Should Congress be banned from trading stocks?
WSJ on "lousy tax deal", Schapiro on "sausage factory, Biden v Trump v No Labels continues and UVa tops Tech.
The Associated Press: Democratic drama and Biden write-ins promise a New Hampshire primary to remember
The Arizona Republic: No Labels Party voters get no primary candidates, court ruling says
Thomas Jefferson Institute’s Derrick Max: Governor Youngkin Joins the “No Car Tax” Movement
RTD’s Jeff Schapiro: Mr. Jefferson's Capitol is a 'sausage factory' with columns
RTD Sports: Jordan Minor, Virginia get right against rival Virginia Tech
Here's a quick overview of the main laws and rules regarding members of Congress trading stocks in the United States:
- The STOCK Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act) was passed in 2012. It explicitly prohibits members of Congress and other government employees from using non-public information they obtain through their positions for private profit in the stock market.
- Under the STOCK Act, members of Congress must publicly disclose stock transactions over $1,000 within 45 days. They must also report assets and liabilities annually.
- There are no laws outright banning members of Congress from trading stocks. However, they are still subject to insider trading laws that apply to all Americans. It can just be harder to detect and enforce with members of Congress.
- The STOCK Act does not apply to members' spouses or dependent children. There have been some controversies around family members making stock trades that raise conflict of interest concerns.
- In recent years, several bills have been proposed to expand stock trading rules for Congress, such as banning ownership of individual stocks or requiring stocks to be held in blind trusts. But none of these proposed bans have become law so far.
So in summary - trading by members based on non-public info is banned, but personal trading is still allowed as long as it's properly disclosed. There are efforts to impose further restrictions that have not yet become law. Enforcement remains tricky.
Take the survey - Should Congress be banned from trading stocks?
The New York Times Maine Judge Suspends Decision to Exclude Trump From Primary Ballot
A Maine judge ordered the state's top election official on Wednesday to wait for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling before putting into effect her decision to exclude former President Donald J. Trump from Maine's Republican primary ballot.
The Supreme Court has agreed to review, at Mr. Trump's request, an earlier decision by a Colorado court to exclude him from the ballot, and is expected to hear arguments in the case on Feb. 8.
Lawyers for Mr. Trump appealed Ms. Bellows's decision to the Maine Superior Court a few days after it was issued, arguing that she had 'no legal authority to consider the federal constitutional issues presented by the challengers.' They described her decision as 'the product of a process infected by bias.' A poll by the University of New Hampshire found Maine residents to be sharply divided over Ms. Bellows's decision, with 85 percent of Democrats expressing support and 95 percent of Republicans opposed.
The New York Times A 2024 Vulnerability - The Democrats are out of step with public opinion when it comes to immigration.
The Associated Press DeSantis shifts his campaign away from New Hampshire days before the state's primary, AP source says
HAMPTON, N.H. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has decided to shift his presidential campaign away from New Hampshire just six days before the state's first-in-the-nation Republican primary, a move that reflects his narrowing path to the 2024 GOP nomination.
DeSantis will instead reallocate the majority of his staff to South Carolina, the home state of rival Nikki Haley, with its primary in just over a month.
Syndicated By: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Star Tribune, The Kansas City Star, The Boston Globe
The Washington Post Haley steps up attacks on Trump, but some in N.H. see her holding back
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Nikki Haley, treating the primary as a one-on-one race with Donald Trump, has stepped up her criticism of the former president, lobbing pointed attacks on his age in a one-two punch against him and President Biden, yet still holding back on the full offensive many Trump critics wish she'd launch.
At town halls, in television ads and during media interviews in recent days, Haley has repeatedly pointed to Trump's age, 77, as an attack line. 'The majority of Americans think that having two 80-year-olds running for president is not what they want,' she said at a campaign stop Tuesday in Bretton Woods. The comments mark a rhetorical sharpening for a candidate who mostly stuck to more implicit contrasts involving competency tests and calls for a new generation of leadership before the race moved to a state with many anti-Trump Republican primary voters.
'It's part of why I'm still struggling with the Haley campaign and why I just don't see any evidence that she's connecting, especially with the unaffiliated voters who she needs to turn out in droves,' said Fergus Cullen, a former New Hampshire GOP chairman who is vehemently opposed to Trump and wishes his rivals would have called him out far earlier on issues such as his first criminal indictment. 'I just don't see any evidence that that's going to happen.'
New York Post Another New Hampshire poll gives Trump monster lead over Haley, leaves DeSantis in single digits
Former President Donald Trump leads former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley by double-digits in the New Hampshire primary, according to a poll released Wednesday, which also shows Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with only single-digit support in the Granite State.
The Saint Anselm College poll was conducted after Trump's landslide victory in Monday's Iowa Caucus and factors in the recent departure of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy from the 2024 campaign trail.
The Siena survey was the second poll released on Wednesday that showed the 77-year-old former president maintaining a double-digit edge over Haley in New Hampshire.
The Associated Press Democratic drama and Biden write-ins promise a New Hampshire primary to remember
WASHINGTON (AP) — Is a New Hampshire primary without the frontrunner on the ballot and no delegates up for grabs still a New Hampshire primary? Depends on who you ask.
Write-in candidates are eligible to win elections in New Hampshire. President Lyndon Johnson did exactly that in 1968 when he won the New Hampshire primary as a write-in candidate, although he dropped out of the race 19 days later after what was widely perceived as a disappointing 8-point win over Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy.
Syndicated By: The Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Capital Gazette, The Virginian-Pilot, Star Tribune, Hartford Courant, Las Vegas Sun
The Boston Globe ‘Joe,’ as in Manchin, not Biden
Of course, the crowd gathered at Friday's Politics and Eggs event, which was co-hosted by Saint Anselm College and the New England Council, was really there to hear Manchin address a more current question: Will he take his fight for political moderation into the 2024 election cycle by launching a third-party presidential bid, possibly through No Labels, a centrist group that has talked about sponsoring a 'unity ticket'?
Wouldn't that hurt Biden? 'I don't think No Labels would field a presidential candidate unless there looked like there was a path to victory,' Weld replied. 'They're not going to do it for the purpose of sinking Joe Biden's ship.'
The Arizona Republic Judge: Arizona must adhere to No Labels wishes on candidates
The Arizona Secretary of State erred by forcing the new No Labels Party to accept candidates for offices besides those of president and vice president, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Under the order, the state has to help No Labels meet its goals by rejecting statements of interest from No Labels candidates in the primary election and disallowing any candidate to run in the primary under the party's banner.
VA General Assembly
Axios Prince William County's 2020 election issues benefited Trump in Virginia
The big picture: Attorney General Jason Miyares announced a 20-person "Election Integrity Unit" in September 2022, days after his office indicted Prince William's former registrar, Michele White.