| Subject: news of the day 11/24/03 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 11/24/2003, 7:20 AM |
| To: election-law |
See
GOP Group Joins Soft Money Fray, which begins: "A not-for-profit organization with strong Republican ties has re-formed in recent months with several top GOP strategists at the helm in an effort to counter the proliferation of soft-money groups on the Democratic side." (I doubt the group will be subject to the same subpoena effort directed at Democratic leaning organizations.)
NRCC Takes Barred Funds", which begins: "Officials at the National Republican Congressional Committee said they plan to immediately refund an illegal foreign contribution received through a fundraising telemarketing program featuring House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas)."
GOP Committees Keep Building Up Money Edges.
AFL-CIO Fails on Disclosure, which begins: "Officials at the AFL-CIO are blaming “human error” for the organization’s failure to report presumably millions of dollars spent lobbying Congress over the past two years, while insisting there had been no attempt made to shield the group’s lobbying activities from public view."
Presidential Funding Reform Proposed.
FEC Actions, which begins: "The Federal Election Commission adopted new rules last week allowing Members of Congress to be as deeply involved with their leadership PACs as they wish — without worrying that the committees will be deemed to be affiliated with their re-election efforts."
All articles require a paid subscription to access.
The Washington Times offers this
news out of Fairfax County, Virginia.
Following up on this controversy,
the Chicago Sun-Times offers Topinka
Blasts Democrats for Keeping Bush Off Ballot.
Following this
news about a Republican-dominated House committee using subpoenas
against Democratic organizations comes other subpoena news: Texas
Democrats Subpoena DeLay Over Map.
The Washington Post editorializes Mr. Soros's Millions; George Will writes Candor and Campaign Finance; and Chuck Raasch writes Campaign Reforms Also Bring New Black Holes in Political Universe.
See GOP
Lawmakers to Pay Dearly to Get Bush on Ballot in the Chicago
Sun-Times.
The article begins: "In a delicious political irony, House Republicans
were forced to go to great lengths Thursday to ensure that President
Bush's name gets on the Illinois ballot next year -- and Mayor Daley's
early-retirement package hung in the balance. The price the House GOP
paid to benefit Bush meant voting to spare Democrat Secretary of State
Jesse White steep election fines. Plus, they had to agree to Democratic
demands to permit the same type of flawed paper ballots to be counted
in Illinois that Republicans fought against in Florida to hand Bush the
2000 presidency.
But it turns out this report may have been premature. See here
and here.
Fallout from California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's decision to require a paper trail for DREs. See this Los Angeles Times report. See also reports in the Oakland Tribune; San Francisco Chronicle; San Jose Mercury News; A.P.; and Wired News.
The Mercury News article suggested possible litigation from
the disability community. Although I'm not entirely clear on the
theory, it appears to be that the requirement will encourage counties
to buy cheaper optical scan machines, which are harder for some
disabled voters to use. If there are other potential legal theories, I
would like to hear about them.
Don't miss these
comments by New York Times Supreme Court correspondent
Linda Greenhouse.
See this
A.P. report. See also this
summary of the bill and this
statement by the bill's sponsors.
Voting
rights advocates who have insisted that DRE (electronic) voting
machines have a verifiable paper trail scored a victory in California.
See this
Los Angeles Times article.
UPDATE: See this
A.P. report.
Jack Balkin offers these
thoughts
on Howard Dean's decision to withdraw from the public finance system.
Among Balkin's points: "So there is reason to be glad about what Dean
is doing. If he demonstrates that his model works, and and if both
major parties turn to the Internet and to a broad base of smaller
contributions as the best way to finance a campaign, we will ameliorate
the influence of money on politics. That is not because there will be
less money in the system, but because it will be raised and delivered
to the candidates in ways less corrosive of the democratic process."
-- Rick Hasen Professor of Law and William M. Rains Fellow Loyola Law School 919 South Albany Street Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211 (213)736-1466 (213)380-3769 - fax rick.hasen@lls.edu http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html http://electionlawblog.org