On January 5, the New Hampshire Secretary of State advised all the town clerks that voters can now register as members of the Libertarian Party, and that those registrations should be tallied. This happened because the party regained its qualified status on November 8, 2016, when it polled over 4% for Governor. Thanks to Darryl Perry for this news.
On January 5, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan held oral argument in Level the Playing Field v Federal Election Commission, 1:15cv-1397. The issue is whether the FEC has a duty to determine whether the Commission on Presidential Debates is breaking federal campaign finance law when it lets the Commission spend corporate-donated money on the general election presidential debates. UPDATE: here is a news story about the hearing.
Judge Chutkan said that it appears the FEC did not evaluate the voluminous evidence presented to it that the Commission is, indeed, in a realistic sense, contributing to the campaigns of the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees. She asked the attorney for the FEC how she could defer to the FEC when it appears the FEC hasn’t done a real analysis.
On January 4, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) introduced S.26, which requires major party presidential candidates to file a copy with their federal income tax returns with the Federal Election Commission, and also requires sitting presidents to release their tax returns. Here is the bill. It has ten co-sponsors.
“Major party” presidential nominees are those whose party received at least 25% of the vote in the previous presidential election.
If the candidate does not release the tax return, the FEC will then ask the IRS to release it to the FEC, so that the public can see it. This is a far better approach than using ballot access laws to compel release of the return.
On Thursday, January 5, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan will hear arguments in Level the Playing Field v FEC, 1:15cv-1397. The hearing is at 10 a.m. The Prettyman federal courthouse is at 333 Constitution Avenue NW near Third Street, one block west of the U.S. Capitol. Metro stations nearby are Judiciary Square and Archives-Navy Memorial.
The hearing is expected to last for one hour. This case is about the Commission on Presidential Debates and its rules for inviting candidates.
North Carolina is waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if the entire state legislature will be up for election in November 2017. Normally North Carolina, like 45 other states, elects all its legislators in even years. But on November 29, 2016, a 3-judge U.S. District Court had told the state to redraw all its legislative districts by March 15, 2017, and then to hold legislative elections in those new districts later that year.
The state hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will cancel the order. The Court has this case on its January 19, 2017 conference. The case is North Carolina v Covington, 16-649.
