news of the day 2/10/05

Call for Better Campaign Finance Disclosure in Kansas

"House passes bill targeting independent voter affiliation"

The Union Leader (NH) offers this report, which begins: "The New Hampshire House passed a bill yesterday that will change the procedures independent voters follow after they vote in primary elections. House Bill 154, which now heads the state Senate, would require independent voters to remain a registered Democrat or Republican, depending on which primary they voted in, for 90 days before they could re-register as an independent."

"Top FEC Officials Urge Higher Spending Limit"

The Washington Post offers this report.

More on NASS-EAC Bickering

See this BNA report (paid subscription required).

CFI Issues Interesting New Report on 527s in the 2004 Election

The report is here. The press release is here. Click on the release for a summary of the fascinating findings.

Citizens to Save California Sues to Overturn FPPC Regulations on Candidate Controlled Ballot Measure Committees

You can find the complaint here. You can find an earlier post on the constitutional questions raised here. This issue will be of immediate importance in California. Although Assembly member Richman is a plaintiff in the case just filed as a candidate who wants to partially "control" Citizens to Save California, the real issue is Gov. Schwarzenegger's degree of control, as he's out there asking $100,000 to sit with him at a fundraiser for CSC, whose board is full of Schwarzenegger cronies. Because donations to Schwazenegger's controlled California Recovery Team (which raised over $18 million in the last election cycle, many in six and seven figure donations) are now limited to $22,500, the extent to which Schwarzenegger will be successful in his expected special election depends in a large part on how this litigation goes. UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times story is here . The quote from me could be a bit misleading. My point about corruption and its appearance applies only to candidate-controlled ballot measure committees. You can find additional coverage of the lawsuit here, here, and here.

"McCain-Feingold 'Antidote' Introduced in the House"

CNSNews offers this report. The proposed legislation, which would repeal some of BCRA's electioneering communcations provisions, is sponsored by Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md) and has 40 co-sponsors.

"Official Disputes Vote Tally Assertion"

The Seattle Times offers this report, which begins: "A Metropolitan King County councilman who once served on the county canvassing board is disputing election officials' claim that there is nothing unusual in their inability to figure out who cast 1,800 ballots in the Nov. 2 gubernatorial election." The newspaper also links to this report issued by King County election officials.

-- 
Professor Rick Hasen 
Loyola Law School 
919 Albany Street 
Los Angeles, CA  90015-1211 
(213)736-1466 - voice 
(213)380-3769 - fax 
rick.hasen@lls.edu 
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html 
http://electionlawblog.org