[EL] ELB News and Commentary 11/12/15
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Thu Nov 12 08:08:34 PST 2015
“Boehner resignation leads to election oddity”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77505>
Posted onNovember 12, 2015 7:59 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77505>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Cincinnati Enquirer:
<http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/elections/2015/11/11/boehner-resignation-leads-election-oddity/75524502/>
It’s unlikely to happen, but voters could elect two different
congressmen to fill John Boehner’s vacated seat in the March primary.
That’s because Ohio Gov. John Kasich has chosen to conduct the
primary for Boehner’s unfinished 6-month term/and/the two-year term
on the same date.
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Posted incampaigns <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“American people want their democracy back”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77503>
Posted onNovember 12, 2015 7:55 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77503>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Jonathan Soros
<http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/12/opinions/soros-ending-campaign-dollars-corruption/index.html>for
CNN:
Last Monday, I hosted a dinner with President Obama for 50 people to
raise money for the House Democrats. As host, I enjoyed the
additional privilege of a few minutes in private with the President
during which I pressed him, ironically, to take action on campaign
finance reform. Sorry, but I can’t tell you how he replied. Part of
the privilege is to hear the President off-the-record.
Later in the week I hosted a smaller dinner for a candidate for the
U.S. Senate. Our common passion for campaign finance reform is such
I could convince myself he was just there to anchor our thoughtful
discussion, but there’s only one reason New York is an essential
campaign stop for candidates from all 50 states: money.
The relentless demand for campaign funds grants those of us who
provide the money extraordinary access to our elected leaders and
candidates. We can shape how candidates talk about an issue,
influence what issues they might choose to highlight or ignore, and
entice promises about what they will do in office.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
“D.C. PAC Shutters, Highlighting Fine Ethical Line For Groups Across
The Country” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77501>
Posted onNovember 12, 2015 7:53 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77501>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Patrick Madden for NPR
<http://www.npr.org/2015/11/12/455665316/a-d-c-pac-shutters-highlighting-fine-ethical-line-for-groups-across-the-country>:
Unlike their counterparts on the national level, local superPACs and
outside groups like FreshPAC aren’t being funded by wealthy donors
with an ideological bent. Instead, the big spending political
committees are often funded by interests who do business with the
city government. Moreover, large sums of money spent in local races
can often tip the scales more than money spent on national races.
It’s something cropping up across the country with similar outside
spending groups that have been active this year fromPhiladelphia
<http://www.npr.org/2015/10/26/452012201/superpacs-spend-big-in-philadelphias-mayoral-race>andNew
York City
<http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/09/8577258/transactional-mayor-returns>toChicago
<http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/7/71/319202/rahm-fund-raising-nears-30-million>andNashville
<http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2015/10/21/nashville-mayoral-races-final-price-tag-168-million/74329134/>.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“One possible weapon to ward off super PACs”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77499>
Posted onNovember 12, 2015 7:41 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77499>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Vincent DeVito
<http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/11/12/one-possible-weapon-to-ward-off-super-pacs/>for
Reuters Opinion. Mandamus to get the FEC to act? In time for this
election? I don’t think so.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,federal
election commission <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>
“How the Kochs created Joni Ernst” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77497>
Posted onNovember 12, 2015 7:38 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77497>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Ken Vogel
<http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/the-kochs-vs-the-gop-215672>for
Politico:
Until now, little has been known about the secretive role played by
the Kochs’ donors and operatives in boosting Ernst. The Koch network
has focused primarily on policy fights, mostly leaving the spadework
of recruiting and nurturing candidates to the party.
But the network’s financial support for Ernst ― detailed here for
the first time ― offers the first signs of a move into GOP
primaries. The Kochs and their allies are investing in a pipeline to
identify, cultivate and finance business-oriented candidates from
the local school board all the way to the White House, and Koch
operatives are already looking for opportunities to challenge GOP
incumbents deemed insufficiently hard-line in their opposition to
government spending and corporate subsidies.
The ambitious effort, spearheaded partly by a for-profit consulting
firm called Aegis Strategic that’s backed by the Koch network, is
one of several ways in which the brothers and their allies are
seeking to influence the types of candidates who carry the GOP
banner. The network has taken on a vetting role in the GOP
presidential primary, offering favored candidatesaccess to its
donors
<http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/koch-brothers-wealthy-donors-gop-2016-freedom-partners-seminar-california-120663>and
activists. And some within the network have even advocated targeting
from six to 12 GOP House members who have run afoul of the Koch
orthodoxy on fiscal issues and who are facing 2016 primary
challenges, sources told POLITICO.
Tim Phillips, president of the most aggressive Koch-backed group,
Americans for Prosperity, declined to comment on whether his group
had any plans to spend money in GOP primaries. “We have not taken
any options off the table. That’s the best way to put it,” he said.
“We have not precluded the possibility of it. We’re looking at every
option.”
In the Ernst race, the Koch support included hundreds of thousands
of dollars’ worth of television ads funded by undisclosed donors and
tens of thousands of dollars in direct campaign contributions. The
spending would have been difficult to trace back to the Koch network
during Ernst’s campaign, but details are expected to emerge this
week when the central Koch nonprofit, Freedom Partners Chamber of
Commerce, files its tax disclosures.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>,tax law and election law
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>
“Los Angeles Updates Voting Procedures To Help Curb Declining
Turnout” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77494>
Posted onNovember 11, 2015 6:45 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77494>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NPR reports.
<http://www.npr.org/2015/11/11/455657438/los-angeles-updates-voting-procedures-to-help-curb-declining-turnout?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social>
Disclosure: I now serve on the LA County VSAP.
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Posted invoting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=31>
“FEC Refuses to Close the ‘Chevron’ Loophole in the Ban Against
Campaign Contributions From Government Contractors”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77492>
Posted onNovember 11, 2015 12:07 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77492>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Release <http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=5729>:
A deadlock by the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Public
Citizen’s request that the agency close a loophole of its own making
that allows federal contractors to make campaign contributions
through subsidiaries means the loophole remains. The 3-3 vote came
Tuesday evening.
“It’s irresponsible for the agency to let stand a policy that guts a
key campaign finance rule,” said Craig Holman, government affairs
lobbyist for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. “Any major
corporation can set up multiple entities within the same corporate
family, one for making campaign contributions to curry favor and
another for receiving the largess of lucrative government contracts.”
The silver lining, Holman said, is that Public Citizen’spetition
(PDF)
<http://www.citizen.org/documents/fec-petition-for-rulemaking-re-federal-contractors.pdf>and
the comments from the public and other elections enforcement
agencies in support of it may have helped guide the FEC general
counsel’s office on how to enforce effective pay-to-play laws and
helped win over the Democratic commissioners to support
reconsidering the agency’s current policy. The petition is well
poised to resurface with any change in the FEC’s membership.
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,federal
election commission <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>
“Peter Cannon: Let veterans vote with VA card”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77490>
Posted onNovember 11, 2015 12:06 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77490>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Wisconsin State Journal oped
<http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/column/guest/peter-cannon-let-veterans-vote-with-va-card/article_61a0be5a-f97b-5f8a-85b8-b552122e6d05.html>:
Today is Veterans Day, and Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin will no
doubt be thanking us for our service and telling us how important we
are and how much they honor us.
But their words ring hollow because they won’t even let us use our
Veterans Administration ID card as a valid proof of identity when we
try to go vote in the next election.
This is part and parcel of their overall scheme to make it much more
difficult for hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites to vote under
the new Voter ID law they passed.
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Posted inelection administration
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>,voter id
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>
Let’s Hope Glenn Reynolds is Using the Literary Device of Hyperbole
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77487>
Posted onNovember 11, 2015 11:43 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77487>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
….to
call<http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/11/11/raise-voting-age-25-yale-missouri-protests-political-debate-column/75577468/>for
raising the voting age to 25.
But itsure does echo
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/02/the_new_conservative_assault_on_early_voting_more_republicans_fewer_voters.html>the
conservative view to make voting harder, not easier, to weed out
“undesirable” voters.
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Posted invoting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=31>
“Veterans Day, Still No Right to Vote”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77485>
Posted onNovember 11, 2015 11:39 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77485>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Neal Weare
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-weare/veterans-day-still-no-right-to-vote_b_8533240.html>:
Veterans Day is a painful reminder of inequality for veterans in
America’s territories who are disenfranchised because of where they
live.
In 2013, Luis Segovia was deployed to Afghanistan, a world away from
his family in Guam. For him it was a bit of deja-vu; four years
earlier he was serving his first tour in Afghanistan. A lot had
changed in his life since. He had moved from Chicago to Guam,
married the woman of his dreams, and started a family. One thing he
hadn’t expected was that a change in zipcode would mean he longer
would be able to vote for president.
Being denied basic democratic participation is something he could
never have imagined in 2005, when he was deployed for 18 months in
Iraq. Serving at Forward Operation Base Marez near Mosul, one of his
primary missions was providing security for the 2005 Iraqi election.
He felt a sense of accomplishment, he could feel history being made.
A decade later, Luis is still proud to be defending America’s
democratic and constitutional values as a Staff Sergeant in the Guam
National Guard and as a civilian police officer at Anderson Air
Force Base. But on Veterans Day, it just doesn’t feel right that
he’s now on the sidelines of democracy, a spectator rather than a
participant despite his three tours of service.
What’s perhaps most perplexing to Luis is that if he had moved to
the neighboring Northern Mariana Islands, another U.S. territory, or
even if he had moved permanently to a foreign country, his right to
vote for President would have been protected under both federal and
state overseas absentee voter laws. To Luis, these kinds of
arbitrary lines seem completely unfair.
Yesterday, Luisfiled a lawsuit
<https://www.scribd.com/doc/289276138/Complaint-Segovia-v-Board-of-Election-Commissioners>in
federal district court in Chicago to determine whether these
arbitrary distinctions between similarly situated citizens are also
unconstitutional.
Joining Luis in this federal voting rights lawsuit is another
veteran in Guam, two more in Puerto Rico, and the Guam-based
veterans organization Iraq Afghanistan and Persian Gulf Veterans of
the Pacific. Two individuals from the U.S. Virgin Islands, along
with the League of Women Voters of the Virgin Islands, are also
plaintiffs.
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Posted invoting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=31>
“Clinton, Bush lawyers square off in FEC proxy war”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77483>
Posted onNovember 11, 2015 10:31 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77483>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Politico reports.
<http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/clinton-bush-lawyers-square-off-in-fec-proxy-war-215711>
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>,federal election commission
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=24>
Judge Posner Offers “Simpler and Cruder” “Cynical” Response to Abbe
Gluck on CJ Roberts in King v. Burwell
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77481>
Posted onNovember 11, 2015 10:19 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77481>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Harvard Law Review Forum
<http://harvardlawreview.org/2015/11/comment-on-professor-glucks-imperfect-statutes-imperfect-courts/>:
Pofessor Abbe Gluck is far more steeped in the scholarly literature
on statutory interpretation than I, and far more familiar with the
workings of Congress than I, including the specific legislative
process that generated the provision of the Affordable Care
Act//that was at issue in/King v. Burwell/.It would be an
impertinence, therefore, for me to criticize her Comment, and I have
no inclination or intention to do so. But I do have experience in
judicial interpretation of statutes, being a judge, and I do have my
own ideas about statutory interpretation, and they differ somewhat
from Professor Gluck’s. They differ in being simpler, cruder — and
cynical. And being simpler and cruder, they can be set forth with
considerable brevity….
I don’t know Chief Justice Roberts; I am not privy to his thinking.
I suppose it’s/possible/that his decision in the/King/case was the
product of protracted rumination on the academic and other
extrajudicial literature on statutory interpretation — the works of
H.L.A. Hart and Henry Hart and William Eskridge and John Manning and
Felix Frankfurter and Learned Hand and Antonin Scalia and countless
others, including Professor Gluck — but I am dubious.
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Posted instatutory interpretation
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=21>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“The Hydra: How the Left is Destroying American Elections”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77478>
Posted onNovember 11, 2015 10:06 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77478>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Sounds like a balanced and reasoned discussion coming in this True the
Vote conference call:
Screen Shot 2015-11-11 at 10.04.45 AM
<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2015-11-11-at-10.04.45-AM.png>
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Posted infraudulent fraud squad <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>
“Kris Kobach’s office registers two suspended voters, files motion
to dismiss lawsuit” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77476>
Posted onNovember 11, 2015 10:01 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77476>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Wichita Eagle:
<http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article44243331.html>
Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office has registered two suspended
voters suing him in federal court and now argues that the case
should now be thrown out.
Kobach faces a lawsuit from a pair of Douglas County residents, who
were placed in suspended status when they tried to register to vote.
The suit challenges the state’s requirement that prospective voters
must show proof of citizenship in order to vote.
Kobach’s office filed a motion in federal court Tuesday to have the
case dismissed on the grounds that the plaintiffs lack standing
because they are now registered to vote. Kobach’s office registered
them after the lawsuit was brought in late September.
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Posted inchicanery <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>,election
administration <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,fraudulent fraud
squad <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>,The Voting Wars
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>
Legislation and Election Law Writing in Harvard Law Review’s Supreme
Court Issue <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77474>
Posted onNovember 11, 2015 7:52 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=77474>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Among the items in thenew issue
<http://harvardlawreview.org/issues/the-supreme-court-2014-term/>:
Imperfect Statutes, Imperfect Courts: Understanding Congress’s Plan in
the Era of Unorthodox Lawmaking
<http://harvardlawreview.org/2015/11/imperfect-statutes-imperfect-courts-understanding-congresss-plan-in-the-era-of-unorthodox-lawmaking/> by
Abbe Gluck
/Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting
Commission/
<http://harvardlawreview.org/2015/11/arizona-state-legislature-v-arizona-independent-redistricting-commission/>
/Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama
<http://harvardlawreview.org/2015/11/alabama-legislative-black-caucus-v-alabama/>/
/Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar/
<http://harvardlawreview.org/2015/11/williams-yulee-v-florida-bar/>
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Posted inSupreme Court <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
--
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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