news of the day 6/1/05

Washington Trial: Day 6

How Will Reform Groups Come Down on FEC Regulation of Blogging?

With comments due to the FEC by Friday on its proposed regulations of campaign finance activity on the Internet, I still have not seen any comments submitted from the leading campaign finance organizations on the topic (for example, here is the Campaign Legal Center's page on the topic, with no mention of any filed comments). Back on May 2, I wrote: "One interesting observation from the Post article: 'Scott Thomas, the FEC's Democratic chairman, said it has yet to hear from the authors of the 2002 campaign finance reform legislation or any of the prominent watchdog groups on the disclaimer issue.' We really haven't gotten any of the usual suspects to submit a comment yet,' Thomas said." I think it is no mystery why: an online coalition of left and right bloggers are arrayed against it, and relentless in their opposition to any regulation of the blogosphere." Paul Ryan responded to this comment noting that there was still a month to go before comments were due.

Now, there are just days to go before comments are due. The fact that the comments have not yet been posted may reflect the tremendous political pressure that these groups will face should they decide to advocate any kind of regulation, even (as I have advocated) the modest requirement that bloggers who are paid by campaigns disclose this fact on their blogs.

I have enabled comments.

"A Different Tack For Campaign Finance Reform"

Eliza Newlin Carney offers this "Rules of the Game" column on bills to address the "demand" side of campaign finance.

"Prosecutor probing political Web site"

The Asbury Park Press (NJ) offers this report, which begins: "The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office is investigating whether any crime was committed in the creation of a Web site that is run by a Democratic campaign volunteer but uses the names of two Republican candidates for state Assembly."

"Defend Campaign Cash Reform"

The Denver Post offers this editorial, which begins: "Boy, that didn't take long. The sharks are already circling in the House of Representatives in a bid to loosen some of the restrictions of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. One bill would abolish contribution limits on individuals. The bill would also remove spending limits on national political parties."

(More) Bauer on (More) Treglia

See here.

Roll Call Endorses Rep. Tanner's Redistricting Bill

See here (paid subscription required). You can find a copy of the bill here.

"Ending the Gerrymander Wars"

The NY Times offers this editorial. A snippet: "National standards are needed that would require every state to draw Congressional districts in a way that put the voters' interests first. Representative John Tanner, a Tennessee Democrat, introduced a bill last week that would do just that. His bill would create nonpartisan redistricting commissions in every state. The commissions would be prohibited from taking the voters' party affiliations or voting history into account when drawing lines. Instead, the bill would emphasize continuity of counties, municipalities and neighborhoods. The bill would also limit Congressional redistricting to once every 10 years."

-- 
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://electionlawblog.org
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html