[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/11/16
Rick Hasen
rhasen at law.uci.edu
Tue May 10 21:31:48 PDT 2016
The missing Soundcloud link to the podcast is:
https://soundcloud.com/rick-hasen/elb-podcast-episode-12-tom-mann-and-norm-ornstein-from-political-dysfunction-to-trumpism
On 5/10/16 9:29 PM, Rick Hasen wrote:
>
>
> ELB Podcast Episode 12. Tom Mann and Norm Ornstein: From Political
> Dysfunction to Trumpism? <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82666>
>
> Posted onMay 10, 2016 9:27 pm
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82666>byRick Hasen
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> Has the country moved from a period of deep political dysfunction to
> something bordering on authoritarianism, with the rise of Donald
> Trump? Does the rise of Bernie Sanders on the left mean Democrats are
> moving to the extremes like Republicans? What would a Hillary Clinton
> presidency with a Republican House look like?
>
> On Episode 12 of the ELB Podcast, we talk with Tom Mann and Norm
> Ornstein, authors of /It’s Even Worse Than It Looks
> <http://www.amazon.com/Even-Worse-Than-Looks-Constitutional/dp/0465096204/ref=la_B000AQ2IP4_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462934646&sr=1-1>//:
> How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics
> of Extremism/.
>
> You can listen to the ELB Podcast Episode 12 on Soundcloud orsubscribe
> at iTunes
> <https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/elb-podcast/id1029317166?mt=2>.
>
> Share
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D82666&title=ELB%20Podcast%20Episode%2012.%20Tom%20Mann%20and%20Norm%20Ornstein%3A%20From%20Political%20Dysfunction%20to%20Trumpism%3F&description=>
> Posted inELB Podcast <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=116>,political
> polarization <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=68>
>
>
> “‘I have, in fact, done the crime’: Rep. Ami Bera’s father admits
> illegal campaign contributions” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82670>
>
> Posted onMay 10, 2016 9:23 pm
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82670>byRick Hasen
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> LAT
> <http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-ami-bera-father-campaign-money-20160510-story.html>:
>
> Prosecutors said there were more than 130 instances of improper
> campaign contributions reported from approximately 90
> people. Bera’s father repaid at least portions of those donations,
> and investigators said that it’s possible even more money was
> donated illegally to the congressman’s early campaigns.
>
> Share
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D82670&title=%26%238220%3B%26%238216%3BI%20have%2C%20in%20fact%2C%20done%20the%20crime%26%238217%3B%3A%20Rep.%20Ami%20Bera%26%238217%3Bs%20father%20admits%20illegal%20campaign%20contributions%26%238221%3B&description=>
> Posted incampaign finance
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,chicanery
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>
>
>
> Forces That Put Justice Benjamin on W Va Supreme Court (Think
> Caperton) Turn Around and Oust Him
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82668>
>
> Posted onMay 10, 2016 8:28 pm
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82668>byRick Hasen
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> Read Pema Levy.
> <http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/west-virginia-supreme-court-blankenship-benjamin>Then
> seethese results <http://howappealing.abovethelaw.com/051016.html#067059>.
>
> Share
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D82668&title=Forces%20That%20Put%20Justice%20Benjamin%20on%20W%20Va%20Supreme%20Court%20%28Think%20Caperton%29%20Turn%20Around%20and%20Oust%20Him&description=>
> Posted incampaign finance
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>,judicial elections
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=19>
>
>
> “Here’s what Donald Trump thinks about voting”
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82664>
>
> Posted onMay 10, 2016 7:36 pm
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82664>byRick Hasen
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> Zack
> Roth<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/heres-what-donald-trump-thinks-about-voting>for
> MSNBC.
>
> Share
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D82664&title=%26%238220%3BHere%E2%80%99s%20what%20Donald%20Trump%20thinks%20about%20voting%26%238221%3B&description=>
> Posted inelection administration
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,fraudulent fraud squad
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>
>
>
> “Anti-Donald Trump Forces Gear Up For Third-Party Challenge”
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82662>
>
> Posted onMay 10, 2016 2:17 pm
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82662>byRick Hasen
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> HuffPo
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-third-party-challenge_us_5732392de4b016f3789758e7?ymh32f0fwnjv4y4x6r>:
>
> Top Republican strategists this past week have stepped up a
> frantic effort to lay the groundwork for a third-party
> presidential run, even as elected officials within the party begin
> to make their peace with Donald Trump.
>
> The effort is admittedly a long shot, according to aides directly
> involved in it. But they insist it’s not as impossible as some
> members of the GOP and the press perceive it to be. In particular,
> these aides have begun exploring the idea of suing states over
> their deadlines for ballot access so they can be afforded more
> time to field a candidate and gather signatures. Additionally,
> they are discussing the possibility of launching an entirely new
> political party rather than latching onto an existing one, since
> doing so would provide easier passageways for getting on the ballot.
>
> Share
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D82662&title=%26%238220%3BAnti-Donald%20Trump%20Forces%20Gear%20Up%20For%20Third-Party%20Challenge%26%238221%3B&description=>
> Posted inballot access <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>,political
> parties <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>,third parties
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=47>
>
>
> “How Congress members opened door to bigger checks for their
> parties” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82660>
>
> Posted onMay 10, 2016 1:32 pm
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82660>byRick Hasen
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> McClatchy
> <http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article76724972.html>:
>
> But hold on. If you’re a donor, don’t put away your checkbook just
> yet.
>
> The Democratic and Republican national committees each have
> separate Senate and House campaign committees to help elect
> members of Congress. Each has a general fund account to which
> wealthy donors can also send $33,400 contributions. But the
> last-minute rider to the 2014 spending bill allowed each of those
> committees to form two additional accounts: one for recounts and
> another headquarters business.
>
> And to each, a donor can – you guessed it – also give triple the
> maximum amount.
>
> Ka-ching.
>
> That’s another $100,200 a year per committee, and times four
> equals $400,800.
>
> All told, a well-heeled political donor can now contribute more
> than $800,000 in a year to one of the parties; over the course of
> the election cycle, more than $1.6 million.
>
> “This is not meaningless,” said Larry Noble, general counsel for
> theCampaign Legal Center, <http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/>a
> nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign-finance and voting-rights advocacy
> group, and a former general counsel for the Federal Election
> Commission. “These are people who have access to our elected
> officials, who have their ear. It is a campaign system out of
> control.”
>
> Share
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D82660&title=%26%238220%3BHow%20Congress%20members%20opened%20door%20to%20bigger%20checks%20for%20their%20parties%26%238221%3B&description=>
> Posted incampaign finance
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
>
>
> “This Dark Money Group Spent Big On A Montana Judicial Race. Now
> We Know Why.” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82657>
>
> Posted onMay 10, 2016 7:39 am
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82657>byRick Hasen
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> Paul Blumenthal
> <http://this%20dark%20money%20group%20spent%20big%20on%20a%20montana%20judicial%20race.%20now%20we%20know%20why./>for
> HuffPo:
>
> This was certainly the case in Sheehy’s 2012 race, although the
> public didn’t know it at the time.
>
> The Montana Growth Network was launched that year by Jason Priest
> and Ed Walker, then both Republican state senators. It went on to
> spend $900,000 on the state Supreme Court race, more money than
> the Sheehy and McKinnon campaigns combined. Because the group was
> organized as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit under the federal tax code, it
> was not required to disclose its donors. Any interest those donors
> had in the race was obscured, as was any potential conflict that
> the group’s favored candidate, McKinnon, might later face on the
> bench.
>
> Three years passed before the identities of the billionaire
> businessmen funding the ads came to light, following an
> investigation by Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices.
> The December 2015 probe found that the Montana Growth Network
> hadviolated state election laws
> <http://politicalpractices.mt.gov/content/2recentdecisions/HamlettvMontanaGrowthNetworkDecision>and
> forced the nonprofit to disclose its funders.
>
> The largest portion of the group’s money came from two of
> America’s richest men. San Francisco billionaire Charles Schwab,
> the founder of the eponymous discount brokerage firm, donated
> $300,000. James Cox Kennedy, the Atlanta-based chairman of media
> giant Cox Enterprises, gave $100,000. Schwab is worth a reported
> $6.4 billion, while Kennedy is worth $10.2 billion — ranking both
> of them among Forbes’ wealthiest 400 Americans.
>
> The probe also revealed that the two billionaires had a direct
> stake in a case moving through Montana’s courts at the time of the
> 2012 election. While neither are residents of Montana, they both
> own large estates there. The two properties include streams and
> rivers to which the owners would like to restrict access. But
> Montana has some of the most liberal laws for recreational
> waterway use in the country: The state’s 1972 constitution allows
> broad public access to those waterways.
>
> Share
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D82657&title=%26%238220%3BThis%20Dark%20Money%20Group%20Spent%20Big%20On%20A%20Montana%20Judicial%20Race.%20Now%20We%20Know%20Why.%26%238221%3B&description=>
> Posted incampaign finance
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,judicial elections
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=19>
>
>
> “Donald Trump, in Switch, Turns to Republican Party for
> Fund-Raising Help” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82655>
>
> Posted onMay 10, 2016 7:35 am
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82655>byRick Hasen
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> NYT
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/us/politics/donald-trump-campaign.html?ref=politics>:
>
> Donald J. Trump
> <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/donald-trump-on-the-issues.html?inline=nyt-per>took
> steps to appropriate much of theRepublican National Committee
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_national_committee/index.html?inline=nyt-org>’s
> financial and political infrastructure for his presidential
> campaign on Monday, amid signs that he and the party would lag
> dangerously behind the Democrats in raising money for the general
> election.
>
> Mr. Trump, who by the end of March had spent around $40 million of
> his fortune on the primaries, has said that he may need as much as
> $1.5 billion for the fall campaign, but that he will seek to raise
> it from donors rather than continue to self-finance.
>
> But Mr. Trump has no fund-raising apparatus to resort to, no
> network of prolific bundlers to call upon, and little known
> experience with the type of marathon, one-on-one serial
> salesmanship and solicitousness that raising so much money is
> likely to require — even if individuals can contribute up to the
> current limit of $334,000 at a time to the party. And he has to do
> it all in six months, with a deeply divided party that is still
> absorbing the fact that Mr. Trump is its standard-bearer….
>
> Republican Party
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org>officials
> have pressed Mr. Trump to sign a joint fund-raising agreement,
> which would allow him to raise money for the national committee
> and for his own campaign simultaneously. That, in turn, would also
> give Mr. Trump a defensible answer for why, after months of
> railing against Wall Street executives and special interests, he
> recently turned to a former Goldman Sachs executive, Steven
> Mnuchin, to corral large checks for his campaign.
>
> Both Mr. Trump’s aides and party officials were caught by surprise
> by the abrupt end of the primary contest last week, when Mr. Trump
> carried Indiana, prompting Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John
> Kasich of Ohio to withdraw from the race. But the two sides have
> hurried to wrap up a joint fund-raising agreement, and one is
> close to being signed, according to people close to the national
> committee who were not authorized to speak publicly.
>
> Share
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D82655&title=%26%238220%3BDonald%20Trump%2C%20in%20Switch%2C%20Turns%20to%20Republican%20Party%20for%20Fund-Raising%20Help%26%238221%3B&description=>
> Posted incampaign finance
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,campaigns
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
>
>
> “Why Dark Money Is Bad Business” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82653>
>
> Posted onMay 10, 2016 7:02 am
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82653>byRick Hasen
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> Kathleen Donovan-Maher and Steven Groopman have writtenthis NYT oped.
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/opinion/why-dark-money-is-bad-business.html?_r=0>
>
> Share
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D82653&title=%26%238220%3BWhy%20Dark%20Money%20Is%20Bad%20Business%26%238221%3B&description=>
> Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>,tax law
> and election law <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>
>
>
> “Kennedy to retire after 33 years as Wisconsin’s top elections
> official” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82651>
>
> Posted onMay 10, 2016 6:58 am
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82651>byRick Hasen
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> WisPolitics.com
> <http://elections.wispolitics.com/2016/05/kennedy-to-retire-after-33-years-as.html>:
>
> Next month as the GAB is replaced by two new entities.
>
> Kennedy, who turned 64 in March, told WisPolitics.com today he
> decided last year he wanted to retire after 2016. He moved up his
> timeline after the GOP-led Legislature voted to replace the GAB
> with the new Elections and Ethics commissions.
> “Once the Legislature made the decision to restructure the agency,
> I didn’t see any reason why I’d want to be part of the new
> structure, and even if I did, it would have been a very short-term
> situation because of the timetable I had for myself was already in
> place,” Kennedy said.
> Kennedy has become a lightning rod for criticism Republicans have
> lobbed at the GAB over the past several years, including the
> agency’s involvement in John Doe probes. Assembly Speaker Robin
> Vos, R-Rochester, vowed at a WisPolitics.com luncheon in October
> 2014 that the GAB would not exist in its current format in two
> years and declared Kennedy “has to go.”
>
> Kevin Kennedy is a class act and did an excellent job in his position.
> The politicization of election administration in Wisconsin by the
> state legislature in getting rid of the GAB is sad and unjustified.
> Share
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D82651&title=%26%238220%3BKennedy%20to%20retire%20after%2033%20years%20as%20Wisconsin%26%238217%3Bs%20top%20elections%20official%26%238221%3B&description=>
> Posted inelection administration
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>,election law biz
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>
>
>
> “Trump Takes the Money; Don’t buy that Donald Trump is a campaign
> finance reformer” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82649>
>
> Posted onMay 10, 2016 6:52 am
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=82649>byRick Hasen
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> David Donnelly
> <http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-05-09/trump-is-no-money-in-politics-reformer>for
> US News.
>
> Share
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D82649&title=%26%238220%3BTrump%20Takes%20the%20Money%3B%20Don%26%238217%3Bt%20buy%20that%20Donald%20Trump%20is%20a%20campaign%20finance%20reformer%26%238221%3B&description=>
> Posted incampaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
>
>
> --
> 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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
--
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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