[EL] Congressional candidate caught in bed with head of super PAC
Craig Holman
holman at aol.com
Fri Apr 1 07:13:33 PDT 2016
Every April 1, Rick reminds me that I am utterly devoid of a sense of humor. Last April Fool's Day, I was furiously researching the court decision that Rick blogged about which declared that bribery is a First Amendment right -- futilely, of course. This April Fool's I was researching a coordination complaint about a candidate in bed with the head of a super PAC.
Craig Holman, Ph.D.
Government Affairs Lobbyist
Public Citizen
215 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
T-(202) 454-5182
C-(202) 905-7413
F-(202) 547-7392
Holman at aol.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu>
To: law-election <law-election at UCI.edu>
Sent: Fri, Apr 1, 2016 8:51 am
Subject: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/1/16
“Congressional Candidate Caught in Bed with Head of Supportive Super PAC”
Posted on April 1, 2016 5:46 am by Rick Hasen
Roll Call HOH:
A congressional candidate running for office in San Dimas, California was found naked in bed in a hotel room with the head of a supportive Super PAC, after hotel security responded to calls of loud noises emanating from the room.
While the candidate’s spokesperson did not deny that the candidate was caught in bed with the head of the Super PAC, he denied that there was any illegal coordination violating federal election laws. “So long as there was no discussion of advertising or campaign strategy, this is completely kosher,” the spokesperson explained. Officials at the FEC refused to comment on the specifics of the case, noting that it could be the subject of an official complaint, but sources within the agency indicated the agency would likely split 3-3 should the question come before the Commission.
Posted in campaign finance
“Kobach: Okay for Poll Workers to Question People with ‘Funny Accents,’ ‘Strange Names'”
Posted on April 1, 2016 5:34 am by Rick Hasen
Wichita Eagle:
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has made stopping illegal immigration and voter fraud a cornerstone of his policies, and to whom the Kansas legislature has given prosecutorial powers over election fraud, said it is perfectly appropriate for poll workers to give greater scrutiny to “voters who raise suspicions, such as those with funny accents, strange names, or other indicia they might be trying to defraud the people of Kansas.”
“Look, just like police engage in racial profiling for a reason, there’s a reason we might want to target those who are different from normal Kansans for special scrutiny,” said Kobach, who has drawn the ire of Democrats and voting rights groups. Despite Kobach’s rhetoric, his office has uncovered and prosecuted only a handful of voter fraud claims in Kansas.
Posted in fraudulent fraud squad
“Ducey signs campaign finance bill assailed by critics as pro-dark money”
Posted on April 1, 2016 5:19 am by Rick Hasen
Arizona Capitol Times:
Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill that completely rewrites Arizona’s campaign finance laws, including a provision that critics say will open the state up to more dark money in elections.
Secretary of State Michele Reagan pushed SB1516 with the stated goal of simplifying Arizona’s outdated campaign finance statutes. Most of the bill’s provisions have been noncontroversial.
But several key parts of the law have raised the ire of legislative Democrats and others would make it far more difficult for state elections officials to crack down on nonprofit groups that break the rules in spending dark money.
Posted in campaign finance, tax law and election law
“No, Commissioner Weintraub, the FEC Can’t Circumvent Citizens United”
Posted on April 1, 2016 5:15 am by Rick Hasen
Allen Dickerson:
In an opinion piece published yesterday in The New York Times, Ellen Weintraub, a member of the Federal Election Commission, suggests a way to “blunt the impact” ofCitizens United v. FEC. There are reasons to question the propriety of a federal officer attempting to “blunt” a First Amendment ruling against her agency, and I am unaware of another federal entity whose commissioners routinely take to the pages of major newspapers to decry binding Supreme Court precedent. But no matter how attractive you find her proposed “zero-tolerance standard,” under which any corporation with even a single foreign shareholder could be barred from any political activity, her proposal relies on a number of fatal legal errors.
Posted in campaign finance, federal election commission
“McConnell: Likely No Vote for Democratic #SCOTUS Nominee Before 2020”
Posted on April 1, 2016 5:12 am by Rick Hasen
WaPo:
Facing the increasing prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) sought to lay the groundwork for denying Democrats a crucial fifth vote on the United States Supreme Court well past Inauguration Day in January.
According to a Republican insider, who asked for anonymity in order to speak frankly about internal political strategy, the increasing chances of a Donald Trump Republican nomination and a loss to Democrats in November has led to new strategies for delay. “McConnell’s pitch is going to be this: we’ve already said that the next Supreme Court appointment is so crucial to our country that we should let the people vote before making such a crucial decision. And while it’s true we’ll be choosing a president and one-third of the Senators in 2016, the other two-thirds won’t be chosen until 2018 and 2020. Only after these votes is it fair to consider whether to confirm a president’s nominee.”
After the Supreme Court’s 4-4 deadlock in a case last week involving the power of public sector unions, everyone recognizes the stakes of who controls the Supreme Court could not be higher. According to the insider, McConnell told fellow Republican senators that he agreed with Donald Trump on one thing: “Delay, delay, delay.“
Posted in Supreme Court
“How to Hack an Election”
Posted on April 1, 2016 4:38 am by Rick Hasen
Bloomberg:
For eight years, Sepúlveda, now 31, says he traveled the continent rigging major political campaigns. With a budget of $600,000, the Peña Nieto job was by far his most complex. He led a team of hackers that stole campaign strategies, manipulated social media to create false waves of enthusiasm and derision, and installed spyware in opposition offices, all to help Peña Nieto, a right-of-center candidate, eke out a victory. On that July night, he cracked bottle after bottle of Colón Negra beer in celebration. As usual on election night, he was alone.
Sepúlveda’s career began in 2005, and his first jobs were small—mostly defacing campaign websites and breaking into opponents’ donor databases. Within a few years he was assembling teams that spied, stole, and smeared on behalf of presidential campaigns across Latin America. He wasn’t cheap, but his services were extensive. For $12,000 a month, a customer hired a crew that could hack smartphones, spoof and clone Web pages, and send mass e-mails and texts. The premium package, at $20,000 a month, also included a full range of digital interception, attack, decryption, and defense. The jobs were carefully laundered through layers of middlemen and consultants. Sepúlveda says many of the candidates he helped might not even have known about his role; he says he met only a few.
His teams worked on presidential elections in Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Venezuela. Campaigns mentioned in this story were contacted through former and current spokespeople; none but Mexico’s PRI and the campaign of Guatemala’s National Advancement Party would comment.
Posted in chicanery
“Dead cat at heart of Florida election controversy”
Posted on April 1, 2016 4:36 am by Rick Hasen
Marc Caputo:
Gracey Duncan seemed to be the type of Floridian a nonprofit voter-registration group wanted to get on the rolls to start participating in elections.
But two problems stood in the way: Gracey is a cat. And she’s dead.
“Why is my (dead)cat getting #voterregistration apps? This is #2,” Gracey’s confused former owner, Julie Duncan, asked her local election supervisor via Twitter.
The easy answer to Duncan’s question is that a database mix-up or mismatch led the nonprofit Voter Participation Center to think “Gracey Duncan” was the type of person — a minority or single woman — the liberal-leaning group wants to register ahead of the presidential election.
Posted in election administration
“Trump’s uphill delegate scramble”
Posted on April 1, 2016 4:32 am by Rick Hasen
Politico:
If Donald Trump loses in Wisconsin next week, he will need to win roughly 60 percent of the remaining delegates to win the Republican presidential nomination outright — a daunting but not impossible challenge.
But if he fails to achieve it, and is thus unable to win the nomination outright, Trump is poised to suffer an exodus of delegates at a contested convention.
Story Continued Below
Interviews with dozens of delegates, delegate candidates, operatives and party leaders in recent days suggest that more than a hundred delegates — bound by rules and laws to back Trump on a first vote at the July convention in Cleveland — are prepared to break with him on a second ballot.
Posted in political parties, primaries
“Trump: I Will Take Office if I Win the Popular Vote, Even If I Lose Electoral College”
Posted on April 1, 2016 4:29 am by Rick Hasen
AP:
A defiant Donald Trump, speaking at a rally Wednesday in Waukesha, Wisconsin, slammed the undemocratic nature of Electoral College, which awards presidential electors by state, and promised to take office if he wins the overall popular vote for president even if Congress declares someone else the winner..
“I’ve said before that I’m willing to abide by the rules for choosing the president if they are fair. But the idea that I could get more votes than Hillary Clinton and still lose the presidency is ridiculous. I’ll only play fair if the Congress plays fair in choosing a president,” the candidate declared.
Trump said he had asked his controversial campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, to devise a plan for seizing power in the event that Congress declares Clinton the winner if she receives the most electoral votes. “Corey’s got some really good ideas about what we need to do and how we need to do it. Nothing is off the table. Believe me,” Trump said, “you’ve never seen anything like it.”
Posted in campaigns, electoral college
“Outraged by Kansas Justices’ Rulings, G.O.P. Seeks to Reshape Court”
Posted on April 1, 2016 4:16 am by Rick Hasen
Must-read Erik Eckholm NYT:
Partisan conflict over courts has erupted in many of the 38 states where justices are either directly elected or, as in Kansas, face periodic retention elections, without an opposing candidate. As conservatives in Washington attempt to preserve a majority on the federal Supreme Court, politically ascendant conservatives in several states are seeking to reshape courts that they consider to be overly liberal vestiges of eras past.
“We’ve seen this tug of war between courts and political branches all around the country,” said Alicia Bannon, a senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.
Posted in campaigns, judicial elections
“Trump’s Threat on Pledge Could Cost Him South Carolina Delegates”
Posted on April 1, 2016 4:11 am by Rick Hasen
TIME:
Donald Trump’s announcement that he no longer stands by a pledge to support the GOP has thrown his hold on South Carolina’s 50 delegates in doubt.
The Palmetto State was one of several that required candidates to pledge their loyalty to the party’s eventual nominee in order to secure a slot on the primary ballot. Though Trump won all of the state’s delegates in the Feb. 20 primary, anti-Trump forces are plotting to contest their binding to Trump because of his threat on the pledge Tuesday.
Posted in campaigns, political parties, primaries
“Casting Votes, Counting Votes for Election 2016: Democracy and Law in Action”
Posted on March 31, 2016 7:59 pm by Rick Hasen
I’ll be attending this conference at Wisconsin Law Friday and Saturday, with Pam Karlan as the keynote.
I’ll be presenting Softening Voter ID Laws Through Litigation: Is it Enough? (draft in progress, Mar. 2016)
Posted in Uncategorized
“Cruz predicts Trump won’t be able to mount a third-party run”
Posted on March 31, 2016 7:24 pm by Rick Hasen
Politico:
Donald Trump won’t be able to mount a third-party bid for president if he loses the Republican nomination, Ted Cruz said Thursday.
“He doesn’t have the option of running as a third-party [candidate],” the Texas senator told Wisconsin radio host Charlie Sykes. “Quite a few states across the country have what are called sore-loser laws, that once you run as a Republican and lose, you don’t get to then turn around and file on the ballot as an independent, so that will not be an option available to him.”
Michael Kang has written a key paper on sore loser laws. Some may not apply to presidential elections, and there may be some constitutional issues with such laws as well.
Posted in campaigns
“Constitution Check: Is Ted Cruz’s eligibility for the presidency a serious issue?”
Posted on March 31, 2016 7:21 pm by Rick Hasen
Lyle Denniston:
One of the reasons that the issue continues to linger uncertainly as a constitutional matter is that there have been serious barriers to a ruling that courts have not been able to get past. One is whether anyone can claim a sufficient legal injury from an ineligible presidential candidacy, to satisfy Article III’s limits on federal courts’ power to decide. Another is that the question is often treated as a “political question,” beyond the authority of the courts because its resolution is lodged with the Electoral College and with Congress. Another is that the issue usually does not get explored fully before the issue goes away as legally moot because the candidate either did not get a party nomination, or lost an election.
So far, none of the cases involving the Ted Cruz candidacy has resulted in a final ruling, one way or the other, in state or federal courts. If the Texas senator does not win the GOP nomination, then, of course, the issue will fade away again. But that is not to suggest that it is not a serious constitutional question that could use an answer – some day. In the meantime, the voters will be the ones who decide.
Posted in campaigns
Law Prof Victor Williams, a Write-In Candidate in 9 States, Challenges Cruz Eligibility
Posted on March 31, 2016 6:39 pm by Rick Hasen
Details.
Williams and others lost a suit today challenging Ted Cruz’s eligibility to be on the Pa ballot.
Posted in Uncategorized
“A $200,000 Ballot Error and Other Misprints at New York City’s Board of Elections”
Posted on March 31, 2016 6:33 pm by Rick Hasen
NYT:
The New York City Board of Elections has a proofreading problem — and even small mistakes are turning out to be costly.
The board was forced to spend more than $200,000 in overnight postage last month to send corrected absentee ballots for the coming presidential primary, after it discovered an error in the Spanish version of the ballot.
The mistake was discovered around the same time the board realized it had made another error: A recent notice sent to 60,000 newly registered voters included the wrong date for a Sept. 13 primary election for state and local offices. The board then mailed out a correction that may have inadvertently confused voters about the date of the higher-profile presidential primary on April 19.
Posted in election administration
“Arizona Becomes Ground Zero in Fight Over Secret Political Spending”
Posted on March 31, 2016 6:29 pm by Rick Hasen
Justin Miller reports for TAP.
Posted in campaign finance
AP Gets Newby-Kobach Correspondence
Posted on March 31, 2016 6:23 pm by Rick Hasen
AP:
A Kansas county elections official used close ties to one of the nation’s leading advocates of voting restrictions to help secure the top job at a government agency entrusted with making voting more accessible, and then used the federal position to implement an obstacle to voter registration in three states.
An email provided to The Associated Press through open records requests offers a glimpse into the mindset of Brian Newby, executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, who decided — without public comment or approval from bosses — that residents of Alabama, Kansas and Georgia can no longer register to vote using a national form without providing proof of U.S. citizenship.
As a finalist for the job of executive director, Newby said in a June email to his benefactor, Kansas’ Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach, that he was friends with two of the commissioners at the federal agency, and told Kobach: “I think I would enter the job empowered to lead the way I want to.”
Voting rights advocates were stunned by Newby’s action once he got the job and have sued to overturn it. Activists say it flies in the face of the commission’s mission to provide a simple, easy form to encourage voter registration….
Kobach had appointed Newby to be a county elections commissioner in Kansas, and helped him get the federal job that he took in November.
“I wanted you in the loop, in part because of other issues in the past with the EAC,” Newby emailed Kobach. “I also don’t want you thinking that you can’t count on me in an upcoming period that will tax our resources.”
Posted in election administration, Election Assistance Commission, The Voting Wars
“Originalism and the ‘one person, one vote’ principle”
Posted on March 31, 2016 6:20 pm by Rick Hasen
Ilya Somin:
Prominent legal scholar Earl Maltz has an important new article arguing thatReynolds v. Sims (1965) and other Supreme Court decisions requiring state governments to follow the “one person, one vote” rule for apportioning legislative districts cannot be squared with the original meaning of the Constitution. Maltz also contends that this conclusion greatly weakens the case for originalism, perhaps to the point of undermining it completely. He emphasizes that an originalist judge faced with unequally apportioned state legislatures where some voters have much greater representation than others, will be “powerless to act against regimes that are structured in a manner that is completely inconsistent with the most fundamental tenets of democracy.” These issues are particularly significant, as the Supreme Court is now considering a case about the meaning of the “one person, one vote” principle, and what it entails.
Maltz makes a strong case that the one person, one vote cases are incompatible with the original meaning. But his argument that this is a major strike against originalism is unpersuasive. Like Maltz, I agree that originalism should be judged at least in large part on consequentialist grounds: based on whether following its dictates will effectively promote such values as liberty, justice, and happiness. By its fruits shall originalism be known; and the same goes for rival theories, such as living constitutionalism. But this particular fruit is far more palatable than Maltz suggests. While no constitutional theory should be discarded because it leads to bad results on any one issue, it would indeed give me pause if – as some critics claim – originalism requires judges to uphold laws mandating racial segregation or forbidding interracial marriage. I have no such hesitation about allowing unequal apportionment.
Wow.
Posted in redistricting
--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
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