[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/16/15

Wed Apr 15 22:03:01 PDT 2015

Close out.  Mmmmm

Sent from my iPad

> On Apr 15, 2015, at 10:43 PM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:
> 
> “A Snapshot of the Campaign Finance Landscape”
> Posted on April 15, 2015 7:41 pm by Rick Hasen
> NYT’S “The Upshot.”
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in campaign finance, campaigns
> “Dean Skelos, New York Senate Leader, and His Son Are Said to Be Focus of Federal Inquiry”
> Posted on April 15, 2015 7:37 pm by Rick Hasen
> NYT reports.
> 
> A draft paper of mine asks why New York sees so many more corruption prosecutions and convictions than Congress and most other states.
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in bribery, chicanery
> “Clinton Foundation to Keep Foreign Donors”
> Posted on April 15, 2015 7:35 pm by Rick Hasen
> WSJ reports.
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in campaign finance, conflict of interest laws
> “Voter ID Laws: A View from the Public”
> Posted on April 15, 2015 7:33 pm by Rick Hasen
> Gronke, Hicks, McKee, Stewart and Dunham have posted this draft on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:
> 
> The proliferation of voter identification laws in the American states has spawned a growing literature examining their effects on participation and the factors conditioning their enactment. In this study we move in a different direction, focusing on public opinion toward these laws. Superficially, it appears that voter ID is a valence issue. Public opinion shows broad support, primarily as a way to safeguard the integrity of the ballot box. We explore this supposed consensus on voter ID, probing the rationales and explanations put forth for requiring strict photo ID. Specifically, we draw upon a battery of questions in the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) to determine the degree to which respondents’ attitudes toward voter ID laws are influenced by beliefs about the prevalence of voter fraud, knowledge of existing voter ID laws, and opinions regarding the possible intentions and purposes for photo voter ID laws. Our findings make it evident that although large majorities favor strict photo ID laws, the factors associated with support for these laws vary by partisanship. It is not simply that Republicans strongly favor strict photo ID laws and Democrats are split on the matter. Instead, Republican popular support for strict photo ID laws cuts across virtually all demographic groups, while Democratic support is much more likely to vary as a function of factors such as ideology, education, attention to politics, and racial resentment in the case of white respondents. The partisan division in public opinion over voter ID laws strongly suggests an elite-to-mass message transmission reminiscent of the broader state of polarized party politics.
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in election administration, The Voting Wars, voter id
> “Reports Reveal Elaborate Spending Up Until Schock’s Resignation”
> Posted on April 15, 2015 7:31 pm by Rick Hasen
> NBC Chicago:
> 
> An examination by NBC5 Investigates shows the former 18th District congressman spent more than $42,000 on travel expenses, most of it on airfare, with one notable $4,000 stay at the swank White Elephant Hotel in Nantucket. The congressman dropped another $3,407 for gift bowls at Tiffany’s, and more than $3,000 at Garrett’s Popcorn. The federal records indicate that his American Express bills topped more than $75,000.
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in campaign finance, chicanery
> MT Disclosure Law Coming
> Posted on April 15, 2015 2:09 pm by Rick Hasen
> Press release via email:
> 
>  
> 
> Governor Bullock: Montana Elections Are About to Become the Most Transparent in the Nation
> 
>  
> 
> HELENA – Governor Steve Bullock today released the following statement on the passage of the Montana Disclose Act:
> 
> “Montana elections are about to become the most transparent in the nation, requiring those trying to influence our elections to come out of the dark money shadows. Our elections should be decided by Montanans, not shadowy dark money groups.”
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in campaign finance
> Ann Coulter Reaffirms Her Support for Literacy Tests
> Posted on April 15, 2015 12:26 pm by Rick Hasen
> Media Matters has the video.
> 
> In my upcoming book, I was looking to find examples of modern politicians or pundits (of either party) supporting (fairly applied) literacy tests.  Coulter was the only person I found, but the reference was a bit old.  Well now I have a 2015 reference to Coulter.
> 
> Can anyone point to anyone in Congress or on the national stage who agrees (publicly) with Coulter?
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in Voting Rights Act
> “Magical Thinking About Reform”
> Posted on April 15, 2015 12:23 pm by Rick Hasen
> Larry Noble:
> 
> Like any good magic show, misdirection is at the heart of Robert Bauer’s and Samuel Issacharoff’s op-ed, Keep Shining the Light on ‘Dark Money’, published in Politico on April 12th.  Directing the audience’s attention to the need for greater transparency of “dark money,” they talk about the need for “[r]eformed reporting requirements carefully drawn to bring into public view this spending while also addressing concerns about donor privacy and harassment.”  Then, right before our eyes, their reform resulting in greater transparency wondrously becomes a proposal to transform the current $200 threshold for reporting the identity of individuals who make political contributions into a threshold of $2,700 and to require reporting only during a narrow window sometime between 30 to 120 days before an election.  Since the maximum an individual can contribute to a federal candidate is $2,700, this proposal would magically make vanish the identity of every individual who contributes directly to a federal candidate and turn those contributions into a heretofore unseen animal: a large dark money contribution made directly to a federal candidate.  At the same time, contributions from party committees, leadership PACs and corporate and union PACs would not have to be disclosed unless the contributions exceeded $2,700 and were made right before an election.
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in campaign finance
> “Jeb Bush’s noncampaign campaign honesty problem”
> Posted on April 15, 2015 12:21 pm by Rick Hasen
> Adam Smith:
> 
> Put aside the legitimate questions about how Bush is skirting campaign finance laws – or breaking them, as some experts allege. How about that quaint notion that candidates for America’s highest office ought to tell the truth?
> 
> Does anyone actually believe Jeb Bush has not decided he is running for president? Perhaps that was the case in January, as he was just beginning to meet with donors and voters and reporters and had not yet seen how he would be received, how it would feel on the campaign trail. That no longer holds water, and it hasn’t for a long time.
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in campaign finance
> Man Lands Gyrocopter Near Capitol to Protest Citizens United
> Posted on April 15, 2015 12:07 pm by Rick Hasen
> CNN.
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in Uncategorized
> “Schock Donor Sues Ex-US Congressman Seeking Reimbursement”
> Posted on April 15, 2015 10:53 am by Rick Hasen
> AP: “A Chicago lawyer filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against former Illinois Rep. Aaron Schockon Wednesday, saying he was tricked into believing the young congressman was “a breath of fresh air” in a corruption-prone state but who instead intended to collect campaign money for personal use.”
> 
> You can find the complaint here.
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in campaign finance, chicanery
> “Language Accommodations and Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act: Reporting Requirements as a Potential Solution to the Compliance Gap”
> Posted on April 15, 2015 6:35 am by Rick Hasen
> Matthew Higgins has written this excellent student note for the Stanford Law Review.  Here is the abstract:
> 
> Certain voters with limited English proficiency (LEP) are afforded affirmative accommodations under section 203 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Section 203’s provisions, however, are often critically misunderstood and only partially implemented. The law’s substantial compliance gap stems largely from its complex and fact-specific mandates as well as its requirement that election jurisdictions themselves determine the extent of their own affirmative duties.
> 
> In an effort to partially close section 203’s compliance gap and promote universal enforcement of federal election laws, this Note adapts a recent proposal requiring the advance disclosure of federal voting changes to the language assistance context. In response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder, academics and members of Congress have proposed a requirement that all election jurisdictions report to the local media and the government certain changes to their election laws before those changes take effect. This Note modifies and applies this general framework to address the low compliance rates of the VRA’s language assistance provisions.
> 
> This proposal requires all covered language jurisdictions to publicly present a section 203 compliance plan six months before an election. It represents a cost-effective way to inform election officials of their particularized legal obligations and to more efficiently leverage third-party resources to ensure that the language assistance provisions are consistently and properly enforced.
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in Voting Rights Act
> 
> -- 
> 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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