[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/16/19

[Rick Hasen]

“House Republicans Are Upset Democrats Are Investigating Voter Suppression Allegations”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104695>
Posted on April 16, 2019 6:55 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104695> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

HuffPost:<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/house-republicans-voter-suppression-probe_n_5cb4ed43e4b082aab08a9a45?75k>

House Democrats<https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/democratic-party> overstepped their authority by asking state officials for information as part of an inquiry into allegations of voter suppression, top Republicans<https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/republican-party> on the U.S. House’s investigatory committee said Monday<https://republicans-oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Election-Letters.pdf>.

The Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee voiced their objections Monday in a letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings<https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/elijah-cummings> (D-Md.), the committee chairman, and Rep. Jamie Raskin<https://www.huffpost.com/topic/jamie-raskin> (D-Md.), who chairs a subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties. The two Democrats sent letters to officials in Georgia, Texas and Kansas earlier this year<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/house-democrats-voter-suppression_n_5c9d1a5fe4b00837f6bc3660> asking for documents related to controversial election decisions in 2018.

“We have serious concerns that your letters appear to be an attempt to insert the Committee into particular state election proceedings, for which we do not see a legitimate legislative purpose,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the ranking member on the committee, wrote in a letter signed by three other Republicans. “By seeking voluminous records relating to election administration of sovereign states, your investigation offends state-federal comity. In fact, the respective states are already working to resolve any issues with their election administration.”…

The Republicans also wrote directly to the officials in the three states the committee is focused on and suggested the inquiry was not legitimate. One of the state officials, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton<https://www.huffpost.com/topic/ken-paxton> (R), told the committee last week<https://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/athena/files/2019/04/15/5cb497e6e4b0ffefe3b418b3.pdf> he was rebuffing the request for information. GOP Reps. Chip Roy (Texas), Jody Hice (Ga.) and Michael Cloud (Texas) also signed Jordan’s letter.

Raskin pushed back on the letter in a statement Monday evening, saying the committee had broad investigative power.
“The U.S. Congress has the power and obligation to enforce the voting rights of the people as spelled out in the 14th, 15th, 17th, 19th, and 24th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, a power we have exercised repeatedly in statutes like the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Americans with Disabilities Act to shut down state action hostile to democratic participation,” he said in a statement.


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Posted in The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Wall Street critic Waters rakes in corporate campaign money”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104693>
Posted on April 16, 2019 6:53 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104693> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politico<https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/15/maxine-waters-wall-street-1357237>:

Rep. Maxine Waters is embracing corporate campaign contributions as the new chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, even as some progressive Democrats have sworn off fundraising from businesses.

The California Democrat’s campaign received about $210,329 in contributions during the first three months of this year, most of which came from industry PACs, according to a Federal Election Commission filing<http://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/421/201904129146109421/201904129146109421.pdf>. About $38,329 came from individual contributions.

The figures suggest Waters is following through on a pledge to have an “open-door” policy with industry, even as she uses the gavel to crack down on financial firms in the name of consumer protection. In all, she saw her contributions grow nearly 18 times over from the $12,009 that her campaign reported<http://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/343/201709199074789343/201709199074789343.pdf> in the first three months of the last election cycle in 2017.

Waters’ allowance for corporate PAC donations sets her apart from other liberal icons such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who have pledged to not take the money. Some of it may come with the territory — Waters’ predecessor, former Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), was a top recipient of finance industry contributions, which he shared with fellow Republican candidates on and off the committee.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“Trump and Sanders Campaigns Lead 2020 Fund-Raising Race”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104691>
Posted on April 16, 2019 6:52 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104691> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/us/politics/2020-campaign-fundraising.html>

The two presidential candidates who entered 2019 with the largest bases of supporters — President Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont — led the 2020 field in fund-raising in the first quarter of the year.

Presidential candidates were under a Monday night deadline to file their fund-raising numbers for the first three months of 2019. The Trump campaign reported bringing in about $30 million<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/us/politics/trump-campaign-fundraising.html?module=inline> in the quarter, while Mr. Sanders’s campaign raised about $18 million<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/us/politics/bernie-sanders-fundraising-18-million-2020.html?module=inline> in the quarter.
Other Democrats reporting large hauls to the Federal Election Commission included Senator Kamala Harris of California, whose campaign raised about $12 million, and former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas, whose campaign raised more than $9 million.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“Trump’s 2020 plan: Target seniors on Facebook”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104689>
Posted on April 16, 2019 6:44 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104689> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Axios:<https://www.axios.com/trump-2020-plan-target-seniors-on-facebook-1555346862-b3bc5987-9e98-4837-9e55-aa479909ceb8.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top>

The Trump campaign is spending nearly half (44%) of its Facebook ad budget to target users who are over 65 years old, as opposed to Democratic candidates who are only spending 27% of their budget on that demographic, according to data given to Axios exclusively from Bully Pulpit Interactive.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>


“PolitiFact Florida: Have more Florida felons registered as Republicans since Amendment 4 took effect?”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104687>
Posted on April 15, 2019 2:50 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104687> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Politifact Florida<https://www.tampabay.com/florida/2019/04/15/politifact-florida-have-more-florida-felons-registered-as-republicans-since-amendment-4-took-effect/>.
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Posted in felon voting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>


“The Texas AG Says Voter Fraud Is A Big Problem. His Cases Suggest Otherwise.”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104685>
Posted on April 15, 2019 11:56 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=104685> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

HuffPost<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-voter-fraud_n_5cb105cfe4b098b9a2d3d766?537>:

The letter, which came as House Democrats investigate allegations of voter suppression<https://www.texasobserver.org/congressional-democrats-are-investigating-texas-targeting-of-naturalized-citizen-voters/> in Texas, trumpeted one of Paxton’s favorite statistics. All told, the letter said, the Election Fraud Unit had “prosecuted 33 defendants for a total of 97 election fraud violations” in 2018. The investigations and prosecutions have “taught us that organized voter fraud is happening in our state,” Jeffrey Mateer, the first assistant attorney general, wrote in the letter.

In fact, all but three of the 33 cases Paxton’s office touted ended with the accused entering a prosecution diversion program, HuffPost found through a public records request to Paxton’s office. (Another 15 cases are pending, and there are 75 active election fraud investigations, according to the AG’s office.) The 30 defendants who ended up in diversion programs had a stipulation of guilt, but generally, people who participate in such programs avoid criminal consequences so long as they don’t reoffend.

Prosecution diversions are typically used in cases where the accused doesn’t pose a major threat to public safety — maybe the offense is minor, the defendant is unlikely to reoffend, or the facts may not be sufficient for the government to win a case, experts told HuffPost. The fact that there are so many “de minimis,” cases — meaning too minor to merit consideration or prosecution — suggests that the Texas AG “wanted the numbers,” David Iglesias, the former United States attorney in New Mexico<https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/opinion/21iglesias.html>, said.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


--
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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