Search Results for: "deadlock"
…can continue paying fringe benefits while the candidates are on leave. For those convinced that the FEC is hopelessly divided based on rank partisanship for every possible issue (I’ve got doubts), I look forward to a 3-3 deadlock with the 3 Republican nominees voting to allow the college to pay the Republican candidate, and a 3-3 deadlock with the 3 Democratic nominees voting to allow the same college to pay the Democratic candidate….
Continue reading…You can read it here. UPDATE: Here is the statement from the Republican commissioners….
Continue reading…ut do not provide documentary proof of citizenship as the states require. The EAC is pushing forward with its appeal (the states won in the lower court), but what happens if the four new commissioners deadlock on moving forward? As Doug Chapin likes to say, “Stay Tuned.” UPDATE: A reader reminds me that in the Kobach case there are also intervenors if a new EAC deadlocks. …
Continue reading…ut that has much broader significance^the issue of how courts review a 3-3 deadlock at the FEC. In particular, we are concerned about the potential that courts will continue to grant deference to the perspectives of oniy half of the members of the Commission when the Commission has a split vote. This “deadlock deference” appears to be unique to the enforcement process at the FEC, for reasons that the D.C. Circuit has never fully explained. Such de…
Continue reading…. Roberts, ranking Republican on Rules, that “The ball is with the White House.” Lots of questions here. 1. Are these viable Republican nominees? If not, what will the President do? 2. Why would Republicans do this? Perhaps the calculation is that it is better to have two Republicans to deadlock with the two new Democratic nominees on the commission than to have the two Democrats speak for the Commission—even though two commissioners does not a qu…
Continue reading…e of how the EAC might respond if it has no commissioners thanks to Senate deadlock. It is therefore not clear whether the EAC executive director has the authority to issue the memorandum issued tonight. Even if it does, it is unclear whether it is entitled to any deference in a judicial proceeding. These are very complex administrative law issues and we will have to see how the question get resolved. Even past the administrative law issues, there…
Continue reading…eral Counsel that the 501(c)(4) group violated federal law, the Commission deadlocked along party lines over whether to investigate further, preventing any action. While the Democratic commissioners agreed there was enough evidence to proceed, the three Republican commissioners voted against looking into the case further. The suit will argue that the FEC’s dismissal of the case following the 3-3 deadlock was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of disc…
Continue readingPolitico: “The Federal Election Commission has closed a long-running investigation into the activities of Crossroads GPS — the nonprofit group founded by GOP strategist Karl Rove. According to a letter sent by the FEC to Crossroads GPS and provided on Tuesday to POLITICO, the election enforcement agency dismissed the complaint — which was filed in 2010 — because there were insufficient votes on the commission supporting allegations that Crossroad…
Continue reading…Press release: “Today, the Tea Party Leadership Fund (TPLF) failed to gain the disclosure exemption it sought from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) when the group’s request garnered the votes of only two Republican Commissioners. The votes on two draft advisory opinions ended in 3-2 deadlocks along party lines with newly sworn-in Republican Vice-Chairman Lee E. Goodman recusing himself.” This was being teed up for a lawsuit in any case….
Continue readingNYT: Throughout the tense fiscal deadlock in recent weeks, some of the most powerful forces in Washington, including retirees and defense contractors, largely sat on the sidelines. Now they are preparing for a political fight with billions of federal dollars at stake. With automatic cuts to the military set to take effect by January and a separate round of cuts scheduled for Medicare, lawmakers will have to decide who gets hit the hardest. Washin…
Continue reading…ate including the “super committee” and the sequester. The source of these deadlocks over budget reform is hardly a mystery: it is the mismatch between highly ideological political parties and our divided form of government which makes passing legislation difficult even in the absence of partisan deadlock. The partisanship of our political branches and mismatch with our structure of government raise this fundamental question: Is the United States…
Continue reading…2007. And those cases it does consider often go nowhere. The frequency of deadlocked votes resulting in dismissed cases — like the case of the Romney friend’s chartered jet — has shot up, to 19 percent, from less than 1 percent, according to figures compiled by critics of its performance. And there’s this: The commission — which has 375 employees and a budget of $66 million — had been unable to make formal decisions for the previous six months: W…
Continue reading…ncing that the session was cancelled. No meeting agenda had been posted, and there were no obvious agenda items for agency action. This is deadlock by design. The FEC: Stlll as Good as Dead.®…
Continue readingBloomberg BNA: A new Federal Election Commission deadlock over an enforcement case that involved “robo-calls” attacking Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) has prompted FEC Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub to criticize her own agency. Weintraub issued a written statement harshly criticizing the handling of the newly revealed case—designated Matter Under Review (MUR) 6543. She said there was “no excuse” for the agency’s actions. Weintraub told BNA in an April…
Continue reading…ate including the “super committee” and the sequester. The source of these deadlocks over budget reform is hardly a mystery: it is the mismatch between highly ideological political parties and our divided form of government which makes passing legislation difficult even in the absence of partisan deadlock. The partisanship of our political branches and mismatch with our structure of government raise this fundamental question: Is the United States…
Continue readingBloomberg BNA: “The Federal Election Commission will leave intact a deadlocked legal ruling about whether a nonprofit corporation can engage in joint fund-raising activity with an FEC-regulated political action committee, according to a Jan. 22 letter from the FEC. Last year, the FEC commissioners deadlocked along party lines on an advisory opinion (AO 2012-25) requested by the American Future Fund. The Republican-leaning organization was one of…
Continue readingBloomberg BNA: “A deadlock at the Federal Election Commission over whether to investigate charges of illegal coordination between a Super PAC and a congressional campaign offered a preview of struggles the agency faces over how to handle the heavy volume of complaints received during the 2012 campaign. The FEC commissioners deadlocked in a 3-3 vote on whether to pursue charges that the Super PAC supporting former Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) coo…
Continue reading…ch as immigration reform, the primary barriers to reform are partisanship, deadlock, and vetogates, not the role of money. In the rare circumstance when major legislative reform does pass, as in the case of health care reform, the passage of legislation further fuels partisan recriminations. Nor is it clear that the kinds of fundamental campaign finance reforms that Lessig advocates stand any realistic chance of being enacted under current politic…
Continue readingBloomberg BNA: “The Federal Election Commission deadlocked along party lines Aug. 23 on an advisory opinion regarding fundamental issues of campaign finance law, including identifying ‘express advocacy’ messages and determining whether an organization is a ‘political committee’ subject to regulation. The deadlock on a ruling by a so-called Section 501(c)(4) organization called the National Defense Committee (AO 2012-27) highlighted unresolved que…
Continue reading…some of the ads as such. Competing drafts often mean that there will be a deadlock on this commission. Marc Elias tweets that a deadlock could have “big consequences” for the last 60 days before the election. And he adds: “3d party groups usually want narrow def. of express advocacy, but triggering it prevents c4 donor disclosure, so wonder what they want here.” Said Paul Ryan to the News Hour: “I guarantee that if the FEC tells this group that t…
Continue reading…would not count as an election ad for disclosure purposes because of the lack of a “clearly identified candidate.” The Obama campaign is incredulous and I can’t say I blame them. Of course Draft A won’t be adopted because none of the Democratic commissioners would vote for it. But to deadlock on what “clearly identified candidate” means and then not to issue an advisory opinion gives some plausible deniability to someone who would argue that such…
Continue readingBloomberg BNA: “The Federal Election Commission deadlocked late May 30 on an advisory opinion request asking whether FEC reporting and disclaimer rules regarding “electioneering communications” apply to ads for a congressional candidate’s plumbing company….The deadlock over the Mullin AO indicated that the FEC may have trouble providing guidance to the regulated political community following the recent court actions that beefed up reporting requi…
Continue reading…sociated with political line-drawing and the associated risk of commission deadlock. Additional political purity tests and more careful vetting of the citizen commissioners are not the solution. I argue that ICCs in the future should adopt a variation of New Jersey’s informal arbitration system as a means of reducing partisan stakes and encouraging coalition building among stakeholders. Read more… 1846 Districting for a Low-Information Electorate…
Continue reading…he IRS. If the answer is that the FEC won’t do anything about it given its deadlock, then why file any complaints at the FEC? Filing a complaint about groups which appear to be full political operations but hiding behind 501c4 status would shine more light on this unfortunate practice—which allows for shielding the identity of virtually all donors to these groups. UPDATE: I wonder no longer and stand corrected. Adam Rappaport of CREW writes: “In M…
Continue reading…these groups must now disclose as to their contibutors. The FEC could well deadlock on this question. 4. Groups will ignore the language of the statute, and reform groups will file complaints at the FEC against them for failing to disclose their contributors. 5. Someone will file a new suit in federal court claiming that the statute, as now construed by the court, violates the First Amendment speech and associational rights of contributors to thes…
Continue reading…AP: “Legislation forcing voters to bring identification to Virginia polling places on election day won Senate passage Monday after Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling broke a 20-20 partisan deadlock.”…
Continue readingThe following press release arrived via email: FEC Deadlocks 3 to 3 on Petition Filed by Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) to Establish New Effective Contribution Disclosure Regulations for Outside Spending Groups Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer Today, the three Republican Commissioners on the six-member FEC have once again shown their disdain for the nation’s campaign finance laws they are supposed to implement and enfor…
Continue readingThe FEC posted its agenda for the next meeting. There are four alternative answers to American Crossroads’ request to run ads featuring federal candidates for office without being found to have illegally coordinated with the candidates. This means that it seems unlikely there will be four votes behind any one of the alternative drafts. Bottom line: FEC may give no advice on this one. A different result for the Mike Lee leadership Super PAC AO req…
Continue reading…BNA: Democrats on the Commission saw a violation but Republicans did not. Ideology trumps party at the FEC, and deadlocks continue….
Continue reading…The FEC agrees unanimously with the audit report, ordering John Edwards’ campaign to repay $ 2.3 million to the Treasury (he’s reported to have had $ 2.6 million cash on hand as of June 30). Every little bit helps the budget, right?…
Continue reading…Here‘s a Politico report. There’s a delay before the FEC releases its file. We’ll have to see if this dismissal is because a majority of the Commission found no problem with O’Donnell’s conduct, or if we have on our hands yet another 3-3 partisan deadlock. …
Continue reading…federal campaign finance laws, marked the anniversary with a 3-3 partisan deadlock over proposed rules to revamp those laws in light of the Citizens United opinion. Unfortunately, this was business as usual at the FEC: For the past several years the three Republican FEC commissioners have blocked enforcement of much of what remains of federal campaign finance law. As we enter the 2012 election season, the FEC is as good as dead, and the already t…
Continue reading…Political Activity Law rounds up the opeds, including by Joel Gora (WSJ), Bossie and Olson (WaPo), and Jamie Raskin (Huffpo). He also links to an NPR report.See also this BNA report on the FEC’s deadlock yesterday….
Continue reading…See Commissioners Deadlock on Case Involving Americans for Job Security, Buck Campaign….
Continue readingBNA reports on an agenda following a sad, predictable pattern: A 143-page draft expected to be supported by the FEC’s three Democratic commissioners includes provisions that could require disclosure of all contributors above a threshold level to groups spending money on federal campaigns. The Democratic draft also includes a proposal to restrict campaign spending by companies that have more than a minimum level of ownership or control by foreign…
Continue reading…, if it passes. I have now received a copy of the report and posted it here. Here is the relevant language about the FEC: Importantly, FECA requires that adopting rules and developing forms (among other provisions) requires affirmative votes from at least four of the six Commissioners. A series of deadlocked votes (e.g., 3-3 ties) among members of the current Commission, however, suggests that disagreement among Commissioners is possible–particula…
Continue reading…BNA: “The existence of the new draft appeared to indicate that some in the FEC now are considering granting the American Future Fund request. Such a move would override laws in about a dozen states that currently ban or restrict nearly all automatically placed calls, including calls from federal political committees.” My prediction: 3-3 partisan deadlock….
Continue reading…eling drafts suggesting that the FEC commissioners may again be headed for deadlock over a contentious question of campaign finance law. The rival rulings drafted by FEC staff attorneys respond to a request for an advisory opinion (AO 2009-13) on behalf of a consulting company called Black Rock Group. The company is headed by two veteran political professionals with strong ties to Republican candidates and organizations, Carl Forti and Michael Dub…
Continue reading…envision it.” Don McGahn (Politico): “One choice is for commissioners to reject this activist approach, regardless of how the resulting ‘deadlock’ is portrayed. I have done just that.”…
Continue reading…See here. It is possible that the FEC will adopt a different position than those in these drafts, or that there could be a deadlock….
Continue reading…if you have a paid subscription) report. “Despite these complaints [about deadlock at the FEC, officials and outside observers indicate privately that McGahn and Walther apparently continue to benefit from strong support on the part of key congressional leaders, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). There appears to be little support on Capitol Hill for replacing either or both…
Continue reading…BNA Money and Politics Report offers this report ($). Meanwhile, the FEC commissioners are even splitting along party lines over the “reason to believe” standard for investigations….
Continue reading…Larry Norton, former FEC General Counsel and now in private practice, has started a blog with his partners. This blog post asks: “Does this deadlock portend ‘a new era of partisanship on the Commission,’ as suggested by FEC-watcher, Professor Richard Hasen? We think not.” Welcome to the blogosphere!…
Continue reading…rayed from the reservation and voted with Democrats rather than have a 3-3 deadlock on some issues. Republicans were never particularly happy with Mason for this reason, but not necessarily enough to dump him (presumably especially because all the political capital was being spent defending von Spakovsky). The McCain situation involving the public financing was the straw that broke the camel’s back. This sounds quite plausible to me. But even assu…
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