Category Archives: campaigns

“If no one else stops Trump, the Electoral College still can. It’s in the Constitution”

March 17, 2016, 7:43 amcampaigns, electoral collegeRick Hasen

Derek Muller for WaPo: Donald Trump will be the GOP’s presidential nominee. Within the party, talk of a brokered Republican National Convention or even a supporting a third-party candidate has circulated among those hoping to stop him from becoming the… Continue reading

“Ginsberg Warns of ‘Political Guerilla Warfare’ at Contested GOP Convention”

March 17, 2016, 7:38 amcampaigns, political parties, primariesRick Hasen

Bloomberg: With prospects for the first contested Republican convention in 40 years on the rise, GOP super-lawyer and election-law expert Ben Ginsberg says that selecting the actual delegates at state conventions in the coming months will “be sort of… Continue reading

“Google now shows presidential campaign finance data directly in search results”

March 16, 2016, 9:04 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

WaPo: Looking up a presidential hopeful’s campaign finance information is now just a Google away. If you look up a candidate’s name using the search engine, it now pulls up a quick summary of how much the candidate’s campaign… Continue reading

Harvard Law Prof Elhauge Files Amicus Brief Saying Ted Cruz Not Natural Born Citizen

March 16, 2016, 8:17 pmcampaignsRick Hasen

The brief was filed in a NY case.

“Super PACs built a wall around Florida, and Trump destroyed it”

March 16, 2016, 1:37 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

CPI reports. A coalition of outside groups paid for more than 4,300 anti-Donald Trump ads during the week before Tuesday’s primary election in Florida — all to no avail as the real estate mogul sailed to an easy victory.… Continue reading

“A Situation in Which Donald Trump Wins the White House”

March 15, 2016, 7:50 amcampaignsRick Hasen

John Harwood for the NYT: The number of white voters Mr. Trump attracts keeps shrinking as a share of the electorate, while the number of nonwhite voters he repels keeps growing, a pattern that helped President Obama retain the White… Continue reading

“Inside Cruz’s state-by-state plan to defeat Trump”

March 15, 2016, 7:24 amcampaigns, primariesRick Hasen

Shane Goldmacher for Politico: It sounds like a nightmare for Donald Trump’s opponents: The billionaire sweeps Ohio and Florida on Tuesday and storms ahead with more than half the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination. But for Ted… Continue reading

“Trump’s Fundraising for Others Left Deep Roots”

March 15, 2016, 7:20 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Bloomberg: He might be self-financing his campaign, but Donald Trump is no stranger to political fundraising. His bundling skills, honed over decades, will be put to use five days after the March 15 primary in Florida, where the billionaire… Continue reading

“The 13 minutes that could make — or break — Kasich’s campaign”

March 14, 2016, 7:43 pmballot access, campaignsRick Hasen

CNN: Thirteen minutes. That amount of time may be the saving grace for John Kasich‘s presidential campaign strategy, one that relies heavily on the state of Pennsylvania — a state where Kasich’s lawyers are battling to keep him… Continue reading

“Trump, Sanders deflate super PACS in unpredictable 2016 race”

March 14, 2016, 2:24 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Julie Bykowicz for AP: Recent polls show Trump well ahead of home-state senator Marco Rubio in Florida, one of five states holding presidential primaries on Tuesday. Indeed, the group spending the most to take out Trump in Florida is Rubio’s… Continue reading

“How an obscure committee could decide the GOP nomination”

March 14, 2016, 7:41 amcampaignsRick Hasen

Politico: The four GOP presidential campaigns are quietly preparing for a battle over an obscure rule-making committee that could control the balance of power in a contested July convention. The convention’s 112-member Rules Committee has enormous power to… Continue reading

“The Party Still Decides”

March 13, 2016, 6:07 pmcampaigns, political partiesRick Hasen

Ross Douthat: But the party’s convention rules, in all their anachronistic, undemocratic and highly-negotiable intricacy, are also a line of defense, also a hurdle, also a place where a man unfit for office can be turned aside. So in… Continue reading

“Kasich Backers Knock Trump Ad Off Air in Ohio”

March 12, 2016, 2:37 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

NYT: Television stations across Ohio are refusing to run advertisements from the Trump campaign that are critical of Gov. John Kasich because of a technical election law violation in the ad. New Day for America, the “super PAC” supporting… Continue reading

“California tobacco bills spurred hardball political threats”

March 12, 2016, 2:35 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, direct democracyRick Hasen

Sacramento Bee: Tobacco industry lobbyists threatened to scuttle unrelated ballot initiatives if California lawmakers passed sweeping anti-smoking measures, health advocates said on Friday. While lawmakers said bills now on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk to raise the tobacco-buying age to 21… Continue reading