Election 2012 - Virginia - onPolitix

22 states join campaign finance fight

2012-05-20T13:28:01Z

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in its fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision from being used to strike down state laws restricting corporate campaign spending.

The states led by New York are asking the high court to preserve Montana's state-level regulations on corporate political expenditures, according to a copy of a brief written by New York's attorney general's office and obtained by The Associated Press. The brief will be publicly released Monday.

The Supreme Court is being asked to reverse a state court's decision to uphold the Montana law. Virginia-based American Tradition Partnership is asking the nation's high court to rule without a hearing because the group says the state law conflicts directly with the Citizens United decision that removed the federal ban on corporate campaign spending.

The Supreme Court has blocked the Montana law until it can look at the case.

The Montana case has prompted critics to hope the court will reverse itself on the controversial Citizens United ruling. The 22 states and D.C. say the Montana law is sharply different from the federal issues in the Citizens United case, so the ruling shouldn't apply to Montana's or other state laws regulating corporate campaign spending.

But the states also said they would support a Supreme Court decision to reconsider portions of the Citizens United ruling either in a future case or in the Montana case, if the justices decide to take it on.

Legal observers say don't count on the Supreme Court reconsidering its decision.

"It is highly unlikely that the Court would reverse its decision in Citizens United," said law professor Richard L. Hasen of the University of California-Irvine.

At best, the court would listen to arguments and might agree a clarification is needed to allow the Montana law to stand. But even that is a long shot, Hasen said.

Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock argues that political corruption in the Copper King era led to the state ban on corporate campaign spending. A clarification of Citizens United is needed to make clear that states can block certain political spending in the interest of limiting corruption, he said.

American Tradition Partnership argues that the state bans unfairly restrict the ability of corporations to engage in the political process that also affects them.

Bullock wrote in a brief to be released Monday that the state does not "ban" corporate political speech, rather, it regulates that speech by requiring the formation of political action committees.

The Democrat, who is running for governor, said the upstart political corporations hoping to take advantage of unfettered spending are merely "an anonymous conduit of unaccountable campaign spending."

Montana and the other states are asking the court to either let the Montana Supreme Court decision stand or to hold a full hearing. They argue laws like the one in Montana that bans political spending straight from corporate treasuries are needed to prevent corruption.

The other states, many with their own type of restrictions hanging in the balance, argue local restrictions are far different than the federal ban the court decided unconstitutionally restricted free speech. Further, state elections are at much greater risk than federal elections of being dominated by corporate money, requiring tailored regulation, the states' court filing says.

"The federal law struck down in Citizens United applied only to elections for President and U.S. Congress," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman wrote on behalf of the states. "By contrast, Montana's law applies to a wide range of state and local offices, including judgeships and law enforcement positions such as sheriff and county prosecutor."

The joining states, unlike Montana, ask the court to go further and reconsider core findings in Citizens United. They argue, for instance, it was wrong for the court to say unlimited independent expenditures rarely cause corruption or the appearance of corruption.

And other critics of the Citizens United decision who believe the court was wrong to grant corporations constitutional rights, have intervened and asked the court to reverse itself.

"There is a growing bipartisan consensus that Citizens United needs to be overturned, and Montana is leading the way," said Peter Schurman, spokesman for a group called Free Speech For People. "The Supreme Court has an opportunity to revisit Citizens United here. That is important because there is evidence everywhere that unlimited spending in our elections creates both corruption and the appearance for corruption."

On Friday, Montana's case was given a boost when U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-D-R.I., signed on in support. The senators argue evidence following the Citizens United decision, where millions in unregulated money has poured into presidential elections, shows that large independent expenditures can lead to corruption.

The states who filed the brief in support of Montana are New York, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Beau Biden visits Hampton Roads

2012-05-17T23:37:38Z

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Vice President Joe Biden’s son Beau was in Norfolk Thursday to kickoff a campaign event and spoke with 10 On Your Side about the military.

Biden is reaching out to the military at a time when Congress could have to make huge cuts to the defense budget. In addition to being the oldest son of Joe Biden, Beau Biden is a Major in the Delaware Army National Guard and the Attorney General of that state.

He is well aware of the challenges the Obama Administration is faced with when it comes to the defense budget, but says his father and the President already have a proven record when it comes to veterans affairs and the national defense.

“Obviously that’s very important here in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Biden told WAVY.com “Important in other states where there’s a high demographic of veterans.”

That is why Biden has launched the Veterans and Military Families for Obama campaign in Hampton Roads. A town keeping a watchful eye on the defense budget, but according to Biden, a region where military families have benefited from the work of the Obama Administration.

“This administration and this president, this Commander in Chief has increased the veterans affairs budget and taken care of veterans’ benefits, increased it more than anyone has in 30 years.”

Biden says the man trying to defeat his father's boss in the November election, Republican Mitt Romney, did little to help veterans when he was the Governor of Massachusetts.

“He proposed slashing veterans' benefits to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first month in office."

"When you think about the progress made under President Obama, despite his campaign promises, the reality is that his policies have failed to make things better for veterans and their families,” Curt Cashour, Virginia Communications Director for the Romney campaign said.

Cashour, also a veteran, says the Obama Administration has failed the military and their families.

"His budget will make military families pay more for healthcare and President Obama's defense cuts have already eliminated 2,000 Virginia jobs,” he said.

"Look at this president's priorities, look at his budget,” Biden said. “Look at the increase in the proposed 2013 budget where he increases the veterans affairs budget by nearly 10 percent."

George W. Bush unlikely in Romney bid

2012-05-16T14:52:34Z

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — After months of silence, George W. Bush finally weighed on the presidential race — with four short words.

"I'm for Mitt Romney," the former president said Tuesday in Washington as the doors of his elevator shut, perhaps his only public statement on the race before the Nov. 6 election.

Romney's campaign doesn't foresee the 43rd president playing a substantive role in the race. Aides are carefully weighing how much the former president should be involved in the GOP convention — and for good reason. The Bush fatigue that was a drag on GOP nominee John McCain four years ago, and on the country, still lingers, including among Republicans.

"The Iraq war? The economy? Let's not revisit President Bush's record," Richard Rinaldi, a 72-year-old Republican, said at a Romney rally last week in Charlotte. "There's no desire to see him campaigning."

Standing nearby, Roger Burba, a 73-year-old Republican from Pineville, N.C., put it this way: "He's back in Texas, where he should be."

While Bush's standing has improved since he left office in January 2009, he remains a polarizing political figure. Romney's aides fear Bush's status could hurt the new Republican standard-bearer in battleground states like Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin even though Bush could energize the party faithful — and help raise money — in solid Republican parts of the country.

There's another risk: Romney linking himself too closely to the former president in any way would give Democrats ammunition to boost President Barack Obama's argument that his Republican rival would restore Bush-era policies.

Bush is said to be enjoying retirement at home in Dallas. He's largely stayed out of sight and out of politics since leaving office and is likely to sit much of the campaign, too. He spends his time raising money for and promoting his presidential library at Southern Methodist University — the reason he was in Washington on Tuesday when ABC News caught him and elicited the unscripted endorsement. He also gives speeches for charitable causes.

"He's been a very private person. I don't know why that would change," said Republican strategist Danny Diaz, a veteran of Bush's team.

Romney's aides won't speak for the record about the campaign's plans — if there are any — for Bush. Bush's office did not respond to a message seeking comment about the campaign or the convention.

Behind the scenes, Republicans close to Romney's campaign say there are no plans to use Bush in a significant way and that the signal from Romney's Boston headquarters — it's loaded with veterans of Bush's two successful campaigns — is that any role for Bush would be minimal at best. The Republicans, who insisted on anonymity to discuss strategy, said Romney's team will determine, if it hasn't already, how best to recognize Bush at the party's national convention in August in Florida, where Bush's brother, Jeb, was governor.

Romney's advisers are studying exit polls from the 2008 presidential election, when nearly three-fourths of voters, or 71 percent, said they disapproved of Bush's job performance. Twenty-seven percent approved. Voters were evenly split — 48 percent apiece — on whether McCain would continue Bush's policies or take the country in a different direction. Democrats' central criticism of McCain was that his presidency would have amounted to a third Bush term.

Of those who said McCain would continue Bush's policies, just 8 percent voted for McCain; 90 percent supported Obama. McCain carried a substantial majority of those who approved of Bush's performance. But of the 51 percent who strongly disapproved of Bush's performance, McCain won just 16 percent.

Bush's standing is not nearly as dreary any more, but the numbers still show little incentive for Romney to wrap himself in Bush.

A March poll by Bloomberg found that 45 percent of adults had a favorable opinion of Bush, to 50 percent unfavorable. That was better than a January 2009 Pew Research Center poll, taken as Bush was leaving office, that found that 37 percent had a favorable opinion of him, to 60 percent unfavorable.

That's not to say Romney completely ignores Bush, either. On the March day when he was endorsed by Jeb Bush, Romney credited the former president with averting another Depression in 2008. Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, endorsed Romney little more than a week later.

"I keep hearing the president say that he's responsible for keeping America from going into a Great Depression," Romney said of Obama. "No, no, no. That was President George W. Bush and (Treasury Secretary) Hank Paulson that stepped in and kept that from happening."

There are no rules for using former presidents in political campaigns, nor are potential successors bound to embrace them.

But Obama is keeping his Democratic predecessor closer this time around.

Democrat Bill Clinton had a muted role in the 2008 general election after the nasty primary fight between his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Obama. But Obama has signaled this year that he intends to fully embrace the popular former president — and take advantage of his political strengths. A prolific fundraiser, Clinton recently appeared with Obama at a money event near Washington. He also has a prominent role in Obama campaign videos.

Clinton was sidelined while still in office in 2000 when Vice President Al Gore kept him at bay after the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

History doesn't offer much precedent for handling former presidents at party conventions, either.

Clinton and Jimmy Carter gave speeches on the first day of the 2004 Democratic convention. In 2000, the elder Bush and Gerald Ford were present when George W. Bush was nominated, but neither man spoke. In 1996, both Ford and George H.W. Bush spoke.

Four years ago, McCain kept Bush at a distance after an awkward joint appearance in the White House Rose Garden. McCain had challenged Bush for the nomination in 2000 and didn't endorse him after Bush prevailed.

During his convention speech in 2008, McCain spoke the Bush name only once — in reference to Laura Bush.

Associated Press Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

Romney wins Nebraska, Oregon primaries

2012-05-16T12:44:10Z

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Mitt Romney is adding two more victories to his win column.

Nebraska and Oregon Republicans, as expected, have made clear their preference for the GOP nomination by choosing Romney in Tuesday's presidential primaries.

In Nebraska, the vote amounts to a beauty contest. The state's 32 delegates to the Republican National Convention later this year will be determined at the state convention on July 14.

Oregon has 25 presidential delegates up for grabs and most if not all are going to Romney.

Romney has all but clinched the nomination, and is well on his way to winning the 1,144 delegates needed to get the party nod.

G.W. Bush: I'm for Mitt Romney

2012-05-16T10:57:50Z

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — George W. Bush finally weighed on the presidential race — with four short words.

"I'm for Mitt Romney," the former president said Tuesday as the doors of his elevator shut, perhaps his only statement of public opinion on the race before the Nov. 6 election.