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.

Vice President

     A topic in election law, timely as the morning news:

     Sandy Levinson puts sharply the question of why we would abide the selection of the Vice President in the currently accepted form.  A Presidential nominee makes the pick, and it is the nominee's choice alone:  and if anything is said for this procedure, it is advanced as a test of Presidential judgment.  Once made, it is not easily undone:  the President (as, as a practical matter) cannot dismiss the Vice President, but the Congress, having had no role in the selection, can impeach this second highest officer in the land.

 

McCain and Attack Ads

     In considering how times change, there is this:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jOsi2B4d7U, to be viewed before the epilogue, which is found here.

     John McCain has explicitly related campaign finance law to what, in the Swift Boats matter, he denounced as “dishonest and dishonorable” political advertising. 

 

Developments as the Federal Election Commission Prepares to Consider the McCain Case

     The Democratic National Committee is filing comments with the Federal Election Commission today, in opposition to the scheduled consideration of the legality of Senator McCain's withdrawal from the primary matching fund system. The DNC has a complaint pending before the agency on this issue.  Its point to the Commission seems quite straightforward:  the Commission cannot act on a request that McCain never made. He did not seek leave to withdraw; he simply abandoned the system, withdrawing unilaterally.

The Research Battle in the Reform War

     The Brennan Center has read the Center for Competitive Politics (CCP) study of New Jersey public financing and does not like it.  It questions the methodology—no surprise there—and it is dissatisfied with the interpretation CCP adopts of its data.  It is convinced that CCP is wrong and that the New Jersey public funding law does good things for which the voting public is  grateful.

 

First Observations on the McCain Primary Matching Fund Case

     The McCain public financing controversy has not unfolded in the ordinary course of administrative process.  Count the ways:

—McCain declared his own unilateral withdrawal;

—The Chairman of the FEC who objected, David Mason, was then fired (his nomination, twice tendered, abruptly withdrawn);

—The agency for most of this period was unable to function—out of business, since it was more or less out of Commissioners.

—So John McCain was off the hook, and he more or less taunted the agency for being powerless in non-existence to do anything about it.  As the FEC staff reminds us, McCain’s attorneys pointed out to the agency that it could not vote to take action one way or the other, having not enough Commissioners.

     So what the FEC does now, and why it does what it does, is of some consequence.  It is a test of a kind—a test, in this matter, of credibility.

Also...

The Wal-Mart Matter  8/14/08

The Center for Competitive Politics Answers on Public Financing, and Against It: and a Reply  8/12/08

Not Exactly “Honoring” Our Veterans: The VA and Its Policy on Voter Registration  8/11/08

The Center for Competitive Politics and the Case for and against Public Funding Programs  8/8/08

Being Mr. Frederick, Scourge of “Identity Theft”  8/4/08

McCain-Feingold Arguments and Old School Rivalries  7/29/08

Professor Lessig on Reform, Before the Netroots Nation  7/28/08

Missouri Story -- Or More?  7/15/08

When (McCain’s) $400 Million Is Not Enough to Buy Attention  7/14/08

People Known to Gail Collins Who Care About Campaign Finance Reform  7/11/08