"In Campaign Law, 'Less' Is Not Always More"

Trevor Potter responds in Roll Call to Marc Elias's recent commentary there. You can find Trevor's oped without a subscription here. A snippet:

The truth is that campaign finance isn't more complicated than most other areas of the law, and is a good deal less complex than many. And like most areas of the law, when the regulated community expresses its desires in the sheep's clothing of "simplicity," what they really want is the wolf — complete freedom from laws that restrict their activities, even if those rules serve the public interest.

Multi-millionaires to Face Off in N.J. Gov.'s Race

See here.

Will a Special Session of the Connecticut Legislature Tackle Public Financing of Campaigns?

See this report.

The Costs of Uncertainty Over Which Bloggers Might Be Covered by the Media Exemption

Allison Hayward, formerly counsel to FEC Commissioner Brad Smith, weighs in here on the question over at her new blog, Skeptic's Eye. The blog covers, among other topics, FEC and Campaign Finance Law.

"GOP Pushes Bill Easing Election Spending Limits"

The Washington Post offers this report, which begins: "The House Administration Committee, acting with the support of the Republican leadership, yesterday approved legislation to dismantle many of the campaign contribution and spending limits enacted over the past 30 years. Under the bill, one donor could direct as much as $1 million in support of a candidate for federal office."

BCRA Sponsors Weigh in on FEC Internet Blogging Regulations

You can find the comments of Sens. McCain and Feingold and Reps. Shays and Meehan here. These comments, unsurprisingly, track the comments of the Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21, and the Center for Responsive Politics. Like those comments, the BCRA sponsors want an exception for incorporated internet bloggers whose primary purpose is to blog and they endorse the pretty draconian rules on the use of corporate-owned computers for personal blogging. (For more on this point, see here and here.)

Who Wants to Comment at FEC Hearing on the Internet?

See here.

Conference on the Future of the Voting Rights Act

The Russell Sage Foundation is holding a conference, "The Coming Fire: Conference on the 2007 Renewal of the Voting Rights Act," June 24-25 in New York. The foundation will also publish a book based on the conference papers, "The Future of the Voting Rights Act," edited by Rick Pildes, Rudy de la Garza, David Epstein, and Sharyn O'Halloran. Here is the agenda for the conference:

Session 1: Political Background
Friday, 1:30 - 3:00 PM

1) Morgan Kousser (Caltech):
The Strange Career of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act
2) Bruce Cain (UC Berkeley) & Karin MacDonald (UC Berkeley):
Phases of VRA Enforcement over Four Decades
3) David Epstein (Columbia) & Sharyn O’Halloran (Columbia):
Redistricting & Substantive Representation

Discussant: Fred Harris (Rochester)

Session 2: Legal Background
Friday, 3:30 - 5:00

4) Rick Hasen (Loyola):
Congressional Power to Renew Section 5
5) Heather Gerken (Harvard):
A Third Way for the Voting Rights Act?: Toward a More Dynamic Regulatory Strategy
6) Sam Issacharoff (Columbia):
The Legal Conundrum Facing VRA Section 5 Renewal

Discussant: Robert Lieberman (Columbia)

Session 3: Emerging Issues in Voting Rights
Saturday, 9-10:30

7) Rodolfo de la Garza (Columbia) & Louis DeSipio (UC Irvine):
Re-envisioning the VRA for 21st Century Latino Communities
8) Laughlin McDonald (ACLU Voting Rights Project):
Native Americans and Section 5 of the VRA
9) Steve Ansolabehere (MIT):
Technological Innovations and Minority Enfranchisement

Discussant: Jennifer Hochschild (Harvard)

Session 4: Looking Ahead: Legal Options
Saturday, 11 – 12:30

10) Pam Karlan (Stanford):
The Evidentiary Standard for a Renewed Section 5
11) Rick Pildes (NYU):
Section 5 and the Regulation of Political Competition
12) Nathaniel Persily (University of Pennsylvania):
Retrogression in an Age of Partisan Competition

Discussant: Richard Briffault (Columbia)

Session 5: Looking Ahead: Political Options
Saturday, 1:30 – 3:00

13) Bernard Grofman (UC Irvine) & Lisa Handley (Frontier IEC):
Extending Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act
14) David Epstein (Columbia) & Sharyn O’Halloran (Columbia):
The Unintended Consequences of Section 5
15) Michael McDonald (George Mason):
A View from Afar: Options for VRA Extension

Discussant: Robert Erikson (Columbia)

Session 6: Final Wrap-up / Discussion
Saturday, 3:30 – 4:30

New Lawsuit Against Schwarzenegger Committees

Therestofus.org has posted this press release, which begins: "Campaign finance watchdog TheRestofUs.org filed a motion in Sacramento County Superior Court on May 31, 2005, asking the court to enjoin the Recovery Team from accepting any further contributions over $5,600 and to force the Recovery Team to disgorge any contributions in excess of the legal amount. The activity that would be enjoined is just part of a larger pattern of using multiple committees to evade California’s contribution limits, said the group." You can find the law and facts supporting the motion for preliminary injunction here.

-- 
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