[EL] ELB News and Commentary 9/24/18

Mon Sep 24 08:45:23 PDT 2018

“Sheldon Adelson Sees a Lot to Like in Trump’s Washington”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101265>
Posted on September 24, 2018 8:43 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101265> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/22/us/politics/adelson-trump-republican-donor.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=sectionfront>

The return on investment for many of the Republican Party’s biggest political patrons has been less than impressive this year. But not for Sheldon Adelson.

Mr. Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate, and his wife, Miriam, a physician, have emerged as the biggest and potentially most influential contributors to Republicans in the midterm season. Despite initially harboring qualms about President Trump’s leadership, the Adelsons have found much to like in a Republican-controlled government that has aligned with their most cherished priorities: unflinchingly pro-Israel, unaccommodating to Middle Eastern adversaries and dedicated to deregulation and lower taxes.

Mr. Adelson in particular enjoys a direct line to the president. In private in-person meetings and phone conversations, which occur between the two men about once a month, he has used his access to push the president to move the United States embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and, more recently, cut aid to the Palestinians<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/us/politics/trump-palestinians-aid-cut.html>, according to people familiar with their discussions, who spoke anonymously to discuss private matters. Mr. Trump has done both, triggering a backlash from some American allies.

Republican control of the House and the Senate is so vital to maintaining these policies, the Adelsons believe, that they have given $55 million in the last few months to groups dedicated to making sure it stays that way. That makes them not only the largest donors to national Republican electoral efforts in this election cycle, but the biggest spenders on federal elections in all of American politics, according to publicly available campaign finance data.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, Plutocrats United<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=104>

Fashioning Himself a Victim of Unfair Attacks, Ed Whelan Already Plans Comeback<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101262>
Posted on September 24, 2018 8:30 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101262> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Sure he titled his NRO piece<https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/mea-maxima-culpa/>, “Mea Maxima Culpa,” and he supposedly offered to resign<http://https/> from EPPC (which was rejected by his board, as he took a leave of absence). But there are good reasons to believe Whelan is far from contrite, still involved in influencing public opinion on the Kavanaugh confirmation process, and planning a comeback.

To begin with, it turns out that Whelan’s libelous and bad faith theory<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101243> that Dr. Ford had another attacker was hatched at a PR firm<https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/21/ed-whelan-kavanaugh-tweets-pr-firm-836405>, CRC. The firm does work for the Federalist Society and the Judicial Confirmation Network (spending millions in undisclosed money to boost Republican nominees and block Democratic nominees like Merrick Garland). They were the inventors of “swift boating” against John Kerry. Whelan’s co-author on his Scalia book, Justice Scalia’s son Christopher, apparently still works there.<https://howappealing.abovethelaw.com/2018/09/21/#81929>

All of this shows this was not Whelan gone rogue but an elaborate dirty tricks operation to take the heat off Kavanaugh. That so many smart people could think this hare-brained and immoral idea would work says a lot about the moral bankruptcy of the people working on it. But they must have spent hours chewing it over without seeing how terrible this whole idea was, and how corrupt the fight for the Court has become on the right.

When Whelan first apologized, it was only for naming the accuser, not for launching the theory. He eventually gave a half-hearted apology t<https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/mea-maxima-culpa/>o Dr. Ford for not showing “respectful consideration” of her or sexual assault victims, even while standing his ground that Ford may not be telling the truth.

Then, after supposedly tendering his resignation to a board that includes the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo, his resignation was rejected and he was said to be taking a leave. At that point, he continued to retweet theories suggesting Dr. Ford wasn’t telling the truth<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1043999038733934592>:
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 · 17h<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1043992941130174465>
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Latest on Ed Whelan: Conservative strategist takes leave of absence for 'inexcusable mistake' in claim Kavanaugh accuser misidentified attacker @CNNPolitics<https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics> https://cnn.it/2zp7w0q <https://t.co/02y2ELTDsK>
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Conservative strategist takes leave of absence for 'inexcusable mistake' in claim Kavanaugh accuser...<https://t.co/02y2ELTDsK>

After stirring controversy by posting a series of tweets suggesting the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault misidentified her attacker, conservative strategist Ed...<https://t.co/02y2ELTDsK>
cnn.com<https://t.co/02y2ELTDsK>

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As contrite as Whelan supposedly is for his conduct, he's out there on Twitter now retweeting stories expressing doubts about Dr. Ford's story pic.twitter.com/0lPqnVKHdt<https://t.co/0lPqnVKHdt>
4:02 PM - Sep 23, 2018<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1043999038733934592>
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209 people are talking about this<https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1043999038733934592>
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Then, in his “mea culpa<https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/mea-maxima-culpa/>,” Whelan cast himself the victim of people criticizing him too much and suggested he’ll be back on the attack in no time:

I am grateful for all the consoling notes I have received, including some from very unexpected quarters. I fully deserve much of the criticism that others have directed at me, and I will not undertake here to distinguish between the fair critiques and the unfair ones. To those who have taken delight in being vicious towards me, I will say only that my self-rebuke stings far more than anything they can say.

(My emphasis.) No doubt there will be the “right time” for him to undertake a defense against what he terms “unfair” attacks.

I’m sure Whelan is  upset that his plan failed and his reputation sullied. I’m sure he believes he’s made an error in tactics. But the signs so far show not only that he failed to learn the right lesson from what he did but that he’ll be back at it again in no time.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Thousands at risk from rightwing push to purge eligible voters from US rolls”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101260>
Posted on September 24, 2018 8:02 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101260> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Guardian:<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/23/voters-purges-elections-rolls-americans-pilf?CMP=share_btn_tw>

Luis was also disturbed on behalf of hundreds of other people who also had their personal details – names, addresses and in some cases even home phone numbers – posted in the appendices of the Pilf reports. “I thought if my name is on the list, and I’m a US citizen, how many others were wrongly accused of being illegal ‘alien’ voters?”

Alien Invasion is one of the more startling examples of a growing rightwing push to pressurize election officials across the country to purge large numbers of people from the registered voter rolls. With the midterm elections<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-midterm-elections-2018> rapidly approaching, and with so much riding at both national and state level on voter turnout, the stakes could not be higher.

Voting rights experts warn that hundreds of thousands of eligible voters could face hurdles as they try to get to polling stations in November. African American, Hispanic or other minority communities, as well as young voters, are especially vulnerable to purges as they more frequently experience the kind of bureaucratic hiccups that can lead them to them being mistakenly ruled ineligible.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>

“Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky Strikes Down a Vague Ban on Speech in Polling Places, But Future Bans May Be Upheld”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101257>
Posted on September 24, 2018 7:48 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101257> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Interesting Mike Dimino<https://fedsoc.org/commentary/publications/minnesota-voters-alliance-v-mansky-strikes-down-a-vague-ban-on-speech-in-polling-places-but-future-bans-may-be-upheld> for the Federalist Society Review.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“Judge Orders Commerce Secretary To Testify About Census Citizenship Question”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101255>
Posted on September 21, 2018 6:24 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101255> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NPR:<https://www.npr.org/2018/09/21/649139452/judge-orders-commerce-secretary-to-testify-about-census-citizenship-question>

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to make its main official behind the 2020 census citizenship question<https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=4426784-Planned-Questions-2020-Acs#document/p11/a414610> — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — available to testify out of court for the lawsuits over the hotly contested question.

“Secretary Ross must sit for a deposition because, among other things, his intent and credibility are directly at issue in these cases,” U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman wrote in an opinion filed Friday<https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=4918198-2018-09-21-Opinion-and-Order-Dckt-345-0> with Manhattan federal court.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>

“Political nonprofits seek answers after court decision targeting ‘dark money’”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101253>
Posted on September 21, 2018 3:35 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101253> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WaPo:<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/political-nonprofits-seek-answers-after-court-decision-targeting-dark-money/2018/09/21/444692f6-bd3f-11e8-8792-78719177250f_story.html?utm_term=.c47caf5d227c>

As politically active nonprofits scramble to figure out the implications of a recent court decision<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/political-nonprofits-must-now-name-many-of-their-donors-under-federal-court-ruling-after-supreme-court-declines-to-intervene/2018/09/18/851ea210-bb72-11e8-9812-a389be6690af_story.html?utm_term=.65e38fe9b724> requiring them to disclose some of their donors, experts said one thing is clear: There will be ways around the new rules.

Groups could accept money through shell corporations, said campaign finance lawyers and advocates of more regulation of money in politics. They could shift money to allied super PACs. They could adjust their ads so they come right up against the line that would trigger disclosure.

Such jockeying has become commonplace as advocates push for more transparency about political contributions, particularly the giving from undisclosed donors they call “dark money.”

“It’s always been kind of a cat-and-mouse game about disclosure,” said Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California<https://www.washingtonpost.com/election-results/california/?tid=a_inl_auto> at Irvine. “I don’t think people who are heralding the end of ‘dark money’ are going to be satisfied with what we end up seeing.”
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

“Senate E-filing Launches New Era in Campaign Disclosures”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101251>
Posted on September 21, 2018 1:05 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101251> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Kate Ackley<https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/senate-e-filing-launches-new-era-campaign-disclosures> for Roll Call:

It’s been a good week for advocates of faster, and more, political money disclosure.

With President Donald Trump’s signature Friday, it’s official: Senate candidates now must file their campaign finance reports electronically with the Federal Election Commission, making it easier for reporters, voters and opponents alike to sift through donor and spending disclosures.

The change was tucked into a $147.5 billion government spending bill, which covers the tab for the legislative branch, the departments of Energy and Veterans Affairs, military construction and housing projects for U.S. troops.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>

--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
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