Mark Murray: The lesson here: Being a billionaire with a big email list matters more than any previous debate performance — or campaign work on the ground in the early states. https://t.co/R8Z14kvUZO— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) August 13, 2019 … Continue reading
Category Archives: campaigns
Bill Kristol: We can't count on Trump for election security. And Mitch McConnell is blocking the Senate from even considering bipartisan election security legislation. Enough. This ad from @ForTheRuleOfLaw is on the air in DC and KY. pic.twitter.com/RdbmIcRaNy— Bill Kristol … Continue reading
Axios reports. … Continue reading
WaPo: About a fifth of donors have given to more than one Democratic presidential nominee in the first six months of this year, pointing to the difficulty candidates face distinguishing themselves among those giving small amounts at a time.That revelation … Continue reading
Politico: A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that the Democratic National Committee filed against the Trump campaign, the Russian government, WikiLeaks and various Trump campaign officials over alleged involvement in the hacking of Democratic Party email accounts during the … Continue reading
David Graham for The Atlantic. … Continue reading
WaPo: Among New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s donors to his presidential campaign is a vice president of a leading pharmaceutical company. The senior vice president of Comcast who oversees the company’s lobbying efforts hosted a fundraiser for former vice president Joe … Continue reading
Release. … Continue reading
WaPo: A network of out-of-state political consultants, secret donors and activists with close ties to President Trump is behind an effort to change the Florida constitution to explicitly state that only citizens may vote in elections, a measure that would … Continue reading
Florida gonna Florida. … Continue reading
A snippet of the NYT piece: The Marine Corps said it was not uncommon to encounter politicians using the Eagle, Globe and Anchor, commonly referred to as the E.G.A., and officials routinely send letters telling them to stop. “We encourage … Continue reading
Shelby Pierson gets the nod for a new federal position to serve as the intelligence community’s principal advisor on election security. This bio fits the very general description in the DNI’s press statement, but I’ll confess I’m not sure if … Continue reading
On whether she had direct knowledge of payments to Stormy Daniels, or whether she was “present” when Trump discussed Daniels. The documents unsealed in the Cohen warrant today seem to suggest there may be more to the story. … Continue reading
NYT: The Federal Election Commission said on Thursday that a Silicon Valley security company could immediately start helping 2020 presidential candidates defend their campaigns from the kinds of malicious email attacks that Russian hackers exploited in the 2016 election.The F.E.C. … Continue reading
I have posted this draft on SSRN. I will be delivering a version of this paper as the 2019 Richard J. Childress Memorial Lecture at St. Louis University on October 11. There will be a great line up of commentators … Continue reading
AP: The Trump administration warned of unspecified “active threats” to U.S. elections as top security officials briefed Congress Wednesday on steps the government has taken to improve election security in the wake of Russian interference in 2016.Director of National Intelligence … Continue reading
Yahoo News reports. … Continue reading
Casey Corcoran, Bo Julie Crowley and Raina Davis LAT oped. … Continue reading
The SacBee reports. … Continue reading
NYT’s The Upshot: The transition away from live interview telephone polling is well underway, and online polls now make up the principal source of data on national public opinion.But the alternatives to traditional polling are not fully mature, and the … Continue reading
NYT: From top to bottom, the website, JoeBiden.info, breezily mocks the candidate in terms that would warm the heart of any Bernie Sanders supporter: There are GIFs of Mr. Biden touching women and girls, and blurbs about his less-than-liberal policy … Continue reading
Brad Heath: Lawyers for Rep. Duncan Hunter say his affairs with three lobbyists and two congressional staffers "often served an overtly political purpose" and suggests he was simply a "married man mixing business with pleasure." pic.twitter.com/aTiu8AJRyw— Brad Heath (@bradheath) June … Continue reading
Politico reports. … Continue reading
Mother Jones reports. … Continue reading
My Written Testimony begins: Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to speak about a matter that is among the greatest concerns I have had in twenty-five years of researching and teaching about American election law and … Continue reading
WaPo editorial. … Continue reading
WaPo editorial. … Continue reading
Here on the News Hour (beginning around the 11 minute mark). … Continue reading
Politico: The head of the Federal Election Commission released a statement on Thursday evening reiterating, emphatically, that foreign assistance is illegal in U.S. elections.“Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office: It … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Watch the clip: EXCLUSIVE: Pres. Trump tells @GStephanopoulos he wouldn't necessarily alert the FBI if approached by foreign figures with information on his 2020 opponent: "It’s not an interference. They have information. I think I’d take it." https://t.co/7gvoAViw9r pic.twitter.com/k5Yqd9YxdC— Evan … Continue reading
NBC News: One likely piece of legislation would be framed as “Duty to Report,” requiring presidential campaign aides and entities to report foreign contacts and influence to law enforcement after Mueller identified numerous such interactions between Trump campaign aides and … Continue reading
The Intercept: CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST VIRGINIA “Ginni” Thomas is launching yet another project to wage war on multiple fronts of America’s most heated cultural and political debates. This time, however, her plan will include a project to “protect President Trump” using at … Continue reading
Politico: Senate investigators have added yet another name to the constantly evolving cast of characters in the Russia investigation.On April 5, just 2 weeks after Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted his final report on Russia’s election interference, the Senate Intelligence … Continue reading
Politico: Russia’s infamous troll farm conducted a campaign on Twitter before the 2016 elections that was larger, more coordinated and more effective than previously known, research from cybersecurity firm Symantec out Wednesday concluded.The Internet Research Agency campaign may not only have had … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
Axios: The 2020 presidential campaigns appear to have done little to prepare for what experts predict could be a flood of fake videos depicting candidates doing or saying something incriminating or embarrassing.Driving the news: The recent manipulated video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi … Continue reading
Jonathan Allen for NBC News: On one level, Trump’s brash lobbying in foreign countries is just another case of norm-busting for a president who often rejects the niceties of both domestic and international politics. But at a deeper level, Trump’s … Continue reading
WaPo: Across the Democratic field, candidates are embracing the big donors they distanced themselves from early on — a sign of increasing doubt that the small, online donations the campaigns have been chasing will be sufficient to sustain two-dozen primary contenders.Many … Continue reading
Lots of interesting and perhaps surprising information at the OpenSecrets.org site on the occupation of the “groups” that gave the largest contributions in the 2018 congressional election cycle. A couple points that stood out to me: Those who list their … Continue reading
Politico: The nation’s largest super PAC devoted to grassroots Democratic turnout is launching its organizing efforts earlier than ever in seven swing states with a new campaign director and its largest budget to date: $80 million to $90 million. … Continue reading
NYT: The Democratic Party’s new directive that candidates must have at least 130,000 donors to qualify for the third primary debate in September arrived virtually without warning on Wednesday morning, and immediately sent shock waves through presidential campaigns worried that it would … Continue reading
Sacramento Bee: Just days before a state Senate special election Tuesday, a mysterious letter threatening to publicly expose voters who don’t cast ballots has begun appearing in mailboxes across Northern California, prompting a state inquiry into whether election laws have been … Continue reading
Tampa Bay Times: Andrew Gillum is a focal point of a recently issued federal grand jury subpoena that demands information on the former Democratic candidate for governor, his campaign, his political committee, a wealthy donor, a charity he worked for … Continue reading
The Fix reports. “But, of course, Trump doesn’t need to win black voters. There are two strategies that may prove just as useful: Doing a bit better with black voters than he did in 2016 or keeping black turnout down. … Continue reading
Fred Wertheimer for Just Security. … Continue reading
WaPo: Nearly a year after a gay freelance hairstylist living in Harlem posted a Facebook video repudiating the Democratic Party, Brandon Straka found himself in Trump Tower on Thursday speaking with Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and a senior campaign … Continue reading
The Guardian: Facebook says it will continue to host a video of Nancy Pelosi that has been edited to give the impression that the Democratic House Speaker is drunk or unwell, in the latest incident highlighting its struggle to deal with disinformation.The … Continue reading
NYT: President Trump took extraordinary steps on Thursday to give Attorney General William P. Barr sweeping new authorities to conduct a review into how the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia were investigated, significantly escalating the administration’s efforts to place … Continue reading
WaPo: Distorted videos of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), altered to make her sound as if she’s drunkenly slurring her words, are spreading rapidly across social media, highlighting how political disinformation that clouds public understanding can now spread at the … Continue reading