Category Archives: campaign finance

“Georgians kept in the dark about many ad sponsors”

June 29, 2017, 8:49 pmcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Issue One: This year, residents of Georgia’s 6th Congressional District were bombarded with a seemingly never-ending cascade of political advertisements. But figuring out who was really behind this $60 million spending spree is nothing short of a Herculean task. Our… Continue reading

“Lawsuit challenges Seattle campaign ‘democracy vouchers’”

June 29, 2017, 8:09 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Seattle Times: The U.S. Supreme Court has generally upheld the public financing of campaigns, within the limits of the First Amendment, saying that “public financing as a means of eliminating the improper influence of large private contributions furthers a significant… Continue reading

Pacific Legal Foundation Sues over “Democracy Vouchers” in Seattle

June 28, 2017, 1:34 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

Release: Seattle’s new “democracy voucher” program flouts the First Amendment by forcing property owners, through a new tax, to subsidize other people’s political campaign donations and fund candidates not of their choosing. There is nothing special about vouchers. All public… Continue reading

Did Sen. McConnell Choose the “BCRA” Name for His Health Care Law to Stick It to McCain-Feingold Supporters?

June 28, 2017, 9:36 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

A reader emails with an interesting theory: Plenty of pundits (presumably non-ELB readers) have recently puzzled aloud about the title that Majority Leader McConnell gave to the Senate substitute to the American Health Care Act (“weirdly named,” said Ryan Grim).… Continue reading

New CFI Report: Unlimited Party Contributions Don’t Help Ease Polarization

June 27, 2017, 7:44 amcampaign finance, political parties, political polarizationRick Hasen

Release: (my emphasis) The Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) today is releasing a new study entitled Party Contribution Limits and Polarization. The study refutes one of the policy solutions put forward in recent years for a problem that almost everyone… Continue reading

“St. Petersburg City Council votes to move forward a model law to abolish super PACs and limit foreign corporate money in local elections.”

June 22, 2017, 2:10 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

Release.

“Dark Money Turns Elections Into Trench Warfare”

June 21, 2017, 4:16 pmcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy at Bill Moyers.

FEC Commissioner Weintraub Pushes Again for FEC to Consider Foreign Money Issue

June 21, 2017, 7:09 amcampaign finance, federal election commissionRick Hasen

Read the memorandum.

“Tax credits for small donors in politics should be part of tax reform”

June 19, 2017, 10:41 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Larry Norden and John Pudner oped for USA Today.

“Collecting Campaign Cash from the Homeless”

June 16, 2017, 8:18 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Eliza Newlin Carney on Seattle’s experiment with campaign finance vouchers. Longtime ELB readers know I’ve been touting vouchers for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time.

“Center for Public Integrity sues Federal Election Commission”

June 16, 2017, 8:13 amcampaign finance, federal election commissionRick Hasen

CPI: On Feb. 6, Center for Public Integrity senior political reporter Dave Levinthal filed a FOIA request seeking any email exchanges between a White House and FEC official. On May 8, the FEC informed Levinthal that it had located responsive… Continue reading

“CLC Lawsuit Demands DOJ Provide Documents Relating to Private Prison Company GEO and Trump Super PAC”

June 15, 2017, 6:08 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

Release: Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a lawsuit demanding that the Department of Justice (DOJ) turn over documents relating to the private prison company GEO Group and a super PAC that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to influence… Continue reading

“Justice Neil Gorsuch offers early clues to Supreme Court tenure”

June 15, 2017, 8:05 amcampaign finance, Supreme Court, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Richard Wolf for USA Today: More signs of his emerging role came in May, when Gorsuch sided with Justice Clarence Thomas in urging the court to consider whether to lift a ban on unlimited federal election spending by political parties.… Continue reading