Passions have clearly been stirred by the recent 4-2 decision by the Wisconsin state supreme court to shut down a state “John Doe” investigation into potentially illegal coordination between the 2012 recall campaign of Gov.Source: Judicial Oblivion: How the Wisconsin Supreme Court Ignored Legal Precedent to End the John Doe Investigation...
On July 8, 2015, Campaign Legal Center President Trevor Potter addressed The Public Policy Forum of Crested Butte in Colorado. His speech “The Money in Politics Disaster: Where Do We Go from Here”, follows below.Source: The Money in Politics Disaster: Where Do We Go from Here...
Despite all the hype about tools like Snapchat and Meerkat, the 2016 campaign will be dominated by a technology that's been around for decades: TV. This was supposed to be the presidential campaign that ends the dominance of TV ads — the Snapchat election, the live streaming election.Source: The television election...
The dashcam footage of Sandra Bland’s arrest is disturbing for a number of reasons—including trooper Brian Encinia’s apparent use of excessive force in subduing Bland. But for civil liberties advocates, a less dramatic moment of the footage is nearly as disquieting.Source: Did Sandra Bland Have a Right to Film Her Arrest?...
Relatively inexperienced IRS managers could take the reins of gatekeeping panels with significant sway over dark money groups under the terms of a memo sent to agency managers last week and obtained by OpenSecrets Blog.Source: New IRS process for recommending nonprofit audits draws critiques...
California is getting a new statewide voter registration system after nearly a decade of development and delay. The state's existing voter registration system is aging, and isn’t compatible with modern technology. So as far back as 2006, the state started looking to modernize.Source: Nine Years Later, California Gets New Voter Registration System...
CHICAGO — Federal judges who tossed several of Rod Blagojevich's corruption convictions endeavored to answer a question legal observers said Wednesday had gone largely unanswered: Just when does an elected official cross the line between legal and illegal political horse-trading? The 7th U.S.Source: Blagojevich ruling draws line on what is, isn't corruption...
WITH THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL campaign season fully underway, the candidates have begun to outline their vision for the future of the country. In a policy speech in Tallahassee, Fla.Source: Presidential Candidates and Lobbying–Where They Sit...
Among those who decry the levels of money being spent on elections, the villain is almost always Citizens United, which unleashed corporations and permitted them to make unlimited independent expenditures in support of or in opposition to candidates for elected office.Source: It’s Buckley, not Citizens United, that created massive spending...
One of the fundamental arguments in the “Political Realism” debate is whether or not strong political parties could make government work better. One way to assess party strength is to look at how much money parties can raise and spend.Source: The debate over state polarization and campaign finance laws continues...
