-romney-study-finds/>
reports."
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Posted in campaigns <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
"Citizen and lobbyist access to Members of Congress: Who gets and
who gives?" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55449>
Posted on September 24, 2013 7:32 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55449>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Josh Brodbeck, Matthew T Harrigan and Daniel A Smith have writtenthis
article
<http://www.palgrave-journals.com/iga/journal/v2/n3/abs/iga201311a.html>in
/Interest groups & Advocacy/ *2*, 323-342 (October 2013) |
doi:10.1057/iga.2013.11. Here is the abstract:
Members of Congress grant access to outsiders as a means of
alleviating uncertainty over policies and elections. For those
seeking access to Congress, a key factor determining their success
is the appearance of usefulness, namely, the perceived ability to
provide a Member of Congress with some resource that he or she
desires. These resources come in a variety of forms, including
votes, campaign contributions, policy expertise and public
credibility. Given these assumptions, who is granted access to
Congress, and which members are more likely to grant it? Previous
studies have found a direct relationship between organization or
Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions and access to Members
of Congress, measured by the amount of contact. Some have gone a
step further, finding that, while PACs play an indisputable role in
access, the real driver is constituency, or at least salience to the
district or state from which the Member of Congress hails. Here, we
present the results of an experiment conducted in the spring and
summer of 2010, in which one of the authors called the offices of
each member of the Senate, first as a private citizen and then as a
registered federal lobbyist, and requested a meeting with each
senator to discuss a health care bill that had been languishing in
committee for some time. Unsurprisingly, the registered lobbyist
experienced a clear advantage over the ordinary citizen, securing 27
meetings compared to just 7 as a citizen. The lobbyist was granted
more access in other measurable categories, although party
affiliation or campaign contributions had little effect. While
previous studies have found strong PAC contribution and constituency
effects on access, one important fact stands out from our
experience: only 8 of the 100 Senate offices asked whether the
lobbyist had an interest in the senator's state, and only 4 of the
27 who granted meetings did so. Perhaps the assumption that a
lobbyist, whether in- or out-of-state, is a potential source of
campaign funds is strong enough to override the constituency effect,
but we found no compelling evidence that membership on relevant
committees or a past reliance on health sector or lobbyist
contributions drove access. Rather, it appears as if 'lobbyist'
simply works as a magic word when requesting access to a Member of
Congress, with power beyond the borders of a state or district.
Although the results of our experiment are limited, they do suggest
that several questions about citizen and lobbyist access to Congress
remain and need to be addressed, especially given the normative
assumption that Members of Congress should represent the people they
serve.
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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,
legislation and legislatures <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=27>,
lobbying <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=28>
"Getting to a clean CR: A tour of the Senate's parliamentary weeds"
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55447>
Posted on September 23, 2013 7:37 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55447>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
The indispensable Sarah Binder.
<http://themonkeycage.org/2013/09/20/getting-to-a-clean-cr-a-tour-of-the-senates-parliamentary-weeds/>
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Posted in legislation and legislatures
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=27>, political parties
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>, political polarization
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=68>
"Exclusive--IRS Offers True The Vote Tax Exempt Status, Files to
Dismiss Lawsuit" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55445>
Posted on September 23, 2013 7:24 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55445>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Breitbart
<http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/23/Exclusive-IRS-offers-True-The-Vote-tax-exempt-status-in-bid-to-keep-lawsuit-from-proceeding>:
"The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has offered election integrity group
True The Vote <http://www.truethevote.org/> its tax-exempt status in
what appears to be a bid to keep the group from proceeding with
discovery on its lawsuit against the agency, Breitbart News has learned
exclusively."
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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, tax law
and election law <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>, The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
"Campaign funding and affirmative action come back before the
Supreme Court" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55442>
Posted on September 23, 2013 7:18 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55442>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
This article
<http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/campaign_funding_and_affirmative_action_come_back_before_the_supreme_court/>
appears in the new issue of the /ABA Journall/
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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, Supreme
Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
"Federal Election Commission Gets New Blood"
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55440>
Posted on September 23, 2013 5:43 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55440>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
CPI reports
<http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/09/23/13454/federal-election-commission-gets-new-blood>.
(Headline feeds into the "FEC as vampires" theme, no?)
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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, federal
election commission <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>
"Officials: Voting rights legislation would have trouble passing
Congress" <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55438>
Posted on September 23, 2013 5:41 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55438>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Gazette.net:
<http://www.gazette.net/article/20130923/NEWS/130929722/-1/officials-voting-rights-legislation-would-have-trouble-passing&template=gazette>"Despite
the Montgomery County Council's support for a resolution asking Congress
to reinstate part of a federal regulation meant to protect voting rights
for more Americans, such a measure would have a hard time passing into
law, according to several members of Maryland's congressional delegation
who came to Rockville on Monday to support it. The resolution proposed
by Council President Nancy Navarro (D-Dist. 4) of Silver Spring and
supported by the other eight council members requests that Congress
restore Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, passed in 1964, which
requires certain states and local jurisdictions to have their proposed
changes to voting laws reviewed by the U.S. Justice Department for
potential discriminatory effects."
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Posted in Voting Rights Act <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>
Lois Lerner Retires from IRS <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55434>
Posted on September 23, 2013 12:16 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55434>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Politico reports
<http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/lois-lerner-retires-irs-97217.html>.
A Democratic congressional aide said the IRS was moving toward
terminating Lerner after completing an investigation into her role
in the targeting controversy.
The IRS found that Lerner mismanaged her department and was
"neglectful of duty" but found no evidence of political bias, the
aide said.
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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,
election law biz <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>, tax law and
election law <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>
Ravel and Goodman Confirmed as FEC Commissioners
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55432>
Posted on September 23, 2013 12:06 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55432>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Politico reports.
<http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/09/senate-confirms-obamas-fec-nominees-173305.html>
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Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, federal
election commission <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>
"Reforming California's Initiative Process"
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55429>
Posted on September 23, 2013 11:52 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55429>by Rick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Looks like an interesting PPIC event
<http://www.ppic.org/main/event.asp?i=1392>on October 24 in Sacramento.
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Posted in direct democracy <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=62>
--
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
hhttp://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org
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