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Citizens United

Synergy and Citizens United

Election Law Society · May 30, 2010 ·

Before coming to law school, I worked as a fundraising and communications consultant for a number of House and Senate campaigns.  Sometimes, being involved in one race would lend opportunities to help a client in another.  For example, I would sometimes have clients in nearby districts who would do joint events, or who would each take a turn with a visiting speaker or leader during the same trip.

Most common, however, would be when one prominent figure (usually a sitting Congressman or popular party leader) would agree to write a fundraising email or letter for one client, and I would convince that figure to allow me to send a second letter on behalf of another client while we were at it.  My clients were often unaware that I was performing this service, but it’s actually quite common: the world of DC fundraisers is surprisingly incestuous, with fundraisers each attending events hosted by their colleagues and regular donors.  Think about it: if a campaign fundraising consultant doesn’t regularly attend events at the home of a prominent  donor, what are the odds of developing a close relationship with that donor and getting her to host an event for your clients down the line?  It’s also about networking: at some point, each of us found that we had to turn down a prospective client (for whatever reason–everything from ideological disagreement to prior commitments in the race), so we’d pass their information to a colleague and hope for reciprocity down the line.  It’s just good business. [Read more…] about Synergy and Citizens United

Weekly Wrap Up

Election Law Society · May 20, 2010 ·

Every week, State of Elections brings you the latest news in state election law.

– Soon, even a candidate’s tweets will be governed by a legion of rules and regulations.  The Maryland Board of Elections is attempting to devise rules for the use of social media by candidates.

– The Tennessee Senate has passed a bill that would require potential voters to show proof of citizenship before registering.  The state Attorney General believes that the law could potentially violate the federal Motor Voter Act.

– Congressman Michael Capuano has written an editorial for the Boston Herald about Citizens United and the proposed Shareholder Protection Act.  For more about shareholder protection and Citizens United, see this post by William and Mary law professor William Van Alstyne.

– The recent British election and the swift transfer of power from Gordon Brown to David Cameron has some wondering how the U.S. could reduce the time between elections and inaugurations.  See this article from Slate for a proposal for how such a reduction could be accomplished without a constitutional amendment.

– Pedro A. Cortés, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of the Commonwealth and the top election official in that state, has resigned. Cortés will be pursuing opportunities in the private sector, as vice president of a voting technology company.

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Weekly Wrap Up

Election Law Society · April 23, 2010 ·

Every week, State of Elections brings you the latest news in election law.

– Check out our CU + and the States page to track the latest state responses to the Citizens United ruling.  The page is constantly updated and contains over 50 links discussing the impact of Citizens United at the state level.

-The Rose Institute released this state by state guide to redistricting in America.

– Georgia’s photo identification requirement for voting has survived another legal challenge.

– Florida will begin providing bilingual ballots in 2012.

– An Idaho judge has ruled that Idaho’s election laws are unconstitutional and biased against independent candidates.  An independent presidential candidate requires 6,500 signatures to get on the ballot in Arizona, but nonresidents are forbidden from circulating petitions in Idaho.  These two laws combined to make it particularly difficult for an independent to get on the ballot in Idaho.


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Citizens United and the Culture of Corporate Deference

Election Law Society · April 19, 2010 ·

Editor’s note: This article was originally posted as a comment made in response to Neal Rechtman’s “Citizens United Against the Supreme Court”

One of the subtle harms of Citizens United is the propensity it creates to doubt that we’re receiving honest services from government officials. To give a recent example, last week the President reversed course on offshore drilling, announcing a very wide-reaching oil drilling expansion off the Atlantic, Gulf, and northern Pacific coasts. Now, it is entirely possible and quite likely that he’s reversed like this because of legislative or practical concerns, or maybe he’s become convinced that the process is better served by an early concession of this point, or maybe he has actually changed his mind on the merits of the policy. Or perhaps he’s anticipating the usual summertime gas price spike and is hoping to blunt the criticisms that are sure to come by taking a prophylactic step that conservatives have loudly touted as a way to lower prices.

But perhaps the reason is that we have an election in November that’s expected to cost around $3.7 billion, and that figure is less than 1/5th of Exxon-Mobils net annual profit in their WORST year of the last 7. If the oil industry wanted to heavily invest in this cycle, they have more than enough money to go beyond simple advertising–they could fund parallel field campaigns, massive ad buys in every media, billboards around the country, and make every long-shot pro-drilling candidate into a bona-fide contender. [Read more…] about Citizens United and the Culture of Corporate Deference

Citizens United Against the Supreme Court

Election Law Society · March 24, 2010 ·

The recent Citizens United ruling by the US Supreme Court, which holds that First Amendment protections apply not just to individual speakers but also to corporations, is only the latest in a decades-long series of decisions by the Court that have expanded the scope of the First Amendment into realms never imagined by our Founding Fathers.

Beginning with Buckley v. Valeo in 1976, the Justices have embraced the concept that money is equal to speech, and that therefore any limitation on campaign spending violates the First Amendment.  This week’s ruling simply expands this protection to cover corporations, which are by definition aggregators of money.  So now corporate money will completely overwhelm individual money in the arena of political speech, and Madison’s conception of our government as a forum for the broadest possible public deliberation of issues will be rendered legally moot.  [Read more…] about Citizens United Against the Supreme Court

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