Roll Call

In a ruling that may help Rep. Russ Carnahan (D), the Missouri Supreme Court has asked a lower court to determine whether the state’s new Congressional map complies with the state constitution.

Carnahan saw his Congressional district essentially eliminated in the redistricting process and faces the prospect of either running in a Republican district or challenging a fellow incumbent Democrat.read more >>

As new Members take the oath of office in January 2013, something unprecedented may occur: Not a single white Democrat from the Deep South could be a Member of the 113th Congress.

Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina already have just a single Democratic Representative in Congress. Each of those Democrats is African-American and represents majority-black districts.read more >>

Just shy of two years after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, a Montana legal challenge has set the stage for the high court to revisit its landmark decision to deregulate corporate political spending.

The Montana Supreme Court last week rejected a constitutional challenge to the state’s century-old prohibition on independent corporate campaign expenditures. That Montana statute was technically nullified when the U.S. Supreme Court threw out federal limits on independent corporate and union political spending in 2010.read more >>

The Arizona Supreme Court blocked an effort today by the ousted chairwoman of the state’s independent redistricting commission to immediately return to the panel.

The court denied Chairwoman Colleen Mathis’ request to be temporarily reinstated until a Nov. 17 hearing, when she will request permanent reinstatement.read more >>

Two campaign finance reform groups on Tuesday called on the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether nonprofit organizations that have become popular vehicles for injecting millions of dollars into political campaigns are eligible for the tax-exempt status they currently claim.read more >>

California has begun a new era of political theater that has caught the eye of both national parties as the decadelong drought of competitive Congressional elections comes to a close.

Republicans could face a loss of as many as six seats because of the state's new independent redistricting process, according to some educated estimates. Democrats currently hold a 34-19 majority in the delegation.read more >>

With the nonpartisan California redistricting commission scheduled to complete its work Monday, state Republicans are seriously weighing whether to seek a referendum that could throw out the results and force the state Supreme Court to draw lines for next year’s election. The new plan could jeopardize as many as a half-dozen of Republicans’ 19 House seats in the California delegation.read more >>

The American Bar Association has urged Congress to require the registration of more lobbyists, compel the disclosure of lobbying activities in more detail and narrow the types of contributions federally registered lobbyists can make to lawmakers running for re-election.

There was no opposition Tuesday when the ABA’s House of Delegates approved a resolution calling for changes to the Lobbying Disclosure Act, changes that good-government groups say would be the most sweeping reforms to federal lobbying law since 2007.read more >>

Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced Monday that the House will do away with its page program, a storied tradition that has brought young people to work in the Capitol for nearly as long as Congress itself has been an institution.

Citing high costs and advances in technology that have reduced the need for the program, the Ohio Republican and the California Democrat said in a joint statement that the program — which costs the House more than $5 million, or about $69,000 to $80,000 per page — is outdated.read more >>

The federal program providing public money to presidential campaigns is dying.

Going into next year's elections, taxpayer participation is at an all-time low, the funds available are a pittance compared with what candidates can raise themselves, and the only candidates eligible this year will probably be hard-line anti-government conservatives who might not take them anyway.read more >>