North Carolina says it has the “strictest anti-gerrymandering” standards in America.
Politifact says otherwise.
All posts by Justin Levitt
Redistricting and campaign finance
Eliza Newlin Carney goes deep on the funding of redistricting fights.
“Trump supporters eager to ‘drain the swamp’ help fill Republican Party coffers”
Matea Gold reports in the WaPo on a wave of small-dollar contributions to the RNC.
Further parsing the Gill oral argument
Mike Parsons on an exchange prompted by Justice Sotomayor.
Rick Esenberg says the court should just stay out entirely.
CNN talks about the cameras that weren’t inside.
And Eric McGhee, who claims the much-discussed “efficiency gap” as his own, blogs … Continue reading
“Politicians should get over their allergy to academia”
This op-ed about politicians actually takes off from Chief Justice Roberts’ “gobbledygook” quote in Gill. I also had a strong reaction to the “fake folksiness.” (It’s immune to Benadryl.)
“Trump-Tied Florida Lobbying Firm Made $5.2 Million Windfall Since the Election”
From the Miami New Times.
Trouble finding vendor to build Travis County voting system
There have been a few efforts to supplement the existing voting system market with new systems, built more-or-less ground-up by counties with a blue-sky approach. The counties start with a list of attributes and functions rather than grafting new features… Continue reading
MPSA Conference Proposals Due Today
Conference proposals — papers, roundtables, panels — due today for the 2018 MPSA conference.
Facebook and Russia
WSJ:
Facebook Inc. cut references to Russia from a public report in April about manipulation of its platform around the presidential election because of concerns among the company’s lawyers and members of its policy team, according to people familiar… Continue reading
IRS Audit Report on Criteria to Identify Tax-Exempt Applications for Review
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has another audit report released today, on the IRS screening of nonprofits for further scrutiny based on their names or perceived policies. (TIGTA also emphasizes that that IRS policy is no longer in… Continue reading
“Candidate, Party Fundraising Skyrockets in Latest FEC Summary”
BNA: fundraising by parties and congressional candidates reached a record high in the first six months of the 2018 federal election cycle. The article is behind a (ahem) paywall.
UPDATE: Here’s a non-paywall version of the piece.
St. Petersburg Limits Contributions to Super PACs, Spending by Corporations with Some Foreign Ownership
Coverage by the Tampa Bay Times.
The new provision appears to be premised on the notion that even if Super PACs can spend unlimited amounts, that doesn’t automatically imply that contributions to Super PACs have to be unlimited. I’ve… Continue reading
Questions about contributions from Trump’s lawyer to Manhattan DA
A sizable story in the New Yorker:
. . . Kasowitz, who by then had been the elder Donald Trump’s attorney for a decade, is primarily a civil litigator, with little experience in criminal matters. But, in 2012, Kasowitz… Continue reading
Brazil sets up significant public campaign finance fund
Reuters has the report.
UPDATE: The chief judge of Brazil’s electoral court says it’s not significant enough.