Politico: The Republican National Committee is overseeing an expansive whip operation designed to lock down Donald Trump’s Electoral College majority and ensure that the 306 Republican electors cast their votes for the president-elect. Two RNC sources familiar with the effort … Continue reading
Category Archives: campaigns
Josh Douglas CNN oped. … Continue reading
NPR: Amid news of possible Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, a top Hillary Clinton adviser is publicly casting support for a push by some members of the Electoral College to receive an intelligence briefing ahead of their formal … Continue reading
WaPo: President-elect Donald Trump claimed Friday night that African Americans came through for him “big league” in the November election and said those who stayed home were “almost as good” as those who voted for him. Trump’s comments came during … Continue reading
WaPo: The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the … Continue reading
CPI reports. … Continue reading
Teddy Rave has posted this draft [corrected link] on SSRN (Duke Law Journal). Here is the abstract: What does the majority owe the minority when issues are put to a vote? This question is central to direct democracy, where voters bypass … Continue reading
WaPo: From Oct. 20 to Nov. 28, Trump’s campaign and two joint fundraising committees with the RNC brought in a total of $111 million, edging out the nearly $106 million Clinton’s campaign raised with its two joint fundraising committees. The … Continue reading
Open Secrets reports on today’s Excellent Sidley forum at NYU in DC: Should we restrict political contributions? How have weakened political parties impacted this election? Can public financing work? President-elect Donald Trump pledged to “drain the swamp,” yet has not proposed changes to the … Continue reading
Ken Vogel for Politico. … Continue reading
FlaglerLive.com: The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission, the investigative arm of the Florida judicial system, last week filed a notice of formal charges against Flagler County Circuit Judge Scott DuPont stemming from allegations that he may have acted unethically and “recklessly” … Continue reading
Release: Representation2020, Common Cause and the Center for Responsive Politics have released a new report revealing the systemic disparity in funding for female candidates running for open seats by PACs, individual donors and major parties. Women are more likely to … Continue reading
Very interesting from the Campaign Finance Institute: The Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) today has released a new study entitled “Predicting the Impact of Democracy Vouchers: Analysis and Questions in Light of South Dakota’s Successful Initiative”. The author is Michael J. … Continue reading
WaPo: The flood of “fake news” this election season got support from a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton, helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in … Continue reading
NYT: “Give us loans, or a 401(k),” he said, trimming the mustache of Steve Stricklin, a firefighter from the neighborhood. His biggest issue was health insurance. Mr. Fleming lost his coverage after his divorce three years ago and has struggled … Continue reading
Vogel on Mercer. … Continue reading
NYT: An automated army of pro-Donald J. Trump chatbots overwhelmed similar programs supporting Hillary Clinton five to one in the days leading up to the presidential election, according to a report published Thursday by researchers at Oxford University. The chatbots … Continue reading
NYT: Over the past month, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has received two starkly different messages about hacking into American computer networks from the current and future presidents of the United States: Don’t you dare, and don’t worry, we’re … Continue reading
BuzzFeed: In the final three months of the US presidential campaign, the top-performing fake election news stories on Facebook generated more engagement than the top stories from major news outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, … Continue reading
Gene Mazo has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Fordham Law Review). Here is the abstract: Throughout American history, several aspiring presidents have had their candidacies challenged for failing to meet the Constitution’s eligibility requirements. These challenges began in the 1880s, … Continue reading
Must-read Farhad Manjoo NYT: On Monday, both Google and Facebook altered their advertising policies to explicitly prohibit sites that traffic in fake news from making money off lies. That’s very likely a worthwhile fix, even if it comes too late. … Continue reading
Politico reports. … Continue reading
Politico reports. … Continue reading
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. … Continue reading
Announcement from transition team that Rebekah Mercer is joining. Now’s the time to go back and study Matea Gold’s must-read profile of Mercer. … Continue reading
Jamelle Bouie: Americans are stubbornly, congenitally optimistic. And the millions who backed Trump see something in his visage. Something that gives them hope. Here’s what I see. I see a man who empowered white nationalists and won. I see a … Continue reading
Jim Newell: The midterm losses? That was just a bad cycle, structurally speaking; presidential demographics would make up for it. The party establishment made a grievous mistake rallying around Hillary Clinton. It wasn’t just a lack of recent political seasoning. … Continue reading
This Matea Gold piece is spot-on and what I’ve been saying. The money story is the most underappreciated one of 2016. … Continue reading
Eugene Volokh blogs. … Continue reading
Greg Sargent: As a general rule, political scientists tend to shy away from taking public stands for — or against — candidates that might make them appear partisan or somehow lacking in scientific objectivity. So it’s notable that a large … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
AP: Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee have paid at least $1.8 million to a political operative whose roster of companies include several that have been repeatedly investigated for voter registration fraud, even as Trump has complained that … Continue reading
CPI: Joint fundraising committees, often called “victory funds,” are not new in federal politics. Candidates routinely raise money through these collaborative operations that, by design, split the funds they collect among a number of beneficiaries, such as national and state … Continue reading
Stephen Klein and Patrick Jaicomo WSJ oped. … Continue reading
The Philadelphia SEPTA transit strike continues. A judge denied an injunction Friday but will revisit Monday potentially issuing an injunction ordering workers back in light of the election. Getting Philadelphia voters to the polls Tuesday is key to the Democrats’ … Continue reading
Vox says people in swing states should feel perfectly comfortable exchanging votes in people in safe states to help defeat Trump. They quote my friend (and congressional candidate) Jamie Raskin as saying that now that there’s one ninth circuit case … Continue reading
Ryan Reilly: A man wearing a Donald Trump shirt and carrying a weapon stood outside a voting location in Loudoun County, Virginia, on Friday. Authorities in the nation’s richest county are apparently OK with that. Erika Cotti encountered the man … Continue reading
AP: A Montana lawmaker sued Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl on Friday for saying the legislator faces penalties for revealing a confidential ethics complaint he filed against Gov. Steve Bullock, a lawsuit Motl said was timed to sway voters … Continue reading
Cincinnati Enquirer: The Ohio Republican Party has filed a complaint with federal election officials, claiming the Ohio Democratic Party sent mailers without required disclaimers to identify the source of the brochures or who paid for them. The flyers, encouraging support … Continue reading
Wow story from NBC News (though hard to know if this is a deliberate misinformation campaign aimed at deterrence): U.S. military hackers have penetrated Russia’s electric grid, telecommunications networks and the Kremlin’s command systems, making them vulnerable to attack by … Continue reading
From the court’s 28 page opinion and order: The Court therefore ORDERS that Defendants Mitch Morrissey, in his official capacity as District Attorney for the Second Judicial District, and Cynthia Coffman, in her official capacity as Colorado Attorney General, are … Continue reading
David Corn for Mother Jones. … Continue reading
NYDN reports. … Continue reading
Sheera Frenkel for Buzzfeed. … Continue reading
Jerry Goldfeder for Law.com. … Continue reading
Reuters: The FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies are examining faked documents aimed at discrediting the Hillary Clinton campaign as part of a broader investigation into what U.S. officials believe has been an attempt by Russia to disrupt the presidential election, people … Continue reading
Greg Sargent for The Plum Line. … Continue reading
NYT: Big-money corporate lobbying has reached into one of the most obscure corners of state government: the offices of secretaries of state, the people charged with running elections impartially. The targeting of secretaries of state with campaign donations, corporate-funded weekend … Continue reading
The Guardian: The entire internet infrastructure of the African nation of Liberia has been brought to a grinding halt after it was targeted by hackers using the same weapon that caused the largest cyber-attack in history just two weeks ago. … Continue reading
NBC News video: U.S. Homeland Security, military and intelligence officials tell NBC News that the U.S. government is gearing up for an unprecedented effort to protect the voting process on Election Day. “deeply concerned.” US officials fear Twitter, Facebook interference, … Continue reading