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CREW's curious FEC lawsuit
Published on August 13, 2010 01:31 PM
Category: Enforcement
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission after the FEC declined to pursue two CREW complaints. CREW has a history of filing FEC complaints against candidates as part of its advocacy campaign to increase political speech regulation. Many, if not most, go nowhere-unsupported by law or evidence. Like some of these complaints, the current lawsuit looks less like a serious attempt to address a legal issue
FEC: Rep. Alan Grayson's complaint is nuts
Published on June 18, 2010 04:31 PM
Category: Enforcement, Political Committees & 527s
Okay... so that's not really what the six wise men and women of the Federal Election Commission said in dismissing a complaint filed by the bombastic Florida Rep. Alan Grayson. In any event, the FEC made public a finding that the Commission has "no reason to believe" that any aspect of Grayson's frivolous complaint about a political opponent had any bearing in fact or law.
Exclusive: shoddy hit pieces on FEC commissioners rise more than 1,000 percent!
Published on April 2, 2010
Category: Enforcement, Faulty Assumptions
"The Raw Story," a liberal Washington, D.C.-based website that dubs itself an "alternative news nexus," has distinguished itself this week by publishing a three-part hatchet job on Caroline Hunter, a Republican-designated FEC commissioner. The spurious stories are so filled with vile personal attacks, gamed statistics and revisionist history that I hesitate to even address this sorry excuse for web journalism. Nonetheless, it seems necessary to respond as Prof. Rick Hasen posted the series on h
Video of last weeks ACS panel on Citizens United
Published on February 28, 2010
Category: Coordination, Disclosure, Enforcement, Expenditure, Independent Speech, Jurisprudence & Litigation, Political Committees & 527s, Political Parties, Stand By Your Ad
The Center for Competitive Politics covered the panel in two posts last week: "Lawyers offer mixed reviews of post-Citizens United leg. at ACS event" and "ACS panel features strong supporters of free political speech."
Reaction to the congressional proposals to thwart Citizens United v. FEC
Published on February 11, 2010 04:46 PM
Category: Coordination, Disclosure, Enforcement, Expenditure, Independent Speech, Jurisprudence & Litigation, Political Committees & 527s
Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Chris Van Hollen announced a legislative framework for post-Citizens United legislation in a press conference call Thursday. The Center for Competitive Politics press release on the development is here: "The First Amendment should not be plowed over because of an inconvenient political storm," said Bradley A. Smith, CCP's chairman and a former FEC chairman. "This is a cynical attempt to brush aside constitutional concerns because of a short-term perception of partisa
Ed Schultz, scofflaw on speech restrictions?
Published on January 8, 2010 11:18 AM
Category: Enforcement
As many followers of politics know, Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota has announced that he will not run for re-election in 2010, leaving the Democratic Party with the task of recruiting a candidate to take his spot on the ballot. The Democrats apparently contacted popular progressive talk show host Ed Schultz, who spent nearly 30 years in North Dakota as a sportscaster and then host of a political radio show. Schultz is currently, among other things, the host of a political show
Fred v. Don et al part IX
Published on January 6, 2010 02:57 PM
Category: Enforcement
Yesterday, "reform" one-man-band lobbyist Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 issued another jeremiad directed at FEC Commissioner Don McGahn specifically and the other two FEC Republicans — newly-minted FEC Chairman Matthew Petersen and Commissioner Caroline Hunter — generally. The chest-thumping, 1,346-word press release devolved into increasingly personal attacks aimed at Wertheimer's nemesis, McGahn, who Wertheimer perceives as the 9-headed hydra of the free speech voting bloc on th
Washingtonian: top election and campaign finance lawyers
Published on January 6, 2010 07:07 AM
Category: Enforcement
Last month, the print edition of Washingtonian magazine carried its rankings of top Washington, D.C. lawyers — now available online. Washingtonian's comment preceding the list indicates a truism of the current campaign finance regime: candidates need expensive, top-flight attorneys to stay abreast of our complex political speech rules. Running for office requires more than just printing bumper stickers and glad-handing potential donors. Individual candidates as well as political parties a
My congressman is nuts - and wants to prosecute me for saying so
Published on December 19, 2009
Category: Enforcement, False Statements, Other
Alan Grayson, a Florida Congressman known for sharp commentary, has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to prosecute a web site that is critical of him. Grayson, a freshman Democrat from Florida's eighth congressional district, has gained some notoriety in the last year by a series of colorful comments: he referred to radio talk host Rush Limbaugh as "a has-been hypocrite loser" who "was more lucid when he was a drug addict;" urged Dick Cheney to "Shut the F___ Up;" called o
Just in time for Christmas
Published on December 12, 2009
Category: Enforcement, Independent Speech, Other
Looking for one last stocking stuffer for your home's campaign finance/election law geek? Ron Paul fans have produced a documentary on Dr. Paul's quixotic run for President, titled, "For Liberty: How the Ron Paul Revolution Watered the Withered Tree of Liberty." What's of note to us is that the documentary includes as a "bonus feature" an extensive interview with CCP Chairman Brad Smith on the role campaign finance laws play in smothering political competition and harming true gr
