[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/17/18

[Rick Hasen]

“NRA Proves the Need for Campaign-Finance Reform”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98698>
Posted on April 17, 2018 7:32 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98698> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Bloomberg View editorial:<https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-04-17/the-nra-russia-and-campaign-finance-reform>

The National Rifle Association is finished answering questions. That’s what the organization told<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/nra-discloses-additional-contributions-russian-donors/story?id=54395292> Senator Ron Wyden last week in a letter complaining about Wyden’s “time-consuming and burdensome” inquiries into the NRA’s ties to Russians.

That answer isn’t good enough. The NRA’s relationship<http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article195231139.html> with Alexander Torshin, a Russian politician and deputy governor of Russia’s central bank who has been linked<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/us/politics/trump-russia-kushner.html> both to Vladimir Putin and to Russian organized crime<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-09/mobster-or-central-banker-spanish-cops-allege-this-russian-both>, is too troubling to ignore. And the group’s dismissive response to Wyden has a larger significance: It underlines the need for full disclosure of sources of political funding.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>


“Top GOP super PAC books $48 million in ads for House races”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98696>
Posted on April 17, 2018 7:29 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98696> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/04/17/top-gop-super-pac-books-48-million-in-ads-for-house-races/?utm_term=.1d58cc75f44c>

The Congressional Leadership Fund, the leading Republican super PAC focused on the House, is booking $48 million in ad reservations ahead of the November midterm elections — giving its first indications of where it intends to focus its considerable resources this year.

Most of that — $38 million — is reserved for television airtime in 20 battleground House districts. In five of them — held by GOP Reps. Don Bacon (Neb.), Garland “Andy” Barr (Ky.), Steve Knight (Calif.), Claudia Tenney (N.Y.) and Mimi Walters (Calif.) — the reservations are extensive enough to keep CLF on air from Labor Day, the unofficial start of campaign season, all the way through Election Day on Nov. 6.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


--
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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