Re: [EL] more news 11/8/10

�Remember all the talk about the big bad Republican-leaning independent expenditures monopolizing the political marketplace in 2010? Not so much, according to data available from the Federal Election Commission. The FEC database shows $380 million in independent expenditures so far this year, with $158.3 million going to help Republicans and $157.9 million for Democrats -- the overwhelming majority of the money on both sides went into negative ads and messaging. That leaves roughly $64 million in expenditures that weren't coded as assisting either party. A quick Huddle look at those expenditures show that a good portion of that money went to intraparty primaries and that, of the rest, there's money on both sides. The bottom line: Democrats didn�t lose because they were swamped with Republican money.�

On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 5:15 PM, Rick Hasen <rick.hasen@lls.edu> wrote:

November 08, 2010

Eliza Asks

Rules of the Game: "Democrats and their allies face a tricky problem in the wake of a midterm defined by big money: Should they keep bashing interest group cash, or fight fire with fire?"

Posted by Rick Hasen at 02:13 PM

"For Mayor, the Odds Aren't Great"

Joshua Spivak has written this oped for the Miami Herald. It begins: "Facing a well funded recall campaign, Mayor Carlos Alvarez has good reason to worry. In addition to the fact that he could be forced to face the voters at a time of serious voter anger at elected officials, the nature of the recall operates against its target. Once on the ballot, recalls have a good chance of succeeding."

Posted by Rick Hasen at 12:59 PM

"Too much money in politics? Ain't seen nothing yet "

AP offers this report (with AP's apparent apologies to BTO).

Posted by Rick Hasen at 12:54 PM

"Kirk Can't Join Senate at Start of Lame Duck"

The WSJ Washington Wire reports. That makes my idea for Sen. Kirk to lead the fight for campaign finance disclosure in the lame duck even harder.

Posted by Rick Hasen at 12:50 PM

"Redistricting Could Give GOP Ten More Seats"

Following on my post here, more on the redistricting consequences of Tuesday's election at Political Wire, Hotline on Call, and Politico.

At Politico, Ben Smith also has links to two monstrous RNC spreadsheets showing partisan control for redistricting purposes, for Congress and the state legislatures.

The difference between the spreadsheets' bottom line and mine basically reflect different assessments of the photo-finish races:
- The RNC spreadsheet lists the Republicans controlling the Colorado state House (yielding split control overall)
- The RNC spreadsheet lists the Democrats winning the Illinois governor's race (yielding Dem control overall)
- The RNC spreadsheet lists the Democrats winning the Minnesota governor's race (yielding split control overall)
- The RNC spreadsheet lists the Republicans controlling the New York state Senate (yielding split control overall)
and with what now looks like a tie in the Oregon state House, that accounts for most of the difference.

Posted by Justin Levitt at 12:47 PM

"Foley concedes defeat, but GOP wants probe of Bridgeport vote"

That's a lucky break for Connecticut election administrators, who will now face much less intense scrutiny about the problems in the state's last election.

Posted by Rick Hasen at 11:32 AM

Missouri 3rd District Congressional Race: Candidate Concedes, as Some of His Fears of Voter Fraud Have "Evaporated"

Following up on this post, see here (via TPM).

Posted by Rick Hasen at 09:31 AM

--
Rick Hasen
William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
919 Albany Street
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rick.hasen@lls.edu
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http://electionlawblog.org

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