[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/30/18

[Rick Hasen]

“Trump campaign has paid portions of Michael Cohen’s legal fees: Sources”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98896>
Posted on April 30, 2018 10:54 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98896> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

ABC News:<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-campaign-paid-portions-michael-cohens-legal-fees/story?id=54831269>

The Trump campaign has spent nearly $228,000 to cover some of the legal expenses for President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, sources familiar with the payments tell ABC News, raising questions about whether the Trump campaign may have violated campaign finance laws.

Federal Election Commission<http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/elections/federal-election-commission.htm> records show three payments made from the Trump campaign to a firm representing Cohen. The “legal consulting” payments were made to McDermott Will and Emery — a law firm where Cohen’s attorney Stephen Ryan is a partner — between October 2017 and January 2018.

Cohen has said that he did not have a formal role in the Trump campaign, and it is illegal to spend campaign funds for personal use – defined by the FEC as payments for expenses “that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s campaign or responsibilities as a federal officeholder.”

“They’re on shaky legal ground,” said Stephen Spaulding, chief of strategy at the nonprofit watchdog group Common Cause. “It sounds like they are really pushing the envelope … If the campaign were to say they are campaign-related payments, then maybe it’s okay to use campaign funds. But he can’t have it both ways.”
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“Meet the little-known ‘big fish’ megadonor setting the tone for GOP primary races”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98894>
Posted on April 30, 2018 10:32 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98894> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/meet-the-little-known-big-fish-megadonor-setting-the-tone-for-gop-primary-races/2018/04/29/2e784d76-3215-11e8-94fa-32d48460b955_story.html?utm_term=.c5684989915c>

Behind just about every divisive Senate Republican primary this year, an amiable Midwestern businessman is bankrolling the candidate who claims to be the most hard-charging, anti-establishment conservative in the race.

Richard Uihlein, a wealthy shipping-supplies magnate from Illinois who shuns the spotlight, has risen to become one of the most powerful — and disruptive — GOP donors in the country.

For years, Uihlein has given money to isolated races in the service of his anti-union, free-market and small-government views. But he has dramatically increased his giving this cycle, pouring $21 million into races from Montana to West Virginia to ensure more conservative victories in the upcoming midterm elections, Federal Election Commission records show.
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“Pa. gerrymandering’s surprise co-conspirators: Democrats”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98892>
Posted on April 30, 2018 10:25 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98892> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Philly Inquirer:<http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/pennsylvania-congressional-map-republican-gerrymander-democrats-vote-2011-20180430.html>

But all those Democrats omitted an important detail: Each one joined with the GOP legislative majority in 2011 to pass the map that the state’s highest court would toss out as a Republican partisan gerrymander.

In all, three dozen state Democrats joined Republicans to push the map through; it would not have passed without the minority party’s backing.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>


“Fake Green Party Candidate Exposed as Having Ties to Republican Congressman”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98890>
Posted on April 30, 2018 10:18 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98890> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Daily Beast:<https://www.thedailybeast.com/fake-green-party-candidate-exposed-as-having-ties-to-republican-congressman>

The former Green Party candidate in a congressional race has been exposed as a Republican plant with ties to the GOP congressman he supposedly sought to challenge

Michael Zak petitioned to run under the Green Party ticket in New York’s 27th congressional district, a seat currently held by Rep. Chris Collins<https://www.thedailybeast.com/congressman-pushed-bills-that-helped-his-drug-company?ref=author>. Zak’s candidacy petition listed as the official contact person Ross Kostecky, a local Republican operative who interned on Collins’s 2009 campaign for Erie County, New York executive, The Daily Beast has found.
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Posted in ballot access<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=46>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


Lessig: “Mick Mulvaney shows why we need to radically change our elections”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98888>
Posted on April 30, 2018 10:16 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98888> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Larry Lessig WaPo oped.<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mick-mulvaney-shows-why-we-need-to-radically-change-our-elections/2018/04/29/70bc3aec-4a59-11e8-8b5a-3b1697adcc2a_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ff6da899a278&wpmk=MK0000200>
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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>


Roundup on Stories About Texas Voter ID Decision<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98886>
Posted on April 30, 2018 10:12 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98886> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Howard has it. <https://howappealing.abovethelaw.com/2018/04/29/#76754>

And see my earlier post<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98859> on the case, which begins:

In what I consider to be a fundamentally disingenuous analysis by 5th Circuit Judge Edith Jones, a divided 5th Circuit panel has not only held that Texas’s replacement voter id law (enacted in response to an earlier finding, upheld by the 5th Circuit that its original strict voter id law violated the Voting Rights Act) is legal. It also has essentially precluded the district court from putting Texas back under federal supervision for its voting rules based on a finding of intentional discrimination in voting on the basis of race. Judge Higginbotham’s concurrence makes nice noises about the “race or party” question I have been writing about for a long time, but in the end he does not appear to disagree with Judge Jones’s conclusion that the district court cannot put Texas back under preclearance based on an earlier finding of racially discriminatory intent. (Perhaps the plaintiffs can seek clarification on rehearing on this point, and get Judge Higgenbotham to open this back up.)

This ruling is likely to stand, because, despite the persuasiveness of Judge Graves’s dissent, the Fifth Circuit’s partisan balance has changed since the last go at this case, and an en banc process is likely to be unsuccessful, and the Supreme Court is unlikely to get involved either.


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Posted in The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>, voter id<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=9>, Voting Rights Act<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>


May 7 ACS Event: Firewalling Democracy: Election Security as a National Security Issue<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98884>
Posted on April 30, 2018 10:08 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98884> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

This looks<https://events.acslaw.org/rsvp?id=a0Y0f00000CMmbu&campaign=default> like a great lineup (use the link to rsvp):

In January 2017, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson designated election infrastructure as critical infrastructure – thereby making it a priority for cybersecurity assistance and protections that the federal government provides to both public and private entities. To some critics, Johnson’s designation was too little too late, –coming two months after the 2016 elections were hacked by Russians and manipulated by virtual troll farms. To others, it signaled unwelcome federal intervention in local election administration. As the 2018 midterm elections approach, the current administration says there are ongoing conversations about how agencies can counter election related cyber threats. Yet, NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers recently testified that the NSA hasn’t been asked to counter Russian election interference or been granted new legal authorities to do so. What is – and what can – be done to protect our elections from foreign and other interference?

Welcome: Caroline Fredrickson, ACS President

Introduction: A.J. Bhadelia, Manager, Public Policy and Government Affairs, Google

Philippa (Pippa) Scarlett, (Moderator), former Deputy Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at the White House and current ACS Board Member.
Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Chief Technologist, Center for Democracy and Technology
Tom Hicks, Commissioner, U.S. Election Assistance Commission
Laura Rosenberger, Senior Fellow and Director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Associate Professor of Law, Stetson University College of Law

Lunch will be served at 12:00 and the program will begin at 12:30.


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Posted in election administration<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>


“The Justice Department Deleted Language About Press Freedom And Racial Gerrymandering From Its Internal Manual”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98882>
Posted on April 29, 2018 2:48 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98882> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

BuzzFeed:<https://www.buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/the-justice-department-deleted-language-about-press-freedom?utm_term=.yg3pqzB50#.lcKgmqXoQ>

The part of the manual addressing the Justice Department’s civil rights work was revised in March. In a section<https://www.justice.gov/usam/usam-8-2000-enforcement-civil-rights-civil-statutes> discussing enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, the new version removes previous references to redistricting and racial gerrymandering.

The previous version<https://web.archive.org/web/20170511090937/https:/www.justice.gov/usam/usam-8-2000-enforcement-civil-rights-civil-statutes> stated: “The Voting Section defends from unjustified attack redistricting plans designed to provide minority voters fair opportunities to elect candidates of their choice and endeavors to achieve racially fair results where courts find, following Shaw v. Reno, 113 S.Ct. 286 (1993), and Johnson v. Miller, 115 S.Ct. 2475 (1995), that redistricting plans constitute unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.”

That section is gone from the new version, and there are no direct references to redistricting or racial gerrymandering. References in earlier versions of the manual to other types of voting rights issues that fall under the purview of the Civil Rights Division — from the bans on literacy tests and poll taxes to language access protections — are included in the new version.
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Posted in Department of Justice<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=26>, Voting Rights Act<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>


--
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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