| Subject: Electionlawblog news and commentary 3/31/06 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 3/31/2006, 7:26 AM |
| To: election-law |
The LA Times offers this
report, which begins: "A candidate for Orange County sheriff must
remove a sentence from his ballot statement that describes the term of
the incumbent, Michael S. Carona, as a 'failure' marked by 'scandal
after scandal,' a judge ordered Thursday. Superior Court Judge Steven
Perk ruled that the 19-word sentence in Sheriff's Lt. Bill Hunt's
campaign statement violated the state election code, which restricts
statements to a candidate's qualifications and plans if elected.
Personal attacks on an opponent are not allowed."
Many blog readers know Michael Berman as the mastermind behind
California's partisan gerrymanders. But this
profile reveals a different side of Berman. It begins: "Michael
Berman is a Democratic loyalist and lawyer who has helped organize 10
presidential nominating conventions, worked on 11 presidential
campaigns and served two presidents. He is also a man known to eat an
entire salami, 2 pounds of chocolate or a 40-ounce steak in a single
sitting. Once during a starvation diet in a hospital, he hallucinated
cheeseburgers. He has weighed as much as 337 pounds." "His
just-released book, 'Living Large: A Big Man's Ideas on Weight, Success
and Acceptance,' is a revealing memoir about being fat in the
image-conscious business of politics."
AP offers this
report on debate over reauthorization of expiring provisions of the
Voting Rights Act.
The Washington Post offers this
report. My earlier coverage of this ruling is here.
Allison Hayward assesses the ruling's significance here.
The NY Times offers this
report. A snippet: "In the House, the Republican leadership intends
to bring a plan to impose new restrictions on 527 groups to the floor
next week to spur action in the Senate, where Senator John McCain,
Republican of Arizona, a champion of the campaign finance bill that
bears his name, is offering similar legislation."
-- 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