John Sarbanes on bunny ears, Larry Hogan and fixing Congress

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/opinion/column/john-sarbanes-angela-alsobooks-sarah-elfreth-FIABENMV3BCXDDUSGAIYGEMWSQ/ 

Sarbanes sticks with his low-key approach as he prepared to leave Congress after 18 years. 

Charlie Cooper

[The Washington Post] Trump makes sweeping promises to donors on audacious fundraising tour

Trump makes sweeping promises to donors on audacious fundraising tour

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/28/trump-wealthy-donors-fundraising

He may be violating Federal campaign finance law by asking for money to go to PACs with which he's not supposed to coordinate and by making explicit policy promises that are tied to campaign donations/spending. 

Charlie Cooper

 

Crytpo lobbying and campaign cash in search of lax regulation

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/05/25/crypto-lobbying-politics-washington/

High-profile crypto fraud cases have not prevented the House from passing a bill aimed at switching crypto regulation from the SEC -- where Gary Gensler wants to institute strict regulation to protect investors -- to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which seems poised to let crypto cowboys have their way. Campaign donations from crypto-related donors and crypto-linked PACs are spending hundreds of millions. The article shows the Top 10 who received crypto support. The House bill passed with near-unanimous Republican support and dozens of Dems also approving. [NOTE: Candidate Alsobrooks has received crypto cash support. Not sure about others in Maryland - Charlie Cooper]

Charlie Cooper

Supreme Court lets anti-Black, anti-Democrat districts stand in South Carolina

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-807_3e04.pdf

The Supreme Court has ruled that partisan gerrymandering is "not justiciable." Congress could outlaw it, but that was defeated on January 20, 2022 when senators Sinema and Manchin -- and all the Republicans -- thought that the filibuster rule is more important than non-partisan districts. Now the Court has overturned a federal District Court ruling that the South Carolina Congressional map is a racial gerrymander. The majority opinion by Justice Alito said that the lower court clearly erred in calling it a racial gerrymander, when it is actually a partisan, pro-Republican gerrymander. Therefore, the skewed map will stand.

Charlie Cooper

A second flag associated with Jan 6 rioters flown at Alito house

https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-flag-stop-steal-alito-trump-1842c40b833637c981c59c3f39bc4669

The "Appeal to Heaven" flag was flown at a beach house owned by Justice Alito in 2023. Activists have charged that the flying of such a flag (including the upside-down U.S. flag previously reported) indicates a sympathy with election deniers who believe Trump's debunked claims of 2020 presidential election fraud and should be grounds for Alito to recuse from any Trump-related cases. Both Alito and Chief Justice Roberts have been silent.

Charlie Cooper

New York Mayor under investigation for campaign violations

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/20/nyregion/adams-fbi-corruption-investigation-aide.html?emc=edit_na_20240520&ref=cta&nl=breaking-news 

Charlie Cooper 

SCOTUS Purcell rule harms voters

https://stevevladeck.substack.com/p/57-another-bad-day-for-the-purcell?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The Supreme Court has adopted the Purcell rule, which states that federal courts should not change election rules "too close" to an upcoming election -- even if the rules in place violate federal laws. Of course, the purpose of changing the rules would be to guarantee an equal right to vote, but the Court felt that changes too close to an election could do greater harm than disenfranchising some voters by confusing a greater number of voters. This article criticizes the rule on several grounds:

• The rule was adopted on the shadow docket, without arguments or a signed opinion.
  
• There is no definition of what is "too close," and the Court invoked the rule 9 months before an election to keep (probably) unfair Congressional districts in place in Alabama.
• Traditional rules for deciding these cases could taken voter confusion into account amongst other factors and weight the relative harms of each.

Charlie Cooper

Senate Judiciary Chair Durbin calls on Justice Alito to recuse

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4670536-durbin-calls-for-alito-recusal-from-jan-6-cases-over-upside-down-flag-flew-at-his-home/

The upside-down flag incident directly flouts the Supreme Court's existing ethics code, says Durbin. Therefore, Alito should recuse.

Charlie Cooper

Big money fared poorly in Baltimore City

https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2024/05/15/challengers-are-running-strong-against-stokes-and-costello-in-11th-and-12th-council-districts/

One candidate with public campaign financing is neck and neck with Council member Eric Costello, an ally of right-wing ideologue David Smith and "darling of developers and downtown businessmen."

Charlie Cooper

Media mogul tries to buy Baltimore's election

https://fair.org/home/the-media-mogul-trying-to-buy-baltimores-mayoral-race/

David Smith is [WHAT] of Sinclair broadcasting, which owns or operates almost 300 local TV stations across the nation, including Baltimore's channel 45. Mr. Smith, a right-wing ideologue, recently bought the Baltimore Sun. He is financing a large portion of the mayor campaign of Sheila Dixon. 

"Smith settled on his chosen candidate after she agreed to his 'checklist' of demands, which included firing the police and schools chiefs, and dismantling a violence-prevention program."

[Smith also contributed to the campaign of Councilperson Eric Costello as well as a campaign for a Charter amendment question to impose term limits on City offices.]

Charlie Cooper

Alito accused of bias in matters related to January 6

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/us/justice-alito-upside-down-flag.html

The New York Times has reported that an upside down flag flew at Justice Alito's home on January 17, 2021 while Alito was still arguing in favor of hearing another Trump claim of election fraud. The court did not hear that case,  however. Alito said his wife, not he, was responsible for flying the flag, but ethics experts said it showed bias. The Court is still considering matters related to Trump's culpability for his actions following the 2020 election.

Charlie Cooper

Supreme Court rules for 2 black House districts in Louisiana

https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/louisiana-congressional-redistricting-challenge-callais/

This shadow docket ruling does not prevent further jurisprudence in lower courts. But, for now, it appears that Louisiana is required to use the House map that has 2 African-American-majority districts. "Non-African-American voters" are arguing that the ruling is unconstitutionally based on race and that the old map with one African-American district should be restored.

Charlie Cooper

Georgia Republican legislature doubles down on voter purging

https://www.propublica.org/article/georgia-law-could-lead-to-more-voter-suppression

Charlie Cooper

Is AIPAC against campaign finance reform?

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-05-10-aipac-field-organizing-maryland-house-race/

The author suggests that AIPAC is spending millions to elect Sarah Elfreth because Harry Dunn will carry forward the work that John Sarbanes did on campaign finance reform.

Charlie Cooper

Trump makes quid pro quo pitch for oil money for his campaign

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/09/trump-oil-industry-campaign-money/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F3da92fc%2F663cf92d53df4a059ee2ddf0%2F596bf11fae7e8a44e7e24152%2F5%2F49%2F663cf92d53df4a059ee2ddf0

" You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden's environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted. . . ."

Charlie Cooper

Rep. Pelosi advocates for weakening filibuster to pass democracy legislation

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/06/opinion/letters/nancy-pelosi-democracy-reforms.html

Charlie Cooper

U.S. oil drillers purposely caused inflation by withholding supply

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/an-oil-price-fixing-conspiracy-caused?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=11524&post_id=144247362&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=cw8n&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Evidence emerges from a court proceeding that certain Texas-based fracking companies withheld supply in concert with OPEC officials. This may have caused up to 27% of U.S. inflation in 2021.

Charlie Cooper

overview of election law changes and interference threats

https://votingrightslab.org/2024/04/29/the-shapeshifting-threat-of-election-interference/

Charlie Cooper