[EL] ELB News and Commentary 3/1/19

[Daniel Tokaji]

“Why Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s Money Man, Could Face Scrutiny Next”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103835>
Posted on March 1, 2019 4:22 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103835> by Dan
Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

NYT
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/nyregion/allen-weisselberg-facts-history.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage>
:

Mr. Cohen said he had paid Ms. [Stormy] Daniels with his own money, and
then was repaid by the Trump Organization….

Mr. Cohen submitted to Congress a copy of a $35,000 check … that he said
was one of those monthly payments.

It was signed by Mr. Weisselberg and Donald Trump Jr….

After Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud and other crimes
in August
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/nyregion/michael-cohen-plea-deal-trump.html?module=inline>,
federal prosecutors in Manhattan began focusing on what role the Trump
Organization and its executives, including Mr. Weisselberg, played in the
campaign finance scheme, according to people briefed on the matter.

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Posted in campaign finance <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
NH House Approves Redistricting Reform Bill
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103833>
Posted on March 1, 2019 4:08 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103833> by Dan
Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Concord Monitor
<https://www.concordmonitor.com/New-Hampshire-House-independent-redistricting-commission-party-lines-23818401>
:

House Bill 706 passed 218-123, but only 16 members of the Republican
minority voted in favor of the proposal, with 123 Republican members
against.

Crafted by Durham Democrat Marjorie Smith, the bill would create an
independent redistricting commission – a 15-member panel of New Hampshire
voters that would divvy up the districts and present a proposal back to
legislators.

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Posted in redistricting <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>
“Decades waiting to vote: Louisiana parolees, probationers set to get
voting rights back Friday” <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103830>
Posted on March 1, 2019 4:01 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103830> by Dan
Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

NOLA.com
<https://www.nola.com/news/2019/02/decades-waiting-to-vote-louisiana-parolees-probationers-set-to-get-voting-rights-back-friday.html>
:

Kenneth Johnston has never participated in an election before, but he’s
hoping by the time he arrives at his 70th birthday Saturday (March 2),
he’ll be registered to vote for the first time in his life.

Johnston, who is jokingly called “Biggy” because he is such a small guy, is
one of approximately 36,000 people on parole and probation in
Louisiana expected
to get their voting rights
<https://www.nola.com/news/2019/02/louisiana-will-be-ready-for-felon-voting-rights-change-officials-say.html>
restored
Friday. After 26 years out of prison and on parole, he said he’s not going
to waste any time signing up before the next election.

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Posted in felon voting <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=66>
“Trump’s 2020 money machine in disrepair”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103827>
Posted on March 1, 2019 3:55 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103827> by Dan
Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

Politico
<https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/01/trump-2020-super-pac-1197066?nname=playbook&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nrid=0000014e-f0f3-dd93-ad7f-f8f712890001&nlid=630318>
on
the Super PAC supporting the President’s reelection:

Trump political aides, members of the president’s family, and top
Republicans have been considering potential candidates to spearhead America
First Action’s 2020 fundraising efforts. They want someone with deep ties
to the president and the clubby world of major GOP donors.

But the nationwide search has so far come up empty. Super PAC organizers at
one point came up with a roster of around two-dozen names that included
Robert Kraft, who was never seriously considered but was quashed anyway
after the New England Patriots owner — a fixture at the president’s
Mar-a-Lago resort — was charged with soliciting prostitution.

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Posted in campaign finance <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
“Norma Paulus, pioneering Oregon woman politician and former secretary of
state, dead at 85” <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103823>
Posted on March 1, 2019 3:44 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103823> by Dan
Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

The Oregonian
<https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2019/02/norma-paulus-pioneering-oregon-woman-politician-and-former-secretary-of-state-dead-at-85.html>
:

*As the state’s top elections official, she helped bring about a fair
election when the Rajneeshees tried in 1984 to bus in homeless people to
hijack a local Wasco County election, a stance for which she gained
national attention. And she first instituted vote by mail in Oregon,
championing its use in normally low-turnout special elections.*

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Posted in Uncategorized <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
Shane Leong, “The Democracy Enhancement Fund”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103821>
Posted on March 1, 2019 3:38 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103821> by Dan
Tokaji <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=5>

New in ELJ <https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/elj.2018.0497>. From
the abstract:

*…. This article argues that creating a “democratic enhancement fund” (DEF)
would provide a better outcome for democracies that, for either financial
or political reasons, cannot provide sufficient funds to run a public
funding program. A DEF is a fund into which donors can make contributions,
which are then allocated across all parties according to the prevailing
public funding rules. The money received by the DEF is used to offset the
cost of a public funding program. DEF money may be necessary to adequately
fund public funding programs in jurisdictions where taxpayers are unwilling
to shoulder the full cost of doing so. Nonpartisan donors seeking political
access, particularly corporate donors, might prefer to donate in that
manner, as it leaves them less open to charges of trying to corruptly
influence decision making. While parties could still incentivize donors to
contribute to the fund by offering benefits to donors such as invitations
to functions attended by senior legislators, any funds raised would also be
shared by their political competitors. In this way, all legislators benefit
from a donation but lack sufficient motivation to show undue favor to
contributors.*

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Posted in campaign finance <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>
“The Electoral College Is the Greatest Threat to Our Democracy”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103817>
Posted on February 28, 2019 6:32 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103817>
by Rick Hasen <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Jamelle Bouie
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/opinion/the-electoral-college.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage>
for
NYT Opinion.
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Posted in electoral college <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=44>
Open Secrets Describes Hidden Money Trail Supporting Kavanaugh, Judicial
Nominations with Leonard Leo and PR Firm Which Concocted Zillowgate
Nonsense Against Dr. Ford at Center <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103814>
Posted on February 28, 2019 2:42 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103814>
by Rick Hasen <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Open Secrets
<https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/02/dark-money-group-led-by-trump-judicial-adviser-scotus-picks/?utm_source=CRP+Mail+List&utm_campaign=1a7343beb3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_02_28_02_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9df8578d78-1a7343beb3-206469445>
:

Newly obtained tax records shed additional light on the web of “dark money”
organizations tied to President Donald Trump’s top judicial adviser that
were used to funnel millions to organizations that boosted the Supreme
Court nominations of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

The Freedom and Opportunity Fund is helmed by Leonard Leo, a Trump
confidante and longtime executive vice president at the Federalist Society,
a national conservative and libertarian lawyers network based in
Washington, D.C.

Between its inception in 2016
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5749702-Freedom-and-Opportunity-Fund-2016-990.html>
and
2017, the fund donated $4 million
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5749670-Freedom-and-Opportunity-Fund-2017-990.html>
to
the Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), a D.C.-based dark money organization,
according to tax filings obtained by the Center for Responsive Politics and
MapLight. IWV was vociferous in its defense of Kavanaugh, who was accused
of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford, a Stanford professor who knew
the justice while he was in prep school. IWV’s president, Tammy Bruce, said
on Fox News <https://dailycaller.com/2018/09/24/bruce-kavanaugh-scapegoat/>
last
year that Kavanaugh was “effectively being used as a stand-in for all
perpetrators.”…

A central player in Leo’s network is a consulting and public relations firm
called Creative Response Concepts
<http://www.opensecrets.org/expends/vendor.php?vendor=Creative%20Response%20Concepts>
(CRC),
which gained notoriety for helping create Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
<http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtedetail_contribs.php?ein=201041228&cycle=2004>,
the group that attacked 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s
Vietnam war record.

CRC has received payments from many of the organizations in Leo’s web. The
firm was paid $400,000 by BH Fund
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5750532-BH-Fund-2017-990.html>
and $100,000
by America Engaged
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5750155-America-Engaged-2017-990.html>
in
2017. JCN has regularly paid CRC, as has the Wellspring Committee, which
has been JCN’s primary funder for many years. CRC has also worked with the
Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5205281-FACT-2017-990.html>, a
dark money-funded nonprofit that was previously run
<https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/11/one-donor-accounts-for-all-dark-money-funding-whitakers-nonprofit/>
by
Trump’s former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker.


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Posted in campaigns <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery
<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>
“Group running robocalls impersonating Trump’s campaign has already raised
more than $100,000” <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103812>
Posted on February 28, 2019 10:22 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103812>
 by Rick Hasen <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

CNN
<https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/28/politics/kfile-investigation-robocalls/index.html>
:

The call sounds like it is coming from President Donald Trump’s 2020
re-election campaign.


It even uses a recording of the President’s voice: “I’m Donald Trump.
Tonight I am asking you to defend our very dangerous southern border, out
of love and devotion to our country.” A deep-voiced narrator then comes on
asking the listener to “be one of the hundreds thousands of patriots that
helped President Trump finally build a the wall by making a one-time
urgently needed donation to the campaign.”


Calls like this one, said to number more than 200,000, have helped raise
more than $100,000 in January alone, but that money isn’t going to the
Trump campaign, whose spokesperson told CNN they were not affiliated with
the calls. Instead, the calls are coming from a political action committee
that isn’t affiliated with Trump’s re-election effort and hasn’t spent any
money so far in this or last election cycle, according to records from the
Federal Election Commission.


A CNN KFile investigation into the group behind the calls, Support American
Leaders PAC, reveals it is run by 32-year-old Matthew Tunstall, who has a
history of managing shadowy groups that target people with politically
charged calls in order to raise money while doing very little — if anything
at all — to put that money toward a political purpose. Tunstall made more
than $300,000 through these groups in the 2016 presidential cycle, FEC
records show.

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Posted in campaign finance <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, campaigns
<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery
<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>
“Biometrics and vote-by-phone: Is the fix to Florida’s election woes at our
fingertips?” <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103810>
Posted on February 28, 2019 9:29 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103810>
by Rick Hasen <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Deep dive
<https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article226594369.html>
by
David Smiley in the Miami Herald.
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Posted in election administration <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>, voting
technology <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>
“The Trump Foundation and the Private Foundation Termination Tax”
<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103808>
Posted on February 28, 2019 8:54 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=103808>
by Rick Hasen <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Ellen Aprill blogs.
<https://surlysubgroup.com/2019/02/28/the-trump-foundation-and-the-private-foundation-termination-tax/>
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Posted in tax law and election law <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>

Daniel P. Tokaji

Associate Dean for Faculty | Ebersold Professor of Constitutional Law

The Ohio State University | Moritz College of Law

55 W. 12th Ave. | Columbus, OH 43210

614.292.6566 | tokaji.1 at osu.edu
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