Monthly Archives: January 2023

Tweet of the Day

January 5, 2023, 8:34 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

Adam Smith: Interesting that an independent super PAC that isn’t supposed to coordinate with members of Congress comes to an agreement to benefit a specific member of Congress. https://t.co/Pb4m8NBxse— Adam Smith (@asmith83) January 5, 2023

“Why the Fringiest Fringe of the G.O.P. Now Has So Much Power Over the Party”

January 5, 2023, 7:59 amUncategorizedRichard Pildes

The Republican Party’s struggle over choosing a Speaker reflects large structural changes in American democracy, as well as democracies more generally. For my perspective on that, see my (RP) latest NYT essay. An excerpt: This Washington drama reflects larger… Continue reading

“Republican Who Rebuffed Trump Is Democrat’s Pick for Pennsylvania Election Post”

January 5, 2023, 7:52 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

NYT: Pennsylvania’s incoming Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, will nominate a Philadelphia Republican who resisted Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results to serve as the state’s chief election official, Mr. Shapiro said Thursday. For Mr. Shapiro,… Continue reading

“Elections director in Pinal County got $25,000 bonus after reporting inaccurate results”

January 4, 2023, 5:21 pmelection administrationRick Hasen

Jen Fifield for Votebeat: Pinal County’s outgoing elections director collected a $25,000 bonus for running a smooth election despite reporting final results with significant inaccuracies, including around 500 uncounted votes in the neck-and-neck attorney general race. Virginia Ross, the former… Continue reading

“Public Opinion Roots of Election Denialism”

January 4, 2023, 4:54 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Charles Stewart has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Although the hardest dividing line between those who accept the election of Joe Biden as legitimate is partisan, there is still variation within the Republican Party between those… Continue reading

“Trump’s offensive against Ruby Freeman reaches an ugly new level; As Donald Trump renews his offensive against an innocent election worker in Georgia, remember that his own team told him these claims weren’t true.”

January 4, 2023, 4:51 pmchicanery, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

Steve Benen for MaddowBlog.

“Nonprofit financed by billionaire George Soros quietly donated $140 million to political causes in 2021”

January 4, 2023, 8:54 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

CNBC: A nonprofit financed by billionaire George Soros quietly donated $140 million to advocacy organizations and ballot initiatives in 2021, plus another $60 million to like-minded charities. Soros, who personally donated $170 million during the 2022 midterms to Democratic… Continue reading

“How Utah Sen. Mike Lee tried to make the scheme to overturn Trump’s election loss fit the Constitution”

January 4, 2023, 7:50 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Sen. Mike Lee often describes his political ideology as strict adherence to the U.S. Constitution. Transcripts, documents, text messages and the final report from the House Jan. 6th Committee show Lee actively tried to keep Donald… Continue reading

“All but two McCarthy defectors in House are election deniers”

January 4, 2023, 7:46 amUncategorizedRick Hasen

WaPo: All but two of the 20 Republican House members who voted against Kevin McCarthy for speaker in Tuesday’s third ballot round are election deniers who embraced former president Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Of… Continue reading

“Mark Rozzi, a Democrat-turned-independent, is now speaker of the Pa. House after a surprise vote”

January 4, 2023, 7:36 amlegislation and legislaturesRick Hasen

Philly Inquirer: Democrats and more than a dozen Republicans threw their support behind a consensus candidate for speaker of the Pennsylvania House on Tuesday, a surprise move some lawmakers said would help bring unity to the state capital. House lawmakers… Continue reading

“Twitter reverses longstanding ban on political advertising”

January 3, 2023, 4:49 pmcampaigns, cheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: Twitter said it was relaxing its ban on political and issue-based advertising on Tuesday, a reversal of the company’s long-standing approach to paid political speech. The policy change, which comes at a moment when major advertisers are defecting… Continue reading

“Ron Johnson advocated for GOP-controlled Legislature to choose presidential electors, new Jan. 6 documents say”

January 3, 2023, 11:40 amelection subversion riskRick Hasen

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: New documents from the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol suggest Sen. Ron Johnson told the chairman of the state Republican Party a month after the 2020 election that the GOP-controlled… Continue reading

“McCarthy Proposes Gutting Office of Congressional Ethics in Bid for Speaker”

January 3, 2023, 10:40 amconflict of interest laws, ethics investigationsRick Hasen

Time: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spent the first two days of the new year trying to shore up GOP support for his bid to be Speaker by releasing a series of proposals aimed at winning over hard-right detractors who… Continue reading

“Don’t Blame RCV for Alameda County Election Snafu”

January 3, 2023, 8:33 amalternative voting systems, election administrationRick Hasen

Rob Richie: First, let’s understand what went wrong. According to both Oakland’s City charter and RCV election norms, if a voter skips a first-choice column or writes in an ineligible candidate, that voter’s ballot should be advanced immediately to… Continue reading