Category Archives: campaign finance

“New search tool traces sources of ‘dark money’”

August 3, 2016, 7:35 amcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

CPI: “Dark money” just got a bit of light shined on it, thanks to a new search tool unveiled today by the Center for Public Integrity. The Center downloaded 850,000 forms from about 250,000 nonprofits that were recently released… Continue reading

“The Courts and Election Law: The Divergent Fortunes of Crawford (Voter ID) and Citizens United (Super PACs)”

August 3, 2016, 7:34 amcampaign finance, election administration, Supreme Court, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Bauer blogs.

“Administering Politics: Rediscovering Campaign Finance and Public Administration”

August 2, 2016, 7:21 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

Sam Garrett has written this article for Administrative Theory and Praxis. Here is the abstract: Orthodox public administration separated politics from administration, leaving little room for campaigns. Subsequent work challenged orthodoxy’s premium on efficiency at the expense of democratic values.… Continue reading

“Isn’t It Ironic?: Koch-Backed Group Rails Against Corrupting Influence of Money in Politics”

August 2, 2016, 11:15 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Brendan Fischer blogs for the CLC.

“Court: Super PACs can be named after candidates”

August 2, 2016, 10:32 amcampaign finance, federal election commissionRick Hasen

Josh Gerstein: A federal appeals court has blocked a rule banning so-called super PACs from naming their groups after candidates for office. A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the Federal Election Commission appeared… Continue reading

“Update on CREW v. FEC”

August 1, 2016, 12:36 pmcampaign finance, federal election commissionRick Hasen

Release: After obtaining more than 1,600 pages of internal documents from the Federal Election Commission (FEC)’s investigation of the dark money group Commission on Hope, Growth and Opportunity (CHGO) which make it clear that CHGO was created for the… Continue reading

“Koch network seeks to defuse donor frustration over Trump rebuff”

August 1, 2016, 7:45 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Matea Gold for WaPo: Thirteen years after billionaire industrialist Charles Koch gathered a small group of his fellow libertarian donors in a Chicago hotel to discuss how to promote their economic theories, the network he launched is one of the… Continue reading

“Ballot measures explode across country — and so do their costs”

August 1, 2016, 7:26 amcampaign finance, campaigns, direct democracyRick Hasen

Reid Wilson reports for The Hill.

“Alexandra Pelosi Muses on the Donors She Convinced to Talk Candidly in Her New Film”

August 1, 2016, 7:23 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

NYT: Alexandra Pelosi, the documentary filmmaker, was strolling the Democratic National Convention last week when she spotted Jonathan Soros, the liberal megadonor, down the hall. She leapt into a broom closet to avoid him. “I’m hiding!” she explained the next… Continue reading

SuperPac Aims to Fill Trump Void in FL, OH, and PA

July 28, 2016, 5:36 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

What a quote from Ed Rollins to the NYT: “There is no structure I can find anywhere in those states from the Trump campaign,” Mr. Rollins said.

“After Lying Low, Deep-Pocketed Clinton Donors Return to the Fore”

July 28, 2016, 8:28 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

NYT reports.

“How elected officials exploit a campaign finance loophole to raise big piles of cash”

July 28, 2016, 8:19 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Kyle Whitmire for AL.com.

Gora in Adler’s Business and the Roberts Court

July 28, 2016, 8:13 amcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Jonathan Adler has edited this volume for OUP which has a great lineup of writers. Among them is one of my favorites (though we often disagree), Joel Gora, who wrote a chapter on the Roberts Court and Citizens United. Here… Continue reading

“George Soros Rises Again”

July 28, 2016, 8:09 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Politico: George Soros is back. The billionaire investor, who scaled back his political giving after a then-unprecedented $27 million spending spree to try to defeat George Bush in 2004, has quietly reemerged as a leading funder of Democratic politics… Continue reading