Tag Archives: Campaign finance

Five law profs file amicus in bribery/Hobbs Act case

December 19, 2023, 5:45 amUncategorizedbribery, Campaign financeSpencer Overton

The full brief, which was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, is on SSRN: This brief—filed by five law professors as amici curiae in United States v. Sittenfeld, No. 23-3840 (6th Cir.)—argues that the… Continue reading

“Crypto titans launch 2024 election play with $78M super PAC spend”

December 18, 2023, 7:20 amUncategorizedCampaign financeSpencer Overton

Politico: A trio of super PACs backed by cryptocurrency executives and investors said Monday that they’ve raised $78 million as part of a major new push to influence the 2024 elections.The campaign, which has support from venture capital giant… Continue reading

The Buckley of Buckley v. Valeo Dies

August 18, 2023, 11:58 amUncategorizedCampaign financeNed Foley

Washington Post obituary. “In political circles, Mr. Buckley was perhaps best remembered as the lead plaintiff in a landmark campaign finance lawsuit — Buckley v. Valeo — that in 1976 unraveled part of the post-Watergate regulation of political money. That… Continue reading

“DeSantis Allies Reveal Debate Strategy”

August 17, 2023, 9:12 amUncategorizedCampaign financeNed Foley

N.Y. Times. Is there a campaign finance law angle here, given coordination rules? From the article: “The New York Times was alerted to the existence of the documents by a person not connected to the DeSantis campaign or the… Continue reading

“Request for Information: Understanding and Examining the Political Activities of Tax- Exempt Organizations under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code”

August 17, 2023, 9:06 amUncategorizedCampaign financeNed Foley

From the House Ways and Means Committee: press release and letter.

“Former Tenn. state senator sentenced to 21 months in campaign finance scheme”

August 14, 2023, 5:51 amUncategorizedCampaign financeNed Foley

Washington Post reports: “a federal grand jury indicted Kelsey for conspiracy, alleging that he funneled “soft money” — or funds not subject to federal limitations or reporting regulations — to a federal campaign committee to benefit his congressional bid.”

“2021 CPA-Zicklin Index Finds Companies Tightening Oversight of Political Spending”

November 29, 2021, 2:14 pmUncategorizedCampaign finance, corporate political spending, disclosureTabatha Abu El-Haj

Center for Political Accountability and the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research, The Wharton School. The report finds that U.S. companies are adapting to hyper-polarization and the threats to democracy by expanding board oversight of potentially controversial political spending. The… Continue reading

The Future of the Party and Campaign Finance — A Response to Bob Bauer

September 22, 2015, 1:04 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, election law and constitutional law, guest blogging election law scholarship, political partiesCampaign finance, political partiesHeather Gerken

(with Joey Fishkin, University of Texas Law School) Bob Bauer just offered a thoughtful and engaging commentary on our work and a new report by the Brennan Center, both focused on the relationship between the political parties and campaign finance.… Continue reading

Citizens United and the Future of the American Political Party

September 16, 2015, 11:22 amcampaign finance, campaigns, election law and constitutional law, political parties, UncategorizedCampaign finance, Citizens United, political partiesHeather Gerken

With Joey Fishkin, University of Texas Law School The Brennan Center has just released a new report on the future of campaign finance. There are going to be a lot of reports like these during the next few years as… Continue reading

Whose party is it anyway?

June 16, 2015, 1:43 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, election law and constitutional law, political parties, UncategorizedCampaign finance, political parties, shadow partiesHeather Gerken

Coauthored with Joseph Fishkin, University of Texas Law School In yesterday’s post, we described how major functions once performed by official party organizations are migrating instead to what we call shadow parties—groups situated outside the official party apparatus, but clearly… Continue reading

A war within the Republican party?

June 15, 2015, 10:09 amcampaign finance, campaigns, election law and constitutional law, political parties, UncategorizedCampaign finance, political parties, shadow partiesHeather Gerken

Coauthored with Joseph Fishkin, University of Texas Law School A recent story perfectly embodied the central puzzle in a paper that we recently published in the Supreme Court Review. The story tells about the war between the Koch brothers… Continue reading

The Political Thriller Published by the Moritz College of Law

June 18, 2014, 6:07 amcampaign finance, UncategorizedCampaign finance, dark money, outside spending, soft moneyHeather Gerken

Serious empirical research rarely reads like a political thriller, but “The New Soft Money: Outside Spending in Congressional Elections” — written by Dan Tokaji and Renata Strause* and published by Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law — is one of… Continue reading

Nondisclosure Disclosure: Giving Lawmakers an Excuse to Ignore the Hard Questions

April 8, 2014, 8:03 amcampaign financeBob Bauer, Campaign finance, disclosure, money and politicsHeather Gerken

Authored by Heather Gerken, Wade Gibson, and Webb Lyons On Monday, Bob Bauer offered a characteristically thoughtful and generous response to a “nondisclosure disclosure” proposal that we pitched in the Washington Post last week. The proposal was a simple one.… Continue reading