As Bob Conner reported for IVN in 2014, New Jersey’s independents spent approximately $100 million to pay for primaries in which they could not vote between 2000 and 2013. The obvious question is, how did this come to be? How did taxpayers come to subsidize party primaries?Source: The Story Behind Why You Have to Pay for Party Primaries...
The Justice spoke at Duke. She said this about Citizens United (via Adam Liptak): The words in the Arizona case were “the legislature thereof.” What were the Founding Fathers thinking about? They were thinking about who had a legislative function.Source: Justice Ginsburg Speaks on Citizens United, Arizona Redistricting...
Last year, The Washington Post Editorial Board panned a smartphone app that sorts companies by how Democratic or Republican they are.Source: Someone killed a lion. Want to see his political contribution history?...
Does the Federal Election Commission utilize an unlawful voting procedure to initiate enforcement actions under the Federal Election Campaign Act? A decision yesterday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Combat Veterans for Congress Political Action Committee v.Source: Is the Federal Election Commission’s voting procedure unlawful?...
First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.Source: First Read: The First GOP Debate is the New Ames Straw Poll...
Twenty-one House Republicans on Monday called for the firing of IRS Commissioner John A. Koskinen after they said he failed to cooperate with their inquiry into the targeting of conservative groups by tax investigators.Source: House Republicans want IRS commissioner fired...
The federal government has all but surrendered to the powerful, rich donors whose anonymous contributions threaten to undermine the 2016 elections.Source: The I.R.S. Gives Up on ‘Dark Money’...
Editor’s note: This post examines two cases the Supreme Court will review at its next Term: Evenwel v. Abbott, and Harris v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. This post will be followed this week by a symposium on Evenwel.Source: The new look at “one person, one vote,” made simple...
On November 7, 2000, Willie Steen, a Navy vet who had served in the Persian Gulf during Desert Storm, went to cast his ballot for president at the St. Francis Episcopal Church in Tampa, Florida. He brought his 10-year-old son, Willie Jr., to the polls for the first time.Source: How the 2000 Election in Florida Led to a New Wave...
The Florida senator grilled Obama officials on Iran last week, but he's been playing hooky more than the rest of the 2016 class. At last week’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Marco Rubio attacked the Obama administration for failing to secure the release of American hostages in Iran.Source: Marco Rubio 2016 candidate, absentee senator...
