Category Archives: campaigns

CA Requires Disclosure By Backers of Bots Intended to Influence Elections

October 1, 2018, 8:11 pmcampaignsRick Hasen

NBC News: California Gov. Jerry Brown drew plenty of headlines on Sunday when he signed the state’s net neutrality bill into a law, a move that was immediately met with a lawsuit from the Department of Justice. On Friday, he… Continue reading

“Helping citizens unite in post-Citizens United America”

September 25, 2018, 1:28 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Adam Bonica and Gisel Kordestani oped in The Hill: We at Crowdpac are among the 78 percent of Americans who want to see Citizens United overturned. We are well aware that if Crowdpac’s conditional fundraising platform is challenged in… Continue reading

“Independent Spending in the 2018 Congressional Primaries Went Up (Again)”

September 25, 2018, 7:07 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

CFI: Independent expenditures (IEs) spending for congressional primaries went up once again. This unsurprising conclusion was based on a Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) analysis of data supplied by the Federal Election Commission for all federal primaries from 2006 through… Continue reading

Today’s Must-Read: “Russia’s Pro-Gun Influence Accounts Copied The NRA — And Sometimes, Vice Versa”

September 21, 2018, 9:28 amcampaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

Tim Mak for NPR with a fascinating report: Russian social media agitators who pushed pro-gun messages in the United States sometimes copied the language of the National Rifle Association. And sometimes, the NRA copied them. What isn’t clear is whether… Continue reading

“The Plot to Subvert an Election”

September 20, 2018, 7:23 amcampaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

Deep NYT dive: For many Americans, the Trump-Russia story as it has been voluminously reported over the past two years is a confusing tangle of unfamiliar names and cyberjargon, further obscured by the shout-fest of partisan politics. What Robert S.… Continue reading

“Inside Facebook’s Election ‘War Room’”

September 20, 2018, 7:17 amcampaignsRick Hasen

NYT: Facebook invited two New York Times reporters into the War Room before it opens next week to discuss the work of the elections team and some of the tools it has developed to try to prevent interference. The company… Continue reading

“Reversing Course, Chris Collins Will Seek 4th House Term Despite Indictment”

September 17, 2018, 10:10 amballot access, campaignsRick Hasen

NYT: Representative Chris Collins, the New York Republican indicted on insider trading charges last month, reversed course on Monday and planned to announce he would seek another term, according to two Republicans familiar with his plans. Mr. Collins opted to… Continue reading

“Ted Cruz Campaign is Mailing Donation Requests Described as Legal Summonses”

September 17, 2018, 10:08 amcampaignsRick Hasen

Newsweek: Ted Cruz’s Texas senatorial campaign has sent hundreds of thousands of mailers seeking donations that are meant to look like official county summons, a high-ranking campaign official confirmed to Newsweek. The brown envelopes read “SUMMONS ENCLOSED-OPEN IMMEDIATELY” in large… Continue reading

“Exclusive: Audio Reveals Potentially Illegal Coordination Between NRA and Montana Senate Hopeful Matt Rosendale”

September 13, 2018, 10:20 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Daily Beast: Before the National Rifle Association dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to flip a competitive, Democratic-held Senate seat, the gun-rights group’s chief lobbyist apparently gave the race’s Republican challenger a heads-up. Chris Cox, the top political… Continue reading

New Jersey: “Top 25 Special Interest Groups Spent More than $74 Million in 2017”

September 12, 2018, 2:31 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Release: The top 25 special interest groups in 2017 spent more than $74 million trying to influence elections and government policy in New Jersey, according to a new analysis by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC). The analysis… Continue reading

Sixth Circuit tosses incitement claim stemming from Trump rally

September 11, 2018, 11:22 amcampaignsJustin Levitt

The Sixth Circuit reversed a denial of a motion to dismiss, tossing an incitement claim based on then-Candidate Trump’s exhortation at a rally to “Get ’em out of here.”

“Frustration and Finger-Pointing as G.O.P. Pulls Out of Deal Talks on Hacked Materials”

September 7, 2018, 7:25 amcampaignsRick Hasen

NYT: House Republicans withdrew on Thursday from negotiations with Democrats over a pact that would have effectively barred both parties from using hacked or stolen material on the campaign trail this fall. Leaders of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the… Continue reading

“Judge orders independent candidate off the ballot in Va. congressional race, citing ‘out and out fraud”

September 5, 2018, 1:20 pmcampaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

WaPo: A Richmond Circuit Court judge on Wednesday ordered independent candidate Shaun Brown removed from the ballot in Virginia’s 2nd District congressional race, finding that her qualifying petition was tainted by “forgery” and “out and out fraud.” Many of those… Continue reading

“A Republican congressman helped a rival collect signatures to get on the ballot. Some of those signatures were fake.”

September 4, 2018, 8:02 pmcampaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

WaPo: Rep. Scott W. Taylor (R-Va.) sat in the backroom of his campaign office in a strip mall. Mini-blinds closed, a modest “Scott Taylor U.S. Congress” sign taped to the door was all that identified his reelection headquarters. Inside, a… Continue reading