Other Related Legal Developments
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We also cover other developments under the campaign finance laws that may not flow directly from BCRA but significantly affect how monies are raised and spent in federal elections.

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.  

 

Divided, When Not United

     So the FEC is having a rough holiday season.  The New York Times sent its Seasons Greetings in the form of another one its signature screeds, a raging denunciation of the proposed bundling rules.  Experienced Times readers are familiar with the genre:  the "loopholes", party "wheelhorses'', and all the regulatory "gimmicks" that are "cynical".  No good faith in sight.  All dark.  Such are the rewards for the FEC in arriving at a 6-0 decision. 

 

Beginning the Reform Discussion, at the Post

     The Post printed this editorial this morning, calling for the discussion of Presidential public financing reform to begin.  It rightly describes Fred Wertheimer's proposals, previously published by the Post and discussed here, as "a good starting point," and what it means by that is that the campaign finance regulatory structure "must be remade to function in today's interconnected, more expensive world." 

 

Reform, About the Voter

     Trevor Potter and I did one more turn, this time at a Pew conference dedicated to the proposition that elections should be made to work.  This duet was less political in melody:  it was more the look forward to reform than the glance backward at elections. 

 

Also...

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

Election Reform and the Right to Vote: Part I  12/3/08

More on Small Donors, Micro-Donors and Mid-Range Repeaters  12/1/08

Obama Fundraising and the "Small Donor": Strange Views from the Campaign Finance Institute  11/25/08

Looking for the Missing Logic of Campaign Finance Regulation  11/24/08

Judicial Elections on Trial: The Case of the Honorable Michael J. Gableman  11/21/08

Directions for Presidential Public Financing Reform  11/14/08

Hybrid Ads and Public Financing Reform  11/11/08