[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/3/16
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Mon May 2 19:59:15 PDT 2016
“Delegate Hunt Fuels Tussle on Little-Known Republican Committee”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82488>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 7:57 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82488>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WSJ
<http://www.wsj.com/articles/delegate-hunt-fuels-tussle-on-little-known-republican-committee-1462232884?cb=logged0.016641485371801323>:
Donald Trump <http://topics.wsj.com/person/T/Donald-Trump/159>’s
first attempt to seize some control over the Republican National
Committee and the course of the GOP convention is creating a
showdown over a little-noticed election for a powerful internal post
that helps determine who can become a delegate to the party’s
convention.
On Friday, Virginia Haines, an RNC committeewoman from New Jersey,
resigned her post as one of nine members of the party’s Committee on
Contests, which has initial jurisdiction in settling disputes over
which delegates can be seated at the GOP national convention in July.
Mr. Trump’s campaign has been stung by rival Texas Sen.Ted Cruz
<http://topics.wsj.com/person/C/Ted-Cruz/7753>’s ability to get his
supporters elected as convention delegates—even in states where the
businessman won the primary or caucus.
With Ms. Haines’s resignation from one of two slots dedicated to the
Northeastern states, Mr. Trump’s allies are now waging a fierce
battle against two other RNC members seeking to replace her, one of
whom has expressed anti-Trump sentiment and the other has claimed
neutrality in the internal showdown.
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Posted inpolitical equality
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=69>,political polarization
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=68>
“Virginia Republicans Weigh Court Challenge to Voting Rights for
Felons” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82486>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 7:53 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82486>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
NYT:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/03/us/virginia-felon-voting-rights-republicans-court-challenge.html?ref=politics>
Carl W. Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond School
of Law, said he believed Mr. McAuliffe had the constitutional
authority to restore the felons’ voting rights, but a lawsuit could
impede voter registration ahead of the November election.
“I think what they are likely to do is to go into state court and to
ask for an injunction, basically to stop registration and voting by
the people whom the governor has enfranchised,” Mr. Tobias said.
He added: “With the elections coming, the stakes are really high,
and so time really is of the essence, I don’t think there’s any
question about that.”
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Posted infelon voting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>
“The real obstacle to voter turnout in Democratic primaries:
caucuses” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82484>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 12:27 pm
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82484>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Jeff Stein
<http://www.vox.com/2016/5/2/11535648/bernie-sanders-closed-primaries-caucuses>for
Vox:
Bernie Sanders wants to transform how the Democratic Party chooses
its presidential nominee.
To do so, Sanders has made abolishing the closed primary — which
prevents independents from voting — one of his top demands of
Democratic officials, arguing that the party needs to“open the doors
to working people, to senior citizens, to young people.”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/what-bernie-sanders-wants-222561>
Expanding voter participation is indeed a noble goal. But if Sanders
really wants the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries to be
more representative of the public, he should forget the closed
primary and go after a much better target: the caucus.
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Posted inpolitical parties
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>,primaries
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>
“2016 Clinton fundraising leaves little for state parties”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82481>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 11:25 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82481>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Politico
<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/clinton-fundraising-leaves-little-for-state-parties-222670>:
But it is perhaps more notable that the arrangement has prompted
concerns among some participating state party officials and their
allies. They grumble privately that Clinton is merely using them to
subsidize her own operation, while her allies overstate her support
for their parties and knock Sanders for not doing enough to help the
party.
“It’s a one-sided benefit,” said an official with one participating
state party. The official, like those with several other state
parties, declined to talk about the arrangement on the record for
fear of drawing the ire of the DNC and the Clinton campaign.
In fact, the DNC, which has pushed back aggressively on charges that
it is boosting Clinton at the expense of other Democrats, has
advised state party officials on how to answer media inquiries about
the arrangement, multiple sources familiar with the interactions
told POLITICO.
“The DNC has given us some guidance on what they’re saying, but it’s
not clear what we should be saying,” said the official. “I don’t
think anyone wants to get crosswise with the national party because
we do need their resources. But everyone who entered into these
agreements was doing it because they were asked to, not because
there are immediately clear benefits.”
Some fundraisers who work for state parties predict that the
arrangement could actually hurt participating state parties. They
worry that participating states that aren’t presidential
battlegrounds and lack competitive Senate races could see very
little return investment from the DNC or Clinton’s campaign, and are
essentially acting as money laundering conduits for them. And for
party committees in contested states, there’s another risk: they
might find themselves unable to accept cash from rich donors whose
checks to the victory fund counted towards their $10,000 donation
limit to the state party in question — even if that party never got
to spend the cash because it was transferred to the DNC
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“Virginia GOPers to challenge restoration of felon voting rights”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82479>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 10:28 am
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82479>byRick Hasen
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Zack Roth
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/virginia-gopers-challenge-restoration-felon-voting-rights>says
GOP may have a good case.
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Posted inUncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“Va. Republicans hire lawyer in bid to stop restoration of felons’
voting rights” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82477>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 8:24 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82477>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
WaPo
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/va-republicans-hire-lawyer-in-bid-to-stop-restoration-of-felons-voting-rights/2016/05/02/ca06605c-1066-11e6-8967-7ac733c56f12_story.html>:
Virginia Republicans have hired a high-powered Washington lawyer to
challenge Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s authority to give more than 200,000
ex-convicts the right to vote in the fall presidential election and
beyond.
GOP legislative leaders announced Monday that they have retained
Charles J. Cooper, who ran the Office of Legal Counsel under
President Ronald Reagan. Republicans said they are paying Cooper
with private and political funds, not taxpayer money.
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Posted infelon voting <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>
Thursday #PlutocratsUnited Event with Trevor Potter in DC Now Sold
Out <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82475>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 8:17 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82475>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Very excited for this <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81673>, the last
scheduled Plutocrats United event (it was supposed to be one of the
first, until Snowmageddon II).
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Posted inPlutocrats United <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=104>
“Analysis: A Texas Judge Takes Voter ID to Court”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82473>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 8:07 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82473>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Ross Ramsey
<https://www.texastribune.org/2016/05/02/analysis-texas-judge-takes-voter-id-court/>for
the Texas Tribune.
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Posted inUncategorized <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
“The McDonnell Case: the ‘Messages’ to Citizens”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82471>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 8:05 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82471>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
More Bauer
<http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/2016/05/public-corruption-message-citizens/>on
McDonnell:
Zephyr Teachouthas since written
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/29/opinion/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-free-rolex.html?_r=0>about
the importance of the “principle” of bribery at stake in the
case—the importance of “broadly” construing the “axiom that an
official shouldn’t accept gifts for public duties.” She is worried
about “winking and nodding” and the sneaky stuff politicians might
do. In this respect, if broadly construed, Ms. Teachout takes the
amorphousness of the legal standards to be a virtue. She largely
dismisses the fear that without careful attention to the clarity and
focus of public corruption criminal law, the rules intended to
control bad politics may become themselves too much a branch of
politics. She is less troubled by the potential for prosecutorial
abuse than by a ruling that would “leave citizens facing a crisis of
political corruption with even fewer tools to fight it.”
The/McDonnell/argument occurred shortly before former Alabama
Governor Siegelman wasput into solitary confinement
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/04/29/former-alabama-governor-don-siegelman-sent-to-solitary-confinement/>.
Incarcerated for having denied the citizens of his statehis “honest
services,”
<http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/amicusseieglmanfinal.pdf>he
apparently ran afoul of prison rules by selling a T-shirt on EBay.
It is reported that he was raising funds for a documentary to
establish the political basis, as he sees it, of his prosecution.
He was trying to send a different “message to citizens.”
#I’mwithBob
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Posted inbribery <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=54>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“For Top Federal Contractors, Investments in Lobbying, PACs Yield
Big Returns” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82469>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 8:01 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82469>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
MapLight
<http://maplight.org/content/for-top-federal-contractors-investments-in-lobbying-pacs-yield-big-returns>:
Major U.S. government contractors have received $1,171 in taxpayer
money for every $1 invested in lobbying and political action
committee contributions during the last decade, according to
aMapLight analysis
<http://maplight.org/files/ROI%20Analysis_MapLight.xlsx>.
The 25 largest federal contractors, as ranked by value of contracts
receieved during the 2014 fiscal year, have received almost $1.6
trillion for their work since October 2005. These companies spent
about $1.2 billion on lobbying and contributed more than $150
million to PACs during that time, according to MapLight’s analysis
of federal procurement data and lobbying and PAC contributions
fromthe Center for Responsive Politics <https://www.opensecrets.org/>.
A relatively small amount of the $1.6 trillion can be described as
profit. But the major contractors’ return on investment demonstrates
their ability to leverage political power to bolster their revenue.
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Posted inlobbying <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=28>
“Trump Said to Lack Plan for Fundraising, Running-Mate Vetting”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82467>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 7:57 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82467>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Bloomberg reports.
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-04-29/trump-lacks-plan-for-november-fundraising-running-mate-vetting?cmpid=BBD050216_POL&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=>
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Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
“Inquirer editorial: How to fix the primaries”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82465>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 7:55 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82465>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Philly.com
<http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20160501_Inquirer_editorial__How_to_fix_the_primaries.html>:
Two states, California and Washington, have gone further,
instituting “top two” primaries for non-presidential elections. All
candidates compete in a single preliminary election, from which the
two most popular proceed to the general, even if they’re both
Democrats, Republicans, or neither.
The group Fair Vote argues persuasively that the egalitarian goals
of top-two would be realized more consistently by a top-four primary
followed by a ranked-choice general election. The latter, employed
by several U.S. cities and other countries, has voters rank
candidates by preference – first choice, second choice, etc. This
enables an instant runoff: The voters’ first choices are tallied,
the last-place candidate is eliminated, and the loser’s voters are
allocated to the remaining candidates based on their second
preferences. The process repeats until a candidate wins an outright
majority.
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Posted inalternative voting systems
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=63>,political parties
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>,primaries
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>
“A Potential Gift to Politicians, from the Justices”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82463>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 7:51 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82463>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Tony Mauro and Marcia Coyle
<http://www.nationallawjournal.com/home/id=1202756391208?kw=A%20Potential%20Gift%20to%20Politicians%2C%20from%20the%20Justices&cn=20160502&pt=Daily%20Headlines&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=National%20Law%20Journal&slreturn=20160402105007>for
the NLJ on McDonnell.
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Posted inbribery <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=54>,Supreme Court
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
“GOP shuns electronic ballots at open convention; Republicans opt
for tradition over tech to maximize drama for national audience”
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82461>
Posted onMay 2, 2016 7:49 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82461>byRick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
Politico reports.
<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/gop-convention-ballots-technology-222472#ixzz47TigdiI7>
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Posted invoting technology <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>
--
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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