This Daily Beast article finds that at least 17 individuals have spent money to boost the 2016 presidential campaigns of both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. Thanks to Gene Berkman for the link.
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The Daily Beast has an article on whether general election presidential debates should be open to more candidates. Much of the story focuses on the comments of Leslie C. Francis, a former Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee and also a former Executive Director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Francis originally joined in with Level the Playing Field, advocating that the standards be more relaxed. But he says he broke with Level the Playing Field after it filed a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission to force the FEC to consider changing the federal regulations on debates. Francis is quoted as saying that Level the Playing Field “blew everything up by joining forces with the Greens and the Libertarians.” Francis also says that the Commission on Presidential Debates was “possibly” going to lower the polling threshold from 15% to 10%, and he implies that that possibility is now less likely because the lawsuit was filed.
Francis also warns against “dangerous” presidential candidates qualifying for the debates if the standards are significantly relaxed.
On August 4, Mississippi held primaries for the statewide executive offices. The state elects its Governor and other statewide offices, and its legislators, on November 3, 2015. The Democratic primary was won by Robert Gray, who didn’t campaign, nor spend any money. He didn’t even vote in the primary. He defeated two other candidates who had campaigned. See this story.
The vote isn’t official, but so far Gray has 51%, enough to avoid a runoff primary. Thanks to Mike Fellows for the link.
On August 5, the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion in Veasey v Abbott, 14-41127. The voting rights organizations that filed the case had argued that the 2011 Texas law that requires voters at the polls to show certain kinds of government photo-ID violates the Voting Rights Act, section two. In 2014 the U.S. District Court had agreed with the plaintiffs and invalidated the law. The Fifth Circuit agrees with the U.S. District Court that the Texas law has the effect of discriminating against Hispanic and African-American voters.
But the Fifth Circuit said that just because the law has a discriminatory effect does not resolve the case. The Fifth Circuit remanded the case back to the U.S. District Court to determine if the Texas law was enacted with a discriminatory purpose. If it doesn’t, then section two of the Voting Rights Act cannot be used to overturn the law. The Fifth Circuit expresses no opinion about whether the Texas photo ID law violates the Fourteenth Amendment. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On August 4, a New Jersey trial court in Bergen County ruled that Thomas Madigan’s petition to be on the November 3, 2015 ballot is valid. He is running for Township Committee, Wyckoff Township. He needed 100 signatures and submitted 194. Two seats are up. One of the Republican candidates for the same office challenged his petition on several grounds: (1) that he signed as the circulator but didn’t actually witness some of the signatures; (2) that he can’t sign his own petition because he also signed a primary petition for someone who was running for the same office; (3) that some of his signatures are forged.
The judge ruled in favor of Madigan on all points. See this story.