| Subject: news of the day 5/10/05 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 5/10/2005, 7:36 AM |
| To: election-law |
The Los Angeles Times has published my oped, Voter
Vouchers Can Help Clean Up Politics. It begins:
So is this independent spending yet another campaign finance "loophole" that should be closed, or is it something to be celebrated as part of the vigorous free exchange that should take place in the election season? It's neither. Instead, it's an unavoidable consequence of our private system for financing elections, and it cannot and should not be limited until we shift to full and fair public financing.
The New York Times offers this
editorial on 527s, concluding that "The loophole obviously needs
plugging, but the going is getting rough in both the House and Senate."
The Buffalo News offers this
report, with these colorful comments by election law scholar Jim
Gardner:
"To pony up this money as some sort of preliminary screening for some minor party?" he said. "That doesn't pass the smell test. It just stinks."
Jonathan Rauch offers these thoughts,
originally appearing in National Journal.
The commentary has the subhead: "Here's a new campaign finance reform
plan: Just stop." In a somewhat related commentary, Mike Thompson Jr.
writes Impoverishment
of Texas Politics in the Austin Review.
Bob Bauer offers these
thoughts, contrasting the views of FEC Commissioner Smith (writing
in the most recent issue of the Election Law Journal) and
Commissioner Thomas (looking at his recent congressional testimony).
-- Rick Hasen William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law Loyola Law School 919 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