Politico: t wasn’t the first super PAC to pull that trick: The scheme is part of a sharp escalation in super PACs avoiding reporting requirements and keeping voters in the dark about their funding until after key elections. Two other … Continue reading
Category Archives: campaigns
I have written this piece for Slate. A snippet: The new Wall Street Journal report describes some apparent documentary evidence. According to the Journal, Daniels’ former lawyer Keith Davidson had approached Cohen in September 2016 about securing a payment from … Continue reading
WaPo: Even as a record number of women run for office this year, female congressional candidates overall are lagging behind their male counterparts when it comes to pulling in campaign cash, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal campaign … Continue reading
KC Star: Colyer, who was sworn in as governor in January, faced a Friday deadline to file for a recount, a financially precarious decision because Kansas does not have automatic recounts in close races. “I guess the governor changed his mind … Continue reading
Rolling Stone: FBI agents in California and Washington, D.C., have investigated a series of cyberattacks over the past year that targeted a Democratic opponent of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). Rohrabacher is a 15-term incumbent who is widely seen as the most pro-Russia and pro-Putin … Continue reading
See this thread: This is a BFD. The GOP-controlled legislature dragged its feet forvmonths on impeaching these justices to prevent their replacement by voters via special elections this fall. Missing today's deadline lets Republican Gov. Jim Justice appoint their replacements. … Continue reading
News and Observer: A judge threw out a new state law Monday, ruling that it violated the constitutional rights of at least two politicians whose 2018 campaigns the law had targeted. Chris Anglin, a Republican candidate for a seat on the … Continue reading
CBS News: Critics of the Trump administration’s response to the hurricanes that ravaged Puerto Rico last year are launching a seven-figure campaign to mobilize displaced Puerto Rican voters ahead of the midterm elections – and planning big demonstrations in New York and … Continue reading
CPI: Then, on Wednesday, everything changed. That was the day the feds arrested Collins and charged him with securities fraud, wire fraud and making false statements to the FBI. McMurray’s phone blew up — with new friends, congressmen, aides to previously down-on-McMurray New York … Continue reading
NYT: Campaign finance was once famously dismissed by Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, as being of no greater concern to American voters than “static cling.” But since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 opened the floodgates for … Continue reading
New Yorker: One day this summer, in the midst of this escalation, while he was scrolling through political sites on his phone, a Democratic operative in Lansing named Bob McCann came across a fifteen-second video advertisement attacking Whitmer. McCann spent … Continue reading
NYT: Days after federal prosecutors charged him with insider trading, Representative Chris Collins announced on Saturday that he was abandoning his re-election bid amid worries that his legal troubles could make vulnerable his otherwise solidly Republican district in western New York. … Continue reading
The Hill: Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer (R) accused Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) on Friday of intentionally pushing a miscount of the number of ballots cast in the gubernatorial primary race. “Secretary Kobach’s office was instructing counties not to count ballots that are … Continue reading
Aaron Blake for WaPo: In this case, about the only campaign finance question would be whether this would be considered a legitimate campaign expense, said election-law expert Rick Hasen of the University of California, Irvine. “I’m not sure I’ve seen … Continue reading
Press release: Public Advocate Letitia James announced major new legislation designed to prevent foreign entities from circumventing New York City’s strict campaign finance laws through a loophole created by Citizens United. Introduced in the wake of substantial new evidence of a … Continue reading
Listen at NPR’s Here & Now. … Continue reading
Big ruling while I was gone flagged here by Politico: A U.S. District Court judge on Friday issued a ruling invalidating a Federal Election Commission regulation that has allowed donors to so-called dark-money groups to remain anonymous, the latest development in a … Continue reading
Bob Bauer NYT oped. … Continue reading
TPM: A Virginia judge appointed a special prosecutor Tuesday to look into a case of potential forgery and other election law violations after multiple suspicious signatures were found on a petition to get an independent congressional candidate on the ballot, the Richmond … Continue reading
Charlie Savage reports for the NYT. … Continue reading
NYT: They covered their tracks, using software to camouflage their internet traffic. They created Facebook pages for anti-Trump culture warriors, Hispanic activists and fans of alternative medicine. And they organized protests in coordination with real-world political groups. The people behind … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
NYT: Facebook said on Tuesday that it had identified a political influence campaign that was potentially built to disrupt the midterm elections, with the company detecting and removing 32 pages and fake accounts that had engaged in activity around divisive social issues. … Continue reading
Politico: A network of secret-money nonprofit groups has spent millions of dollars attacking swing-seat House Republicans on health care and taxes, quietly becoming one of the biggest players in the 2018 political landscape. The groups have local members and names … Continue reading
This definitely looks worth diving into soon: Volume 71, Number 1 (2018) Symposium: Falsehoods, Fake News, and the First Amendment PDF Editor’s Introduction Mitchell B. Bryant Panel 1: Falsehoods and the First Amendment PDF False Speech and the First Amendment … Continue reading
Matt Ford for The New Republic. … Continue reading
Yesterday CNN reported: Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, claims that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in which Russians were expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, sources … Continue reading
HuffPost: Several congressional Democrats plan to introduce legislation Thursday that would make it a federal crime to knowingly and intentionally publish false information about elections. The legislation would criminalize knowingly spreading wrong information related to the time and place of elections … Continue reading
A brief exploration in seven tweets. … Continue reading
Politico: Gov. Bruce Rauner, who’s campaigning as an anti-corruption crusader, today found himself fending off attacks on his own ethics after attending an event where a political ally handed out $300,000 in cash. The cash giveaway happened after the Republican … Continue reading
USA Today: Donors who have given $1 million or more in this cycle contributed $120.1 million to super PACs in the April-to-June fundraising quarter. That’s more than twice the $58.8 million they donated during the previous three-month period. Republicans accounted for six out … Continue reading
NYT: Federal authorities examining the work President Trump’s former lawyer did to squelch embarrassing stories before the 2016 election have come to believe that an important ally in that effort, the tabloid company American Media Inc., at times acted more … Continue reading
Tampa Bay Times: If only members of one party are running in an election, so the primary will decide the race, the primary is open to all voters. But if any other candidate files, including a write-in, the primary is … Continue reading
WSJ: MIchael Cohen taped a conversation in person with Donald Trump in which the two men discussed buying the rights to a former Playboy Playmate’s story that she had an affair with Mr. Trump more than a decade ago, according … Continue reading
Every Voice: A Russian company indicted earlier this year as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into foreign interference in our elections is using a decision written by none other than Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to … Continue reading
NYT: It’s official: President Trump is the single biggest political advertiser on Facebook. Mr. Trump and his political action committee spent $274,000 on ads on the social network since early May, outpacing the second-biggest spender, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, … Continue reading
WaPo: The head of the nation’s largest electronic spy agency and the military’s cyberwarfare arm has quietly directed the two organizations to coordinate actions to counter potential Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections. The move, announced to staff at … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
WaPo: A Russian company accused of bankrolling a massive online operation to disrupt the 2016 presidential election argued Monday that it had broken no federal laws, that it was merely supporting free political speech and that the fraud charge against … Continue reading
NYT: Russian woman who tried to broker a secret meeting between Donald J. Trump and the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, during the 2016 presidential campaign was charged Monday and accused of working with Americans to carry out a secret … Continue reading
Rob Yablon has posted this article on SSRN, forthcoming in Minnesota Law Review. Here’s the abstract: Election campaigns have become the domain of a thriving industry of paid political service providers. While leading scholars in other fields regard the rise … Continue reading
NYT: Judicial Crisis Network, an organization that promotes conservative judicial nominees, announced last week that it would spend more than $1 million to support Mr. Trump’s nominee. So far, the group has spent as much as $140,000 on a series of nearly … Continue reading
NYT: The Supreme Court decision striking down mandatory union fees for government workers was not only a blow to unions. It will also hit hard at a vast network of groups dedicated to advancing liberal policies and candidates. Some of these groups … Continue reading
CPI reports. … Continue reading
CPI: The American social media platforms Russian entities used to influence the 2016 presidential election are essentially attempting to regulate themselves, fearing a repeat during the 2018 midterms. Meanwhile, the federal government agency tasked with protecting U.S. elections from foreign meddling struggled on Wednesday … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Star-Telegram: Democrat Jana Lynne Sanchez wants an Ellis County court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging her 717-vote primary runoff win for the 6th Congressional District over Ruby Woolridge. She filed court records saying the lawsuit filed by Woolridge — which alleges Sanchez … Continue reading
NYT: The Democratic National Committee is undertaking an expansive, multimillion dollar strategic plan to motivate voters who typically sit out midterm elections, with a particular focus on engaging nonwhite communities through new investments in local organizing and a six-figure advertising … Continue reading
WaPo: During the presidential campaign, National Enquirer executives sent digital copies of the tabloid’s articles and cover images related to Donald Trump and his political opponents to Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen in advance of publication, according to three people with … Continue reading
Statement from dissenting FEC Commissioner Weintraub: Trump hotels, Trump steaks, Trump water, Trump golf courses, Trump wine. The Complaint in this matter cites to an unprecedented catalog of candidate-branded products and properties used along the 2016 campaign trail. According to … Continue reading