CCP
Cato Scholar John Samples Joins CCP as Academic Advisor
By Sarah LeeThe Center for Competitive Politics (CCP) welcomes Cato scholar John Samples as the newest Academic Advisor to the CCP team. Samples, well-known author of books such as The Struggle to Limit Government: A Modern Political History and The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform, is the current Director of the Center for Representative Government at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based free-market think-tank dedicated to public policy research on the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Its scholars and analysts conduct independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues.
Independent groups
NY Times: Groups Push to Highlight Campaign Finance Reform
By THOMAS KAPLANGovernment reformers are hoping that with “super PACs” dominating the presidential race, voters in New York will be more interested than ever in confronting the flood of money into the political system, providing a window of opportunity in Albany to overhaul campaign fund-raising laws that are among the most lenient in the country. They are pushing for the state to adopt a campaign fund-raising system modeled after the one used in New York City, where candidates can receive $6 in public money for every dollar they raise from small individual donors.
Roll Call: Liberal Groups Protest U.S. Chamber’s Election Spending
By Janie LorberA coalition of liberal groups opposed to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s election spending took their cause to the big-business lobby’s front yard today.
Politico: Sheldon Adelson-Shelley Berkley feud comes to a head
By Steve FriessTheir path from confidants to mortal foes began in the mid-1990s when, as Adelson’s corporate lawyer, she vocally opposed his efforts to open the Venetian hotel-casino as a non-union shop. She also says he tried to force her to run for Congress as a Republican. He wrote in the local newspaper that she betrayed his attorney-client privileges and said he’d have to engage in corruption to get his project approved.
Roll Call: U.S. Chamber Spending on Lobbying Continues at Rapid Clip
By Janie LorberThe U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $31.65 million on lobbying during the third quarter of 2012, maintaining a record pace during the current cycle, according to the latest Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.
SCOTUS/Judiciary
NY Times: 9 Justices Who Sit in the Eye of Storms
By MICHIKO KAKUTANIReaders will certainly not agree with all of Mr. Toobin’s analysis, and there are some unfortunate slips into invective in this volume: at one point he goes so far as to describe Justice Antonin Scalia as becoming a “right-wing crank.” For the most part, however, Mr. Toobin makes reasoned cases for his interpretations of court rulings, their historical context and their possible social and political consequences. He puts today’s conservative judicial activism in perspective with that of the liberal Warren Court of a half-century ago. And he looks at how the current makeup of the court reflects changes in the Republican Party at large, underscoring in particular the fallout created by the departure of the moderate Republican Sandra Day O’Connor.
Disclosure
Reuters: Ohio voter fraud billboards to come down, sponsor stays unnamed
By Kim PalmerThe sponsor was not identified on the billboards owned by Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. The company said this was a violation of its policy against anonymous political ads.
Candidates and parties
Politico: Obama campaign emails now targeting specific individuals
By Byron TauThe Obama campaign has ramped up its email microtargeting efforts, sending messages asking supporters on its email list to contact specific individuals in states with early voting to remind them to vote.
Associated Press: Lawyers, CEOs boosted Obama’s Sept. donations
By Jack GillumAn Associated Press review of newly released financial reports found at least $11 million from lawyers and at least $3 million from investors and bankers, some of whom cooled to the president earlier in this election campaign when critics say he cracked down on Wall Street and pushed for consumer-protection reforms. About $22 million more came from retired Americans, an important bloc of voters likely more tuned in to health care reform and changes in retirement benefits.
Roll Call: GOP Leadership Candidates’ Fundraising Helps Bolster Good Will
By Daniel NewhauserCountless Republican Members are stumping for presidential nominee Mitt Romney and for their peers’ re-election efforts this year, but the few Members running to become part of elected leadership are also on the campaign trail for themselves.
NY Times: Campaign Boils Down to Door-to-Door Voter Drives
By Trip GabrielORLANDO, Fla. — In Florida, which wrote the book on battleground states in 2000, “it’s going to be hand-to-hand combat all the way down,” a senior adviser to the Romney campaign, Brett Doster, said over the weekend.
