“Major Democratic Donors Devise Plans to Pressure Biden to Step Aside”

campaign finance, campaigns

NYT:

After several days of quiet griping and hoping that President Biden would abandon his re-election campaign on his own, many wealthy Democratic donors are trying to take matters into their own hands.

Wielding their fortunes as both carrot and stick, donors have undertaken a number of initiatives to pressure Mr. Biden to step down from the top of the ticket and help lay the groundwork for an alternate candidate.

The efforts — some coordinated, some conflicting and others still nascent — expose a remarkable and growing rift between the party’s contributor class and its standard-bearer that could have an impact on down-ballot races, whether or not the donors influence Mr. Biden’s decision….

A group of them is working to raise as much as $100 million for a sort of escrow fund, called the Next Generation PAC, that would be used to support a replacement candidate. If Mr. Biden does not step aside, the money could be used to help down-ballot candidates, according to people close to the effort.

Supporters of potential replacements like Vice President Kamala Harris are jockeying to position their preferred successor. Other donors are threatening to withhold contributions not only from Mr. Biden but also from other Democratic groups unless Mr. Biden bows out.

There is a separate movement to steer money to candidates for lower offices. And financial supporters are urging elected officials at all levels to publicly pressure Mr. Biden to withdraw, signaling support for those who follow through. Some major donors like Reed Hastings have gone public with calls for Mr. Biden to stand down.

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“After controversial court rulings, a Voting Rights Act lawsuit takes an unusual turn”

Voting Rights Act

Hansi Lo Wang for NPR:

Last Friday, attorneys led by the American Civil Liberties Union let a filing deadline pass at the U.S. Supreme Court, choosing not to ask the justices to review a controversial lower court ruling that threatens to help end one of the main ways for enforcing the landmark law’s protections against racial discrimination in the election process.

The groups say they are now considering other avenues for challenging a redistricting plan for Arkansas’ state legislature that they argue takes away meaningful opportunities for Black communities to elect representatives of their choice.

The roundabout legal strategy is resurfacing questions about the future of the Civil Rights-era legislation that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has weakened through multiple rulings since 2013.

See also my June 28 post, Breaking: Plaintiffs, Likely Fearing the Supreme Court Will Make Things Worse, Decline to Seek Supreme Court Review of Eighth Circuit Case Holding There’s No Right For Private Parties to Sue Under Section 2 of Voting Rights Act.

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Wisconsin: “Police in Glendale remove election observers for being disruptive while objecting to ballots”

chicanery

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Election observers showed up at several polling locations in the Milwaukee area Tuesday, and two of them were removed by police in Glendale for being disruptive while objecting to absentee ballots, Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy said.

Glendale Police removed two observers at separate city polling sites for getting confrontational with poll workers, Kennedy said, but the rest were allowed to stay at polling locations in Glendale, Shorewood and the City of Milwaukee.

The groups of observers declined to be interviewed by the Journal Sentinel, but Kennedy said they challenged absentee ballots in the city for a variety of reasons, including noticing a scratch on the ballot.

Most of the observers challenging the ballots were from outside of Milwaukee County and registered as either as a “concerned citizen,” with the Republican Party or an associated group, according to election observer logs at each of the locations.

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“Government reform expert Robert Stern joins LA Ethics Commission”

election law biz

LADN:

The Los Angeles City Council has confirmed reform expert Robert Stern as the newest member of the Ethics Commission, and Wednesday marks the first time in several months that the five-member body has had all its seats filled.

The council voted 14-0, with Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson absent during the vote. Stern was nominated by Council President Paul Krekorian last week.

A nationally recognized expert in the fields of campaign finance and government reform, Stern was the first general counsel of the California Fair Political Practices Commission — the agency in charge of administering California’s campaign disclosure, ethics and lobbying laws. He previously served as a president of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws, an organization of local, state and federal agencies in the U.S. and Canada that regulate campaign finance, ethics, lobbying and election laws.

Congrats Bob!

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