Category Archives: campaigns

2016 Russian Facebook Election Ads Overwhelmingly About Race

May 13, 2018, 9:21 pmcampaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

USA Today: The Russian company charged with orchestrating a wide-ranging effort to meddle in the 2016 presidential election overwhelmingly focused its barrage of social media advertising on what is arguably America’s rawest political division: race. The roughly 3,500 Facebook ads… Continue reading

“Facebook is Banning Foreign Ad Buys Around an Irish Referendum. Could it Do the Same in the US?”

May 11, 2018, 8:33 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Corporate Counsel reports.

“Firm Tied to Russian Oligarch Made Payments to Michael Cohen”

May 9, 2018, 7:13 amcampaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: A shell company that Michael D. Cohen used to pay hush money to a pornographic film actress received payments totaling more than $1 million from an American company linked to a Russian oligarch and several corporations with business before… Continue reading

“CFI Launches 2018 Web Tool For Independent Spending in Primaries”

May 4, 2018, 9:09 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Release: Independent expenditures (IEs) will be playing a significant role again in select House and Senate primaries leading up to the midterm election. And the Campaign Finance Institute will once again be tracking that spending through a primary tracking tool… Continue reading

“Google sets new rules for U.S. election ads”

May 4, 2018, 8:00 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Axios: The gritty details: Under Google’s new rules, people or groups who want to advertise in elections will have to go through a process that includes producing a “government-issued ID” as well as other information, like a Federal Election Commission… Continue reading

“Rudy Giuliani May Have Just Implicated President Trump In Serious Campaign Finance Violations”

May 2, 2018, 9:29 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: Donald Trump’s new lawyer Rudy Giuliani took to Sean Hannity’s Fox News program Wednesday night to defend the president from the ongoing Mueller investigation and to calm the waters for the… Continue reading

Giuliani Says Trump Repaid $130K Payment to Cohen for Stormy Daniels Agreement, Raising New Questions About Campaign Finance Violations

May 2, 2018, 7:18 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

I’m exploring them in this Twitter thread.

“Trump campaign has paid portions of Michael Cohen’s legal fees: Sources”

April 30, 2018, 10:54 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

ABC News: The Trump campaign has spent nearly $228,000 to cover some of the legal expenses for President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, sources familiar with the payments tell ABC News, raising questions about whether the Trump campaign may… Continue reading

“Meet the little-known ‘big fish’ megadonor setting the tone for GOP primary races”

April 30, 2018, 10:32 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

WaPo: Behind just about every divisive Senate Republican primary this year, an amiable Midwestern businessman is bankrolling the candidate who claims to be the most hard-charging, anti-establishment conservative in the race. Richard Uihlein, a wealthy shipping-supplies magnate from Illinois who… Continue reading

“House Intelligence Committee Releases Findings on Russian Election Interference”

April 27, 2018, 7:35 amcampaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

NYT: The House Intelligence Committee released on Friday a roughly 250-page report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, laying out Republicans’ conclusion after a yearlong investigation that they had found no evidence that the Trump campaign aided Moscow’s… Continue reading

Facebook’s Definition of Issue Ads is Broad Enough to Encompass Lots of Non-Election Related Advertising

April 26, 2018, 11:16 amcampaignsRick Hasen

Via the Intercept, comes this new definition from Facebook of what counts as a “political ad” which will count for certain new vetting procedures (my emphasis below): A “political ad” is defined as an ad that: Is… Continue reading

“Under New Rules, Zuckerberg Will Be Our Top Propaganda Cop”

April 25, 2018, 11:00 amcampaignsRick Hasen

Steven Rosenfeld writes.

Don Blankenship Refuses to Disclose Finances in Connection with Senate Run in West Va., Gets Attacked by McConnell Super PAC

April 25, 2018, 7:29 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

NYT: Mr. Blankenship offers no apology for his many contradictions and personal and business decisions, some of them previously undisclosed. Though he lives a baronial lifestyle thanks to a fortune built on coal scratched from West Virginia’s mountains, he says… Continue reading

“DNC chairman defends lawsuit against Russia, Trump campaign, WikiLeaks”

April 22, 2018, 8:29 pmcampaigns, chicaneryRick Hasen

Weigel: The chairman of the Democratic National Committee on Sunday defended a new multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the Russian government, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, with talk show hosts asking whether it was distracting from efforts to rebuild the Democratic Party.… Continue reading