Racially Polarized Voting in Maryland

Richard Morin writes Whites Take Flight on Election Day for the Washington Post. It begins: "Bad news for Michael S. Steele, the leading Maryland Republican candidate for Senate in November: The scuttling noise he hears on Election Day could be the sound of tens of thousands of white Republicans crossing over to vote for the Democrat." Thanks to David Becker for the pointer.

"Term-limit pledges get left behind"

USA Today offers this report. Link via Orin Kerr.

"Cleaning Up: Can the new Tennessee Ethics Commission Act of 2006 make state government spotless?"

Stephen J. Zralek has this cover story in the Tenn. Bar Journal.

"Candidates told to account for public money outlays; Portland - The city auditor's request comes after one council hopeful reports paying her teenager $12,500"

The Oregonian offers this report. Thanks to Greg Howe for the pointer.

"Home Rule and Local Political Innovation"

Richard Briffault has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming Journal of Law and Politics). Here is the abstract:

As demonstrated by San Francisco's recent adoption of instant runoff voting and New York City's recent expansion of its program for funding candidates for municipal office, local governments around the country have been actively engaged in examining and revising electoral and governmental processes. These local initiatives include alternative voting systems, campaign finance reforms, conflicts of interest codes, term limits, and revisions
to tax, budget and legislative procedures. These local innovations illustrate both the capacity of local governments to restructure basic features of their political organization and their interest in doing so.

Local political innovations also test the scope of local legal authority under home rule. Local innovation may be challenged as either unauthorized by state law or, more commonly, as inconsistent with and thus preempted by state laws governing local structure and elections. This paper examines local political innovations, their reception
in state courts and the implications for home rule and political reform more generally. It finds that to a considerable degree state courts have upheld local innovations either by recognizing the dominant local interest in questions of local government structure or by determining that state laws do not preclude local departures from state-prescribed models. These political innovation cases suggest techniques that may be used to expand local legal autonomy.

More generally, local political innovations show localities - as well as, if not more than, states - can be laboratories of democracy. A significant benefit of local freedom to innovate under home rule can be the local introduction and testing of political reforms than can national benefits.

"Infernal Vernon"

The LA Times offers this editorial.

Final Signed Order in post-Padilla Loma Linda Referendum Case

It is 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