Election-Campaign Law

McCain depending on GOP and Bush fundraising; Obama will bypass public financing

Posted on May 19, 2008
The New York Times reports: Pivoting toward the general election, Senator Barack Obama is turning again to his history-making fund-raising machine, which helped to anoint him as a contender against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and then became a potent weapon...

Missouri: voter I.D. proposal dies at end of session

Posted on May 17, 2008
The New York Times reports: Missouri lawmakers ended their legislative session on Friday without completing action on a proposed constitutional amendment that would have enabled election officials to require proof of citizenship from people registering to vote...

McCain issues conflict-of-interest rules for his staff

Posted on May 17, 2008
The New York Times reports: After expelling four advisers in the last week over concerns about their outside entanglements, Senator John McCain said Friday that his presidential campaign was beginning a new “vetting process” intended to end the embarrassments over...

Von Spakovsky withdraws, Reid claims victory

Posted on May 17, 2008
The Washington Post reports: A controversial Bush administration nominee to the Federal Election Commission withdrew from consideration yesterday, providing a likely breakthrough to an impasse that has sidelined the political watchdog agency at the height of the primary season...

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Scotland: expert casts doubt on 2007 election results

Posted on May 17, 2008
Scotland on Sunday reports: THE expert appointed to investigate last year s Scottish Parliament election fiasco has said some MSPs may have no right to sit at Holyrood. Elections watchdog Ron Gould revealed he is not comfortable with the view...

Von Spakovsky witndraws from FEC nomination

Posted on May 16, 2008
TPM Muckraker reports: After a five-month standoff, Hans von Spakovsky has withdrawn his NAME as a nominee to the FEC. The move likely clears the way for the deadlock over the FEC to be resolved. You can read his resignation...

A profile of Joaquin Avila

Posted on May 16, 2008
The Seattle University Magazine has this profile: Joaquin Avila is a highly lauded legal scholar, a distinguished assistant professor at Seattle University School of Law and a leading expert on minority voting rights. His many accomplishments—degrees from Yale and Harvard,...

Arizona: citizenship process operating too slowly to allow voting this fall

Posted on May 16, 2008
AP reports: Although immigration officials in Phoenix are churning out record numbers of new U.S. citizens, critics say federal officials aren t working fast enough so many immigrants won t become citizens in time to vote in November. The Phoenix...

New Hampshire: phone jamming case gets a going-over by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee

Posted on May 16, 2008
New Hampshire Public Radio reports: The phone jamming scandal from New Hampshire s 2002 election is now a contentious issue on Capitol Hill. Democrats are investigating what they say was White House involvement in the incident while Republicans say Democrats...

Ohio: Kerry really won, says researcher

Posted on May 15, 2008
John Q. Jacobs writes: The 2004 Ohio Presidential voting results do not accurately reflect voter intentions. In Cuyahoga County, the election was flawed and the design appears to have been manipulated. At locations with several ballot orders in use, many...

Presidential campaigns seek to restrict money to 527's

Posted on May 14, 2008
The Washington Post reports: Sen. Barack Obama's top fundraisers have asked his campaign donors to refrain from contributing to liberal independent political organizations in hopes of controlling the tone and message of the general-election campaign. At a meeting in Indianapolis...

"How Will Clinton Resolve Campaign Debt?"

Posted on May 14, 2008
Peter Overby on NPR reports on ways to pay the debt: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was some $10 million in debt at the end of March. Then she loaned her campaign $11 million. The campaign won't say what her...

Michigan: Feiger paralegal says FBI bullied her

Posted on May 13, 2008
The Detroit Free Press reports: A paralegal testified today that the FBI agent in charge of the criminal probe against Southfield lawyer Geoffrey Fieger tried to bully her when he questioned her about contributions she made at Fieger’s behest to...

Companies beginning to disclose lobbying expenses

Posted on May 13, 2008
The Washington Post reports: Ever wonder how much companies really spend to influence government through trade associations? Well, a few corporations are coming clean, or at least cleaner. The Center for Political Accountability, a nonpartisan group that promotes corporate political...

"Street money"

Posted on May 13, 2008
The New York Times reports: In the threadbare border towns of South Texas, one of the country’s poorest regions, enterprising locals like Candelaria Espinoza have long been paid to round up votes for candidates on Election Day. There is even...

It's homogenization, not gerrymandering

Posted on May 12, 2008
The New York Times reports: The buzz these days is that American politics may be entering a “postpartisan” era, as a new generation finds the old ideological quarrels among baby boomers to be increasingly irrelevant. In reality, matters are not...

Missouri: new voter I.D. proposal will require proof of citizenship

Posted on May 12, 2008
The New York Times reports: The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote...

A quick in-and-out as GOP convention chief

Posted on May 11, 2008
The New York Times reports: The public relations executive whom Senator John McCain’s campaign had chosen to run the Republican National Convention this summer resigned his post on Saturday after a magazine reported that his firm had lobbied for the....

Debt Relief for Hillary

Posted on May 10, 2008
The Trailhead blog at Slate.com reports: Ever since the Clinton campaign went on life support earlier this week, there’s been speculation that Barack Obama could persuade Hillary to drop out by promising to pay off her campaign debt. The Huffington...

Alabama: PAC-to-PAC tramsfer bill is in conference committee

Posted on May 09, 2008
The Birmingham News reports: An effort to ban shuffling money between political action committees is coming down to the final day of the legislative session. A conference committee on Thursday debated a watered-down version of the ban originally proposed by...

Preaching Truth (or some version of it) to Power (aka the IRS)

Posted on May 09, 2008
The Wall Street Journal reports: A conservative legal-advocacy group is enlisting ministers to use their pulpits to preach about election candidates this September, defying a tax law that bars churches from engaging in politics. Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz...

Texas: LULAC sues Texas Democratic Party over lack of Sec. 5 preclarance for "Texas two-step"

Posted on May 09, 2008
AP reports: The Texas Democratic Party was sued Friday by Latino advocacy groups that contend the complicated primary and caucus system used in the March 4 presidential primary unfairly diluted Latino votes. The League of United Latin American Citizens of...

Bush aids McCain by nominating new commissioners to FEC

Posted on May 09, 2008
The New York Times reports: For months, the White House and Senate Republicans have been content to let a political impasse over vacancies at the Federal Election Commission persist, sidelining the regulatory agency in the throes of a heated presidential...

The problem with "Hillary Clinton for the Supreme Court?"

Posted on May 09, 2008
Carlton Larson, writing on Prawfsblawg, suggests "Suppose Obama announced that he would name Hillary Clinton to the first Supreme Court vacancy of his term." -- PrawfsBlawg: Hillary Clinton for the Supreme Court? There is a small problem with that idea...

DNC analysis shows turnout in Dem primaries up and above GOP's

Posted on May 08, 2008
The DNC released a memo this afternoon showing From 2004 to 2008, for all states for which comparable data was available, Democratic turnout increased by significant margins—no state saw a decrease for Democrats and many states saw turnout increasing by...

Michigan: Feiger firm lawyer admits reimbursement of contributors at another firm

Posted on May 08, 2008
The Detroit Free Press reports: An attorney from Geoffrey Fieger’s law office, called as a prosecution witness to testify in the high profile lawyer’s federal trial for alleged illegal political fund-raising, told jurors today that he’d followed the same practices...

Kansas: legislature passes voter I.D. bill

Posted on May 08, 2008
The Kansas City Star reports: Lawmakers have passed a bill requiring Kansans to provide photo identification when they vote — starting in 2010 — but some Democrats expect a veto from Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. The governor’s office was noncommittal about...

Missouri: House approves constitutional amendment for voter I.D.

Posted on May 08, 2008
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: Voters could decide whether to enact a photo ID requirement for voting under a proposed constitutional amendment given first-round approval Wednesday by the Missouri House. Legislators approved a photo ID law in 2006, but it...

Indiana: first time voter prevented from voting in Dem primary

Posted on May 08, 2008
The Star Press reports: A first-time voter said he was not permitted to vote in Tuesday s Democratic Primary because a poll inspector believed he was a Republican. The reason the poll inspector believed Ball State University student Kyle Ellis,...

Office of Special Counsel was investigating the voter registration fraud case

Posted on May 08, 2008
The Project On Government Oversight POGO Blog: Internal Draft Document Reveals Bloch-Headedness The Project on Government Oversight Blog reports: POGO has gained access to an extraordinary internal DOCUMENT from the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency charged with...

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