[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/13/18

Fri Apr 13 08:35:48 PDT 2018

“Billionaire vs. Billionaire: A Tug of War Between 2 Rogue Donors”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98677>
Posted on April 13, 2018 8:32 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98677> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/12/us/politics/top-donors-2018-elections.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=sectionfront>

Two rogue billionaires — one on the left, one on the right — have emerged as the biggest political spenders of the 2018 elections, defying their own parties and pouring millions of dollars into confrontational campaign tactics.

Tom Steyer, a former hedge fund investor based in California, is the biggest individual donor on the Democratic side. His Republican counterpart is Richard Uihlein, an elusive packaging supplies magnate from Illinois.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“GOP Primary Challenger Invents George Soros Connection to Attack Incumbent Republican”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98675>
Posted on April 13, 2018 8:24 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98675> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Intercept:<https://theintercept.com/2018/04/12/north-carolina-republican-primary-george-soros/>

Friends of Democracy is a Super PAC that was launched<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/son-of-liberal-financier-george-soros-launches-anti-super-pac-super-pac/2012/07/12/gJQABQlufW_story.html?utm_term=.efbb7534ea21> by Jonathan Soros (his father, George, has nothing to do with it). Its mission was to support members of Congress who support campaign finance reform — in other words, limiting the very same kind of influence conservatives fear that wealthy donors like the Soros family has. It was later merged<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Voice> into Every Voice, which continues similar work on reforming the campaign finance system.

Friends of Democracy had highlighted Jones because he is one of the few Republicans<http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2016/1/21/walter-jones-explains-need-for-campaign-finance-reforms.html> in Congress that supports campaign finance reforms, such as enacting public financing for federal campaigns. So, it’s fair to say that Jonathan Soros’s PAC did encourage donors to give to Jones at one point.

BUT THE REALITY is that neither Jonathan nor George Soros has personally given money to Jones at any point in his congressional career — contrary to what the attack ad, titled “Walter Jones: Paid for by George Soros,” clearly implies.

Ryan Kane, a spokesperson for Dacey, conceded that point in an interview with The Intercept. “I mean, yes, perhaps there was no direct — there may have been no direct link, or no direct donation [from the Soros family],” he said. In order to try to forge the connection between Jones and the Soroses, Kane pointed to a 2014 Politico article<https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/jonathan-soros-the-pac-to-end-all-pacs-105123> in which the younger Soros highlighted Jones as a Republican willing to back campaign finance reforms.

But the Soros family is never shy about giving directly and heavily to a candidate when it wants to. It has openly<http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/Soros-145-million-investment-in-DAs-race-draws-heat-for-Krasner.html> spent millions backing candidates like Larry Krasner, who was elected as Philadelphia’s district attorney in November.
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>

“Koch Flagship Dark Money Organization Received $48.7 Million Gift During Election Year”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98673>
Posted on April 13, 2018 8:20 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98673> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

MapLight:<https://maplight.org/story/koch-flagship-dark-money-organization-received-48-7-million-gift-during-election-year/>

A single donation accounted for more than three-quarters of the $63.7 million donated to the Koch brothers’ flagship political organization in 2016, according to tax records obtained by MapLight.

The $48.7 million gift to Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the nonprofit “dark money” organization launched by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, was the largest of 122 contributions reported during the election year. Fewer than three dozen gifts that topped six figures made up almost 95 percent of the nonprofit’s total revenues.

Nonprofits like AFP are required<https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/301.6104%28b%29-1> to make their full tax returns — which include a list of all donations of more than $5,000 — available to the public, although they are permitted to redact the names and addresses of its donors. But the Koch-linked organization has repeatedly refused to release a tax return containing a redacted copy of the pages showing its donations.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, tax law and election law<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>

Looking Forward to Being on “This Week in Law” with Denise Howell at 11 AM Pacific/2 PM Eastern Today<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98671>
Posted on April 13, 2018 8:16 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98671> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Tune in!<https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-law>

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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Watch My Chicago-Kent Keynote About Justice Scalia and His Election Cases<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98667>
Posted on April 12, 2018 7:21 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98667> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Alternative link.<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJjizqBn1v8>

I have posted this draft<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3154845> on SSRN (forthcoming: Chicago-Kent Law Review) based on this talk. Here is the abstract:

This Address builds upon ideas first presented in Richard L. Hasen, After Scalia: The Future of United States Election Law, 17 AMERIKA HŌ 1 (Koji Higashikawa trans., 2017) (Japan), and RICHARD L. HASEN, THE JUSTICE OF CONTRADICTIONS: ANTONIN SCALIA AND THE POLITICS OF DISRUPTION (2018). It is a revised version of a Keynote Address delivered at “The Supreme Court and American Politics,” a symposium held October 17, 2017 at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.

It considers through the lens of Justice Scalia’s opinions the role that views of the political process play, at least rhetorically, in how Supreme Court Justices decide cases. It focuses on Justice Scalia’s contradictory views on self-dealing and incumbency protection across a range of cases, comparing campaign finance, on the one hand, to partisan gerrymandering, voter identification laws, political patronage, and ballot access rules on the other. In this context, I argue that the defects in the political process he sometimes flagged appeared to do little work, and that his decisions are better understood by his ideological commitments to what Chicago-Kent Professor Steven Heyman calls “conservative libertarianism.”[1] Scalia’s views on self-dealing appeared to reflect rather than drive his legal analysis.

Part II describes Justice Scalia’s contradictory approaches on questions of self-dealing and incumbency. Part III argues that, the contradictions lined up with the Justice’s ideological and partisan commitments, and that this is hardly unique to Justice Scalia. Finally, Part IV offers three lessons to be learned from this case study for the interaction of the Court, the political branches, and election law.
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Posted in Scalia<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=123>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“Why Special Counsel Mueller Might Be Interested In Trump’s ‘Access Hollywood’ Tape”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98665>
Posted on April 12, 2018 7:09 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98665> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Tamara Keith for NPR.<https://www.npr.org/2018/04/12/601951542/why-special-counsel-mueller-might-be-interested-in-trumps-access-hollywood-tape>
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

“Supreme Court May Soon Decide When Campaign Check Becomes Bribe”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98663>
Posted on April 12, 2018 7:07 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98663> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bloomberg BNA:<http://news.bna.com/mpdm/MPDMWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=131639414&vname=mpebulallissues&jd=00000162ba85d90eadeafbbfa2500002&split=0>
Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers want the Supreme Court to tackle that question when the justices hold their weekly conference Friday. The court could reveal as soon as next week whether it will take the case.
Blagojevich’s former colleagues in Congress are paying close attention.
In a friend-of-the-court brief, current and former public officials weighed in, including Illinois Democratic Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Danny Davis, Bill Foster, Louis Gutiérrez, Mike Quigley and Bobby Rush, as well as Robert Barr a Republican former U.S. attorney and U.S. House member from Georgia.
The brief said a “bright-line standard” differentiating between bribery and campaign fundraising was needed “to prevent selective enforcement in the campaign contribution context, because it is the rule, rather than the exception, that a candidate’s financial supporters make contributions with the belief that the candidate, if elected, will adopt positions that further the supporters’ interests.”
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Posted in bribery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=54>, campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“Are Changing Ward Lines a Source of Chicago’s Violence?”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98661>
Posted on April 12, 2018 7:05 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98661> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Chicago Magazine<http://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/April-2018/Are-Changing-Ward-Lines-a-Source-of-Chicagos-Violence/>, with the subhead: “A University of Chicago sociologist is investigating the possibility that small areas, which have been shifted between wards over the years, are more prone to it—perhaps because they fall through the political cracks.”
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Pennsylvania Will Eliminate Paperless Voting Machines In Time For The 2020 Election”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98659>
Posted on April 12, 2018 6:59 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98659> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

BuzzFeed reports.<https://www.buzzfeed.com/kevincollier/pennsylvania-to-eliminate-paperless-voting-machines-by-2020?utm_term=.jpP1Om6nq#.vb4jMbVyN>
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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>

“Member of Trump’s Voter Fraud Commission Sued for Voter Intimidation”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98657>
Posted on April 12, 2018 3:14 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98657> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Pema Levy<https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/04/member-of-trumps-voter-fraud-commission-sued-for-voter-intimidation/> for Mother Jones.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>

“An Antidote for Gobbledygook: Organizing the Judge’s Partisan Gerrymandering Toolkit into a Two-Part Framework”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98655>
Posted on April 12, 2018 3:11 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98655> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Sam Wang<https://blog.harvardlawreview.org/an-antidote-for-gobbledygook-organizing-the-judges-partisan-gerrymandering-toolkit-into-a-two-part-framework/> at the Harvard Law Review blog.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

Videos of Me Discussing My Book on Justice Scalia’s Legacy with Joan Biskupic, Adam Liptak & Sue Bloch, Adam Winkler, Erwin Chemerinsky, and Henry Weinstein (and National Constitution Center event)<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98653>
Posted on April 12, 2018 12:23 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98653> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

In connection with the release of my new book, The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the Politics of Disruption<https://www.amazon.com/Justice-Contradictions-Antonin-Politics-Disruption/dp/0300228643/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516904231&sr=8-1&keywords=richard+l.+hasen>, I’ve given a number of talks. Some of these are now available on video:

Mar. 5 (Video<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98133>) NYC conversation with Joan Biskupic (Brennan Center at NYU)

Mar. 6 (C-SPAN Video<https://www.c-span.org/video/?442130-2/the-justice-contradictions>) Washington D.C. lunch conversation with Sue Bloch and Adam Liptak (Georgetown Law)

Mar. 20 (video<https://livestream.com/accounts/867536/events/8039313/videos/172035205>) Irvine, CA evening conversation with Adam Winkler (UCI Law)

Mar. 28 (Video<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8dSQ6ehEN4>) Los Angeles lunch conversation with Erwin Chemerinsky (LA ALOUD)

Apr. 9 UC Irvine lunch conversation with Henry Weinstein<https://livestream.com/accounts/867536/events/8109636> (UCI Law)

In addition, before the book came out I was on a National Constitution Center panel:

Feb. 7 (video)<https://youtu.be/Br_qx-zOCOc> (National Constitution Center event with Jeff Rosen, Kannon Shanmugam, and Elizabeth Wydra)

I’ve done and am doing more podcasts and interviews. I’ll gather those in a future post.
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Posted in Scalia<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=123>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>

“DOJ & FEC Complaints Filed Against President Trump, His Campaign & American Media Inc. for Illegal, Unreported $30K Coordinated Expenditure to Squelch Rumors of Candidate’s Illegitimate Child”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98650>
Posted on April 12, 2018 11:36 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98650> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Release.<http://www.commoncause.org/press/press-releases/doj-fec-complaints-filed-against-trump-his-campaign-and-american-media-inc-for-illegal-unreported-30K-coordinated-expenditure-to-squelch-rumors-of-candidates-illegitimate-child.html>
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>

--
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
rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>
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