Category Archives: campaign finance

“Judge voids key pieces of Arizona law gutting campaign finance rules”

December 7, 2018, 1:47 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

Arizona Republic: A judge has ruled that Arizona lawmakers violated the state Constitution on multiple fronts when they passed a sweeping overhaul of campaign-finance laws in 2016. Those changes illegally limit the power of the voter-approved Citizens Clean Elections Commission… Continue reading

Democratic and Republican AG Associations Collecting Big Bucks

December 7, 2018, 12:16 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Corporate Counsel: Midterm contribution records from Political MoneyLine show corporations gave big to both parties in the AG races. For instance, DAGA’s top contributors were unions such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers ($350,000), its top donor. But… Continue reading

“Documents Point to Illegal Campaign Coordination Between Trump and NRA”

December 6, 2018, 12:44 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

The Trace: Reporting by The Trace shows that the NRA and the Trump campaign employed the same operation — at times, the exact same people — to craft and execute their advertising strategies for the 2016 presidential election. The… Continue reading

“After Citizens United, a Vicious Cycle of Corruption”

December 6, 2018, 11:13 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Tom Edsall NYT column: Since 2010, when the case was decided, independent expenditures and other forms of outside spending have grown exponentially, according to OpenSecrets. In 2010, independent expenditures totaled $203.9 million; in 2016, it was $1.48 billion. In… Continue reading

“18 Things We Learned About Money in Politics in 2018”

December 5, 2018, 2:02 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs.

Supreme Court Will Consider Whether to Take Major Montana Campaign Contributions Case at Its January 4 Conference, A Case Which Could Pave the Way for Killing Federal Campaign Contribution Limits

November 30, 2018, 11:30 amcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

According to the docket. It could also be when the Court considers whether to take the Austin campaign finance case. As I wrote in Slate back in September: As Common Cause’s Steve Spaulding notes, “Kavanaugh himself acknowledges in the… Continue reading

Justice Kennedy Stands By the Correctness of His Citizens United Opinion

November 28, 2018, 1:10 pmcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

NLJ: When asked if, in the wake of the huge influx of money into elections, he had any regrets about his majority opinion in Citizens United v. FEC, he said the decision “stands for itself.” “It’s true there’s a problem… Continue reading

Ninth Circuit, on 2-1 Vote, Rejects Limits on Non-Resident Contributions to Alaska Elections, Upholds Other Alaska Campaign Finance Limits

November 27, 2018, 11:17 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

You can find the opinion in Thompson v. Hebdon at this link. The court majority (Callahan, Bea) held that the part of the Alaska law limiting out-of-state residents from contributing more than $3,000 per year to Alaska elections violated… Continue reading

“Fixing Campaign Finance Needs to Be at the Center of Democracy Reform”

November 26, 2018, 3:26 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs.

“N.Y. Democrats Vowed to Get Big Money Out of Politics. Will Big Money Interfere?”

November 23, 2018, 12:27 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

NYT: In the months before the Nov. 6 elections, New York’s Senate Democrats received $25,000 from a mysterious group of five donors, with names like 2332 7 Ave L.L.C., 207 Silver Lane L.L.C. and 228 W 132 L.L.C. The… Continue reading

“Democrats plan ‘aggressive’ oversight of Federal Election Commission”

November 20, 2018, 7:41 amcampaign finance, federal election commissionRick Hasen

CPI: For most of this decade, Congress has all but ignored the perpetually gridlocked Federal Election Commission, which exists to enforce and regulate the nation’s campaign finance laws. No longer, two Democratic congressional representatives tell the Center for Public Integrity… Continue reading

“GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson is winning a medal. But are Republicans losing the political money war?”

November 16, 2018, 7:26 amcampaign finance, Plutocrats UnitedRick Hasen

CPI: But Adelson’s Presidential Medal of Freedom — which liberals are mocking as an award for the $113 million Adelson and her billionaire casino mogul husband, Sheldon Adelson, contributed to conservative candidates, super PACs and other political committees during the… Continue reading

“The Inexplicable Absence of the Voters in the Campaign Finance Debate”

November 15, 2018, 9:00 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Elizabeth Reese has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Houston Law Review). Here is the abstract: The rich are getting richer, and money talks. Since Citizens United, there has been widespread outrage about the role of money in politics. Advocates… Continue reading

“Evaluating the Seattle Democracy Voucher Experiment”

November 11, 2018, 1:32 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

Jen Heerwig for Sludge, with the subhead: “A 2017 program showed ‘democracy vouchers’ for Seattle elections doubled the amount of users over traditional cash donors, and that participants were more representative of the city’s population in terms of income,… Continue reading