“Minimum Give the Maximum: Supreme Court could unleash mega-donors with McCutcheon ruling”
National Institute on Money in State Politics press release.
Monthly Archives: October 2013
Big Business Laments Loss of Influence Over Republican Party
Must-read NYT:
“We ask them to carry our water all the time,” said one corporate sector lobbyist, who demanded anonymity in order to speak frankly about the relationship with Republicans. “But we don’t necessarily support them 100 percent of the… Continue reading
“Florida Defends New Effort to Clean Up Voter Rolls”
NYT reports.
A great factoid:
The audience proved no less combative. One person questioned the wisdom of pursuing the purge when so little fraud is evident. “There are more shark attacks each year in Florida than voter fraud cases,” the… Continue reading
“On campaign contributions, don’t split the baby, Mr. Chief Justice”
Michael McGough at the LA Times.
“Democracy and the Problem of the Partisan State”
Yasmin Dawood has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, NOMOS). Here is the abstract:
This article addresses the following question: when, and under what conditions, should partisanship play a role in democratic politics? I examine this question by focusing on… Continue reading
“The case of McConnell vs. McConnell on campaign finance regulation”
Wow. Someone unearthed a 1973 oped by Sen. McConnell endorsing low contribution limits, public financing, and full disclosure.
Of course people can change their minds on things. This doesn’t make the Senator a hypocrite. But it is quite a… Continue reading
Talk About Efficiency in Election Administration!
Oops: Azerbaijan released election results before voting had even started
Beat that Doug Chapin!
“How Government Dysfunction and Big Money Fuel the Shutdown”
Erik Opsal of the Brennan Center blogs.
I’m skeptical that reforming campaign finance would do much to help political polarization.
Two from Benjamin Sachs
Fight in LA County Over Whether to Create Second Latino Sup. District; DOJ Uninterested
“Florida Voter Purge Suit Heads Back to Court”
More McCutcheon News and Commentaries
Already great roundups with many links at How Appealing, SCOTUSBlog, and CCP.
In addition, check out
Bob Bauer
Fred Wertheimer
Brian Svoboda (who asks if campaign finance law is too complicated for Supreme Court justices)
Zephyr Teachout
Ray … Continue reading
“Do Politicians Care If They Get Caught Lying? A study suggests lawmakers are less likely to make false statements when they know fact-checkers are monitoring them.”
Molly Ball discusses what sounds like an interesting paper by Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth and Jason Reifler of the University of Exeter. I don’t see a link to the paper in Molly’s article.
UPDATE: Read the paper itself and the… Continue reading
Chief Justice Roberts: A Campaign Finance Moderate Who Gets It?
I recall when I testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2006 about the reauthorization of the expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Sen. Arlen Specter’s conservative staff brought in a bunch of liberal and left-leaning law professors to… Continue reading