All Blog Posts from Horserace

The Democratic National Committee announced that it intends to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to try to compel the Federal Election Commission to examine whether John McCain broke election laws when his campaign rejected public fundraising, the Associated Press reports.

When McCain turned down a taxpayer-funded $5.8 million, his campaign was able to skirt spending limits that would have been in place until the Republican Party convention.

The issue in question is a $4 million line of credit obtained by the McCain campaign last year, which the DNC has argued was a violation of federal regulations. The McCain campaign and its bankers have denied that claim.

The lawsuit is a follow-up to a complaint the DNC filed with the FEC in February, which was not acted upon, since four FEC nominees were waiting Senate confirmation and the body lacked a quorum.

*Update: Later on Tuesday, RNC chief counsel Sean Cairncross called the lawsuit "meritless," the AP reports. Cairncross said that McCain was entitled to withdraw from the public finance system because he didn't take public funds during the primary season.

A federal judge today ruled that the Michigan law establishing the state's Jan. 15 presidential primary is unconstitutional. The reason? The law unfairly prevents minor parties from access to voter lists.

Because Michigan held its primary before Democratic National Committee rules permitted, the DNC stripped the state of its delegates to the party convention. The candidates boycotted the state, and Obama's name did not appear on the primary ballot.

The Hillary Clinton campaign seized on the decision to urge the Barack Obama campaign to support a new, party-run primary, the results of which would ostensibly replace the Jan. 15 primary results.

"Michigan voters must not be disenfranchised and the Obama campaign must not continue to block Michigan’s efforts to hold a new vote," Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams said in the statement. "Rather it should move quickly to announce its support for a party run primary."

As CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder notes, the ruling does not mean that a new primary must be held – the judge left that question up to the parties themselves.

"...the ruling today means nothing more than a chance for her to make the case again for a re-vote," Ambinder writes.

The Clinton campaign has been pressing for a revote in the hope that delegates from Michigan (as well as Florida, a state similarly penalized) would help her close the delegate gap on Obama. In the latest CBS News delegate count, Obama leads Clinton 1618 to 1491.

In his famous 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama decried the "politics of anything goes." But, as he seeks the presidency, that's exactly what he and other White House hopefuls may have to deal with, since the Federal Election Commission, charged with monitoring the presidential race, has effectively shut down.

Thanks to a standoff between President Bush and the Democratic Congress, the FEC is unable to form a quorum, and thus unable to conduct any official business. Four of the six spots on the commission are vacant – two short of the number required to do anything substantial.

In a press release announcing a Jan. 24 meeting, the commission says its rules "have been modified to permit meetings when the Commission has fewer than four Members, in order to discuss any matter normally considered in open session while taking action only on certain administrative matters including, for example, public information and outreach."

That leaves nearly all of the commission's other duties off the table, including enforcement of the country's election laws – meaning actions by any campaigns in violation of FEC regulations would go unpunished until the stalemate ends. According to the Washington Post, the body has been reduced to merely giving advice, which isn't necessarily legally binding.