On July 1, 2013, Dan LaBotz filed this new lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. This is the second time LaBotz has sued. He won the first case, which is LaBotz v FEC, 889 F.Supp.2d 51 (September 5, 2012). In the first decision, the court ordered to FEC to re-examine his complaint against the Ohio News Organization, which sponsored U.S. Senate general election debates in 2010 and invited only the Democrat and Republican, and had no objective criteria explaining how candidates might qualify for the debates. The Ohio News Organization is a corporation, and corporations can’t contribute to candidates for federal office. So by hosting a debate with no objective criteria, the Ohio News Organization was making a corporate contribution to the two candidates that were invited, Rob Portman and Lee Fisher.

After the first court decision, the FEC looked at the matter again but decided to do nothing, so the second lawsuit has now been filed.

California AB 1038, by Assemblymember Richard Pan, was scheduled to have a hearing in the Senate Elections Committee on Tuesday, July 2, but the bill’s author has amended the bill so that it is no longer an election law bill. It now relates to the sale of milk products. This is the bill that originally made it a crime for a group to pay registration drive workers on the basis of how many registrations they obtain for any particular party.

The only way a party in California can get on the ballot, or remain on, is on the basis of having registration equal to 1% of the last gubernatorial vote. If the bill (as originally written) were to be enacted, parties trying to maximize their registration would be handicapped.

On June 27, the Washington, D.C., City Council passed B20-0245 on consent. It has a final reading on July 10, but since it passed First Reading on Consent, it is considered virtually passed. It repeals the ban on out-of-district petition circulators.

The Washington, D.C. City Council has passed a similar bill on December 18, 2012, but since that was an emergency bill, it was automatically terminated after 90 days. The current bill will make the repeal permanent.