| Subject: Electionlawblog news and commentary 3/7/06 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 3/7/2006, 7:26 AM |
| To: election-law |
The Los Angeles Times offers this report, which begins: "San Bernardino County prosecutors are investigating a signature collection firm that submitted thousands of flawed voter registration forms on behalf of the county's Republican Party, authorities said. The district attorney's public integrity unit launched an investigation after the registrar of voters received complaints from people who said they had been improperly registered as Republicans during a recent GOP registration drive. "
The Sarasota Herald Tribune reports:
"Already trying to avoid the media, Longboat Key Republican Katherine
Harris is now canceling campaign stops in Southwest Florida as
questions swirl about her ties to a Washington, D.C., defense
contractor at the center of an ongoing national bribery scandal."
Harris is running for U.S. Senate from Florida.
Roll Call offers this
report (paid subscription required). A snippet: "Senate Democrats
are considering a slew of amendments to toughen the measure in areas
where it falls short of the Democratic plan. The likely proposals fall
under four categories: slowing the 'revolving door' between Congress
and K Street; limiting gifts and travel sponsored by lobbyists;
cracking down on the GOP’s lobbying-jobs program known as the K
Street Project; and creating a new enforcement regime to oversee
compliance with the rules." Meanwhile, The Hill reports:
"House Republican leaders have told their Senate counterparts that
legislation curtailing the activity of so-called 527 soft-money groups
will be included in the House lobbying-reform bill that leaders intend
for conference negotiations, according to knowledgeable sources."
James Sample has written this
Slate commentary on yesterday's cert. denial in the Supreme
Court in the Avery v. State Farm case. A snippet: "The
statistics illustrate that the public intuitively knows what
constitutional theorists strive to prove—that judicial independence
matters. Elected legislators are expected to serve
interest-group constituencies. They are expected to build coalitions;
to promise outcomes; and to be held accountable for those promises. The
representative branches function best when officials are lobbied by
contributors and non-contributors alike. But judges--including elected
judges--are different. They function best when 'lobbied' not at all, or
only within the adversarial process and on the basis of law. Judges are
accountable for the fundamental American promise of fair trials before
impartial arbiters. Therein lies the tragic consequence of money's
increasing influence in judicial elections. In the long term, we all
suffer--including interest groups--when any decision reinforces
suspicions that the biggest donor, and not the best case, wins."
The Brennan Center's Democracy Program is seeking to hire: (1) a
junior attorney, who will work on voting rights (especially the rights
of people with felony convictions) and reform of election
administration (including registration restrictions, photo ID
requirement for voting, and other practices likely to have a
disproportionate impact on communities of color); and (2) a political
scientist, to serve as a policy analyst, who will work on redistricting
and election administration, including campaign finance reform. Both
positions will commence in the fall of 2006. Deadline for applications
is March 15. More info here.
Those interested in the issue of FEC regulation of internet based
political activities should not miss Bob Bauer's new post.
See this
press release, which notes that "The launch of the campaign
coincides with the release of two new ACLU reports outlining the
continued need for the act. The first report, The Case for Extending
and Amending the Voting Rights Act: Voting Rights Litigation,
1982-2006, is an 867 page report documenting 293 ACLU cases brought in
31 states to protect the right to vote and challenge discrimination in
voting. ...The second report, Promises to Keep: The Impact of the
Voting Rights Act in 2006, details the practical effects of the Voting
Rights Act and discusses the impact of the law in eliminating
discrimination and granting access to the ballot box for minorities."
Meanwhile, the DOJ is using its VRA powers to monitor
primary elections in Texas.
-- 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