Category Archives: Campaign Finance

October 23, 2013 · 1:49 pm

Texas Judge Almost Blocked From Voting Because Of New Voter ID Law

I fear this is a merely a taste of things to come….

And to those of you who think Voter ID Bills are no big deal, think again…

In addition to the known impact to minorities and the poor, it seems no one really looked at the impact this might have on women, who are more likely to change their names with marriage or divorce….

From ThinkProgress.org

 

A Texas district judge who has been voting for the past five decades was almost barred from the polls Tuesday, thanks to the state’s newly implemented, stricter voter ID law. The law kicked in on Tuesday as early voting in Texas’ November 5 election began.As she told local channel Kiii News, 117th District Court Judge Sandra Watts was flagged for possible voter fraud because her driver’s license lists her maiden name as her middle name, while her voter registration form has her real middle name. This was the first time she has ever had a problem voting in 49 years. “What I have used for voter registration and for identification for the last 52 years was not sufficient yesterday when I went to vote,” she said.Watts worried that women who use maiden names or hyphenated names may be surprised at the polls. “I don’t think most women know that this is going to create a problem,” the judge said. “That their maiden name is on their driver’s license, which was mandated in 1964 when I got married, and this. And so why would I want to use a provisional ballot when I’ve been voting regular ballot for the last 49 years?”

via Texas Judge Almost Blocked From Voting Because Of New Voter ID Law | ThinkProgress.

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January 22, 2012 · 1:10 pm

Romney Will Release 2010 Tax Returns and What to Look For…..

More fun on the way….

He really doesn’t want to do this, but after South Carolina, he really doesn’t have much choice….

A few thoughts/lookouts here:

  1. He is only releasing last year and an estimate of this year.  It takes more than one year to really get a picture of his true financial life.
  2. Look for Cayman Islands bank accounts/investments funds.  If they they are there; who are his partners?  Follow the money…
  3. Look at how much he contributes to charities and what charities he supports.  This could cause some questions…
  4. Look at his overall wealth and tax rate.  This is probably going to be the first bomb to go off, but the others could be bigger….
  5. Who know what else?

The fun continues!

From The Huffington Post:

Bending, halfway, to political pressures, Mitt Romney pledged on Sunday to release his most recent year of tax returns this coming week as well as an estimate for his upcoming filings.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” the former Massachusetts governor said his campaign would be putting out tax information for 2010 and projections for 2011 on Tuesday.

More:   Romney Will Release 2010 Tax Returns And 2011 Estimates On Tuesday.

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November 2, 2011 · 7:57 pm

Who’s Paying for the GOP’s Plan to Hijack the 2012 Election? | Mother Jones

Big money may well be the death of democracy in the U.S…..

Elections can be bought here just like in any third world banana republic…

Mainly thanks to the Roberts Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case, but there are other loopholes that need to be closed…..

And  I have decided it’s time to do away with the Electoral College.  It’s become just another tool for the GOP to manipulate.

Remember Al Gore got more popular votes than George W. Bush.  It was the Electoral College and the Supreme Court that gave us President George W. Bush.

I wonder if it’s not already too late to save popular Democracy in the U.S.A…..

From MotherJones.com:

Over the past six months, someone—or a group of someones—has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund an effort to change the rules of the 2012 presidential election to make it very difficult for President Barack Obama to win reelection. But the shadowy lobbying group mounting this campaign hasn’t disclosed its donors—and under current law, it doesn’t have to.

In two states, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, GOP legislators have introduced bills that would change how electoral votes—a candidate needs 270 of the 538 to win the presidency—are awarded in a presidential election. Under the current system, the winner of the statewide popular vote receives all of the electoral votes from that state.

If the Republican plan becomes law in either Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, those states would change how electoral votes are awarded. The new plan would allot electoral votes on the basis of vote totals within congressional districts. If a candidate wins a congressional district, he or she would receive one electoral college vote. Whoever does best in the statewide race would receive two electoral votes.

Because Republicans will draw the boundaries of the congressional districts in both states, the new rules would mean that Obama could win the states but still receive fewer electoral votes than his Republican opponent. Should a Republican split the states’ electoral votes with Obama (even if Obama draws more votes), that could provide the GOPer with the margin of victory in a close race. (Under the US Constitution, it is up to the states to allot electoral votes as they see fit.)

In Pennsylvania, a secretive nonprofit group called All Votes Matter has been pushing the electoral vote scheme since May. All Votes Matter has close ties to the Pennsylvania GOP—it hired a number of former top state Senate staffers-turned-lobbyists. “It was pretty much the Senate GOP All Star Lobbying Team and [former state House Democratic Counsel Bill] Sloane,” Peter DeCoursey, the bureau chief for Capitolwire, a newswire that’s read religiously by Harrisburg insiders*, explained in September.

Between April and June, the group spent $77,700 to lobby state officials to support legislation to implement this scheme. By early September, GOP Gov. Tom Corbett and the state House and Senate leaders, Mike Turzai and Dominic Pileggi, both Republicans, had all expressed their support for the idea. It was “the best $77,700 anyone ever spent on potential legislation,” DeCoursey wrote. “The entire state governing wing [was] for a bill that [hadn’t] been introduced yet.”

A week later, though, the landscape had changed significantly. Mother Jones and other national media outlets drew widespread attention to the story, and the state GOP chairman and the vast majority of its congressional delegation came out against the plan.

via Who’s Paying for the GOP’s Plan to Hijack the 2012 Election? | Mother Jones.

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October 30, 2011 · 3:03 pm

Outside Groups Eclipsing G.O.P. As Hub of Campaigns – NYTimes.com

More fallout from the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that allowed unlimited Corporate money to flow into Campaigns.

Now the Corporations and their billionaire leaders can simply buy candidates and campaigns outright instead of having to use the political parties as a middle man.

And they don’t have to deal with all those messy campaign finance regulations the Political Parties have to deal with…..

Karl Rove and this merry Band of Billionaires are already planning how to put their agenda into play next year.

This is going to be nasty.  It’s going to be a campaign season like we’ve never seen before with all this unlimited Corporate Cash spreading lies, disinformation and propaganda from the Presidential Campaign level (the Koch brothers and their Astroturf candidate Herman Cain) all the way down to the School Board races (See Art Pope in NC).

I’m really not sure our Democracy can survive this…..

I think it may be too late- the Corporate Coup d’etat may have already happened and we are just now realizing it….

From today’s New York Times:

At a time when the Republican National Committee remains weighed down by debt, outside conservative groups, freed from contribution limits by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision last year, are playing an ever larger role and operating in an increasingly coordinated fashion. In the coming months, the conservative groups will consult among themselves as they open pre-election advertising barrages against Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats.

They have begun conversations about how to divide up the swing states where each group is likely to focus its energies, with some like Americans for Prosperity expecting to shift chiefly to Senate races and the White House. Others, like the new Congressional Leadership Fund, will look to preserve the Republican hold on the House.

Groups that have made defeating Mr. Obama their top priority expect to invest heavily in some of the new swing states where Mr. Obama made inroads in 2008, like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. Other groups, operating in concert, will target Democratic senators they believe are ripe for unseating, like Bill Nelson of Florida, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

At a time when the Republican presidential primary race has featured increasingly tough stances against illegal immigration, the independent groups have begun an aggressive program of outreach to Hispanics, hoping to offset Democratic gains among a critical voting bloc.

And they are planning to coordinate offensives in states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where money and organizing could pay dividends simultaneously in the presidential, Congressional and local legislative races.

via Outside Groups Eclipsing G.O.P. As Hub of Campaigns – NYTimes.com.

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