Comments on Agency Procedures

     These comments were filed last night, by the Perkins Coie Political Law Group. More on the hearing--and on the difficulties of the FEC's mission--will appear here tomorrow.

The Illinois Senate Appointment and the Reach of Powell v. McCormack

     In the discussions of the Senate’s options in responding to the Burris appointment, it is accepted that, following Powell v. McCormack, the Senate could freely expel the Senator, once seated, whom it could not so easily exclude. The vote to expel would be iron-clad: the Senate, while not able to simply exclude the appointee, can quickly put him out the door. 

Reforms and the Problem with “Systems”

     The American Prospect has published and made available on-line commentaries on directions for democratic reform.  Among the pieces is one by Mark Schmitt, who delivers a progressive eulogy for the post-Watergate campaign finance system and prescribes, as an alternative, the further development of a small donor democracy made possible by the Internet and previewed in the last election.  

527s, Then (2004) and Now: The FEC, Then and Now

     The FEC Commissioners who worry that certain of their colleagues have abandoned 527 regulation refer to two disagreements over the application of the law and precedent to 2004 conduct.  This disagreement could well be squabbling over what the law was then—or, more consequentially, what it is right now. 

Disclosure and Two Critics

      John Lott and Brad Smith argue this morning that donor disclosure is not without cost--to the donors. "Donor Disclosure Has Its Downsides", Wall Street Journal, Dec. 26, 2008 at A13.  Their example is Proposition 8, and they use primarily the cases of retaliation against "yes" donors; but they allow that the dangers run in both directions and that "supporters of Prop. 8 [also] engaged in pressure tactics" against donors. These dangers are enhanced, they write, by "easy access to information on the Internet" where "any crank or unhinged individual can obtain information on his political opponents…all but instantaneously".  

Also...

Divided, When Not United  12/23/08

Bundling (or Bungled) Regulations?  12/19/08

On Lobbying  12/17/08

FEC Hearing: A New Year's Resolution?  12/16/08

Beginning the Reform Discussion, at the Post  12/15/08

Reform, About the Voter  12/11/08

The Internet at the COGEL Conference  12/10/08

Reform Fiction  12/8/08

Of Nixon and Small Donors, the Old and the New: 1968-2008  12/5/08

Rove Is Back--Still Rove  12/4/08