“2 Election Lawyers to Study Impact of ‘Super PACs’ on ’16 Race”

NYT:

“Super PACs,” the outside groups that can raise unlimited funds but can’t coordinate with candidates they support, have unquestionably had an impact on the 2016 presidential race. But to what extent and in what ways is not yet clear.

Two leading election lawyers – Bob Bauer, a Democrat, and Ben Ginsberg, a Republican – will lead a research project with major universities and veterans of presidential politics to answer that question, along with others about campaign finance, one of the premier issues of the 2016 presidential race.

Their report, to be issued in 2017, will draw on deep analysis of spending data, including looking at how campaign financing affected the nominating contests in both parties. The idea is not to be prescriptive but instead diagnostic about the way the huge changes in the campaign finance system since 2010 have altered presidential polit

UPDATE:

Here’s the full press release:

Political scientists from around the country have agreed to participate in a major research project to study the campaign finance system in the United States. The project, now underway, is expected to result in a public report to be issued in 2017.   


The project is being organized by  by Bob Bauer and Ben Ginsberg, formerly co-chairs of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, and the PCEA’s former Senior Research Director, Stanford Law Professor Nate Persily. With the generous support and other assistance from the Hewlett Foundation, the Democracy Fund, and the Hoover Institution, the project will involve an independent and rigorous examination of how money in a rapidly changing campaign system is being raised and spent, drawing on careful data collection and quantitative analysis, with additional material drawn for qualitative assessment from information made available by campaigns, parties and other political organizations. 


The report will not feature policy recommendations but will provide a descriptive account of campaign finance, including attention to political parties; independent and other non-party organizations; the changing media environment, such as the uses of digital communication and social media; disclosure of campaign funding and spending; and issues specific to the Presidential campaign process. 


Since their collaboration on the PCEA, Bauer, Ginsberg and Persily have continued to work together on election administration issues through the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington DC.  Bauer also teaches political law and reform at New York University School of Law, which is providing the administrative support for this new project, and Ginsberg and Persily have taught this subject together at Stanford.   

Share this: