“That powerful elected office a candidate held years ago? California voters won’t see it when they mark their 2018 ballot”
John Myers for the LAT on candidate three-word designations of their professions.
Category Archives: campaigns
“New Alabama-based Political Action Committee spends millions to support Doug Jones, draws fire”
WHNT:
A new Alabama-based political action committee, Highway 31, is taking an active role in the Alabama special election for a U.S. Senate seat, and it’s drawn criticism for avoiding disclosure of its donors.
The group was formed in early… Continue reading
Unanimous 9th Circuit Panel, in Opinion by Judge Bybee, Upholds Montana Law Barring Judicial Candidates from Seeking, Accepting, or Using Political Party Endorsements
From the opinion:
Montanans select their judges through nonpartisan popular elections. In an effort to keep those elections nonpartisan, Montana has restricted judicial-campaign speech. One of those restrictions is before us—a rule that prohibits candidates from seeking, accepting, or… Continue reading
“FEC Draft Ruling Would Require Disclaimers on Facebook Ads”
Ken Doyle for Bloomberg BNA:
Political ads on Facebook would have to carry disclaimers stating who paid for each ad, under a new draft advisory opinion set to be considered by the Federal Election Commission.
Disclaimer requirements for online political… Continue reading
“RNC to support Roy Moore in Senate race in Alabama, weeks after cutting ties with his campaign”
Alabama Voters Will Be Able to Vote “Republican” Rather than “Moore” and It Will Count as a Vote for Roy Moore
This straight ticket option on a ballot with one candidate race will allow voters to not have to say they voted for Moore while still voting for Moore (via BAN).
“Senate GOP campaign arm stole donor data from House Republican”
Politico:
Staffers for Senate Republicans’ campaign arm seized information on more than 200,000 donors from the House GOP campaign committee over several months this year by breaking into its computer system, three sources with knowledge of the breach told POLITICO.… Continue reading
“FBI gave heads-up to fraction of Russian hackers’ US targets”
AP:
The FBI failed to notify scores of U.S. officials that Russian hackers were trying to break into their personal Gmail accounts despite having evidence for at least a year that the targets were in the Kremlin’s crosshairs, The Associated… Continue reading
Much Russian Activity Meddling in 2016 Elections Likely Didn’t Violate Federal Law, Wouldn’t Be Covered by Proposed “Honest Ads Act,” and May Be Beyond (Conservative Justices’ Views of) Constitution to Limit
I’ve already hinted at some of these things in this Politico piece, but I’ve now fleshed it out in the latest draft of my forthcoming First Amendment Law Review article, Cheap Speech and What It Has Done (to American Democracy… Continue reading
“Bipartisan Harvard panel recommends hacking safeguards for elections”
Reuters:
A bipartisan Harvard University project aimed at protecting elections from hacking and propaganda will release its first set of recommendations today on how U.S. elections can be defended from hacking attacks.
The 27-page guidebook shown to Reuters ahead of… Continue reading
“Mitch McConnell’s latest idea to redo the Alabama special election is likely unconstitutional”
Jen Kirby for Vox.
Big Package of Money in Politics Stories from Center for Public Integrity
Must read: “Russian Twitter Trolls Stoked Voter Fraud Fear Before Election”
NBC News:
Russian trolls used Twitter to challenge the validity of the U.S. presidential election months before it took place, according to new NBC News analysis.
In apparent expectation of a Trump loss, the trolls began sowing seeds of doubt… Continue reading
“Trump, Twitter, and the Russians: The Growing Obsolescence of Federal Campaign Finance Law”
Tony Gaughan has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal). Here is the abstract:
Since the 1970s, federal campaign finance law has been built on four pillars. The first is contribution limits on donations to candidate… Continue reading