[EL] ELB News and Commentary 5/13/19

[Rick Hasen]

“Rudy Giuliani Cancels His Trip to Ukraine, Blaming Democrats’ ‘Spin’”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105112>
Posted on May 12, 2019 8:29 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105112> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

NYT:<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/11/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-ukraine.html>

Facing withering attacks accusing him of seeking foreign assistance for President Trump’s re-election campaign, Rudolph W. Giuliani announced on Friday night that he had canceled a trip to Kiev in which he planned to push the incoming Ukrainian government to press ahead with investigations that he hoped would benefit Mr. Trump.

Mr. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, explained that he felt as if he was being “set up” by Ukrainians critical of his efforts, and he blamed Democrats for trying to “spin” the trip.

“They say I was meddling in the election — ridiculous — but that’s their spin,” he said.

Mr. Giuliani said on Thursday<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/us/politics/giuliani-ukraine-trump.html?module=inline> that he had hoped to meet in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, with the nation’s president-elect and urge him to pursue inquiries that could yield new information about two matters of intense interest to Mr. Trump. One is the origin of the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The other is the involvement of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/politics/biden-son-ukraine.html?module=inline> in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.

The trip raised the specter of a lawyer for Mr. Trump pressing a foreign government to pursue investigations that his allies hope could help him win re-election. And it comes after Mr. Trump has spent more than half of his term facing scrutiny about whether his 2016 campaign conspired with Ukraine’s hostile neighbor, Russia. Mr. Giuliani had planned to leave on Sunday.
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Posted in campaigns<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


“Minor parties bristle at Democratic meddling under ‘fusion’ loopholes”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105110>
Posted on May 12, 2019 1:06 pm<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105110> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

The Buffalo News reports<https://buffalonews.com/2019/05/11/minor-parties-bristle-at-democratic-meddling-under-fusion-loopholes/>.
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Posted in Uncategorized<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“Voter-Determined Districts: Ending Gerrymandering and Ensuring Fair Representation”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105107>
Posted on May 11, 2019 8:27 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105107> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New CAP report f<https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2019/05/09/468916/voter-determined-districts/>rom Alex Tausanovitch:

Introduction and summary

From 2012 to 2016, the people of Michigan cast more than 50 percent of their ballots for Democratic Party legislative candidates. They voted for Democrats 52 percent of the time for the Michigan House of Representatives; a little more than 50 percent of the time for the Michigan Senate; and 51 percent of the time for the U.S. House of Representatives.1<https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2019/05/09/468916/voter-determined-districts/#fn-468916-1> So one would expect that slightly more than half of Michigan elected officials during this time were Democrats.
Instead, Republicans held a decisive advantage at every level of government. Despite earning a majority of the vote, Democrats received only 44 percent of seats in the Michigan House of Representatives; 31 percent of the seats in the Michigan Senate; and 35 percent of the seats in Michigan’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives.2<https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2019/05/09/468916/voter-determined-districts/#fn-468916-2> Although this degree of misalignment is severe, it is not unusual. Currently, districts in most states are drawn in ways that are gerrymandered—meaning the lines are manipulated to favor one group over another—because the process allows elected representatives to choose their voters rather than allowing voters to choose their representatives.


The first step in addressing this problem is to create a process for drawing districts that is not controlled by incumbent politicians. But changes to the process are not enough. Independently drawn maps can have the same effect as intentional gerrymanders if they are not drawn according to the right set of criteria. In fact, proposals that have gained widespread acceptance do not directly address the misalignment between voters and their representatives.

Fortunately, there is a solution, and it is surprisingly simple: purposefully drawing districts to reflect the political choices of voters—what this report terms “voter-determined districts.” Voter-determined districts are based on the principle that the makeup of the legislature should reflect the preferences of voters statewide.

This report provides data on the partisan skew of state legislative and congressional districts and explains why a shift is needed in the policy debate about redistricting reform. It also explains some of the sensible reasons why the effort to stop gerrymandering has not, until now, been focused on drawing voter-determined districts. Finally, the report outlines how to implement voter-determined districts while also achieving two other critical goals: maximizing representation for communities of color and ensuring adequate electoral competition.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>


“Ohio, Michigan legislators seek partisan-gerrymandering stays”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105105>
Posted on May 11, 2019 8:25 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105105> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

SCOTUSBlog:<https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/05/ohio-michigan-legislators-seek-partisan-gerrymandering-stays/>

At the end of March, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in two cases challenging federal congressional districts in North Carolina<https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/rucho-v-common-cause-2/> and Maryland<https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/lamone-v-benisek/> as the product of unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering. A key question in both cases was whether courts should review partisan-gerrymandering claims at all, or instead leave the issue to politicians and the political process. Citing the uncertainty surrounding that issue, Republican legislators from Ohio and Michigan today asked the Supreme Court to put lower-court rulings that found partisan gerrymandering in those states on hold while they appeal.
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Posted in redistricting<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Ex-Fugees rapper charged in campaign finance conspiracy case”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105103>
Posted on May 11, 2019 8:23 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105103> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

AP<https://www.seattletimes.com/business/ex-fugees-rapper-charged-in-campaign-finance-case/>:

One of the founding members of the 1990s hip-hop group the Fugees has been charged in a campaign finance conspiracy that took place during the 2012 presidential election, the Justice Department said Friday.


A four-count indictment accuses Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of conspiring with fugitive Malaysian financer Low Taek Jho, usually known as Jho Low, to make and conceal foreign campaign contributions. He is alleged to have used straw donors to give campaign contributions to a U.S. presidential candidate, who is identified in the indictment only as Candidate A.
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Posted in campaign finance<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, chicanery<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12>


North Carolina: “State Board of Elections to oust executive director”<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105101>
Posted on May 10, 2019 8:54 am<https://electionlawblog.org/?p=105101> by Rick Hasen<https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

WRAL<https://www.wral.com/state-board-of-elections-to-oust-executive-director/18378085/>:

The state’s new Democratically controlled Board of Elections will move to oust its longtime executive director, a Republican appointee, next week.

Kim Strach, originally appointed by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in 2013<https://www.wral.com/elections-board-picks-new-director/12399549/>, has technically been on borrowed time since the new board formed in January. Soon after the board’s first meeting, state law gave members the authority to reappoint Strach or appoint a new director to a new two-year term expiring in May 2021.

That new legislation was the result of a protracted court battle between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican leaders in the state legislature, as they sought control over appointments to the state elections board. Democrats now outnumber Republicans on the board 3-2.

It’s not yet clear whether the new executive director will replace Strach immediately or after some period of transition….

Strach took the helm of the agency after a newly Republican board booted her predecessor, Gary Bartlett, a Democrat who held the post for two decades.
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Posted in election law biz<https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=51>



--
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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