On May 20, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka signed Ordinance No. 20-0515 amending the city’s contractor pay-to-play laws to reflect state law.

The ordinance removes Essex County political party committees, political committees and continuing political committees regularly engaging in the support of candidates for Newark municipal offices or County of Essex offices from the definition of campaign committee.

Additionally, ordinance 20-0515 removed the monetary thresholds of $300 per calendar year and annual aggregate limit of $2,500 for all business entity contributions to covered Newark political recipients.

Under the ordinance, all contributions to covered recipients by a business entity submitting a proposal, in negotiations for, or in agreement with the city for services is prohibited during the term of the contract.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit permanently enjoined the Commonwealth’s prohibition on political contributions from gaming-license applicants, licensees, and principals of licensees.

Judge Richard Nygaard upheld the lower court’s conclusion and granted summary judgment in favor of appellees Deon and Hardy.

Judge Nygaard found Section 1513 of the Gaming Act furthers a substantially important state interest in preventing quid pro quo corruption.

However, the restriction imposed on political contributions is unconstitutional because the Commonwealth did not closely draw the scheme to address the issue.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the General Assembly has canceled legislative sessions for the week of June 1 to June 5.

Committee hearings have been scheduled in both chambers of the General Assembly and will be live streamed at www.rilegislature.gov/CapTV.

During this time, the State House building will remain closed.

Members of the public wishing to testify on any of the matters before the committees may submit written testimony.

The General Assembly is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, June 9.

This does not affect lobbyist reporting.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the General Assembly has extended the delay of the legislative session.

House and Senate legislative sessions have been canceled for the week of May 25 to May 29.

Three Senate Committees are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, May 26, Wednesday, May 27, and Thursday, May 28.

The House Finance Committee is also expected to meet during the week and the schedule will be announced at a later date.

The State House building remains closed to the public due to the emergency.

The full General Assembly is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, June 2.

This does not affect lobbyist reporting.

Delaware lawmakers announced the General Assembly will reconvene virtually and livestream the sessions on YouTube.

The House of Representatives will meet virtually on Tuesday, May 26, and the Senate will meet virtually on Wednesday, May 27.

A link to each meeting of the House, Senate, and joint committees will be posted on the General Assembly’s website.

The Legislative Hall remains closed to the public until further notice.

On May 19, The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the Southern District Court of New York’s decision to reinstate New York’s uncontested presidential primary on June 23.

The presidential primary was previously canceled by the New York Board of Elections after Sen. Bernie Sanders announced the end of his presidential campaign.

After the ruling, commissioners for the Board of Elections stated New York would not appeal the decision of the Second Circuit.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Rhode Island General Assembly has extended the delay of the legislative session.

House and Senate sessions have been canceled for the week of May 18 to May 22.

Additionally, the House and Senate Finance Committees are expected to review the administration’s third-quarter spending report this week.

Both chambers of the General Assembly are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, May 26.

This does not affect lobbyist reporting.

Gov. John Carney issued the 15th modification of the state emergency declaration due to COVID-19.

The modification postpones Delaware’s presidential preference primary from June 2 to July 7.

Any elections for school board members scheduled for June 16 will be postponed to July 21.

Additionally, local elections to be conducted after May 7 and before the end of the state of emergency are to be conducted at the discretion of the municipality.

Originally scheduled for May 12, this is the second postponement of the presidential primary and school board elections.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Rhode Island General Assembly has extended the postponement of the legislative session.

All House and Senate sessions have been canceled for the week of May 11 to May 15.

The House Finance Committee is expected to resume fiscal year 2020 and 2021 budget hearings on Thursday, May 14.

Additionally, both chambers of the General Assembly are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, May 19.

This does not affect lobbyist reporting.

On May 5, United States District Court Judge Analisa Torres for the Southern District of New York ruled the New York Board of Elections must hold a presidential primary and include previously qualified candidates on the ballot, including Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Gov. Cuomo previously postponed the presidential primary from April 28 to June 23 due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The Board of Elections later voted to cancel the presidential primary.

However, the board still scheduled a congressional special election and local primaries for June 23.

The court’s ruling found the cancellation of the presidential primary to be unconstitutional.

Additionally, the cancellation had violated candidates of their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

The preliminary injunction restores all 10 presidential candidates and their respective slates of delegate candidates to the New York presidential primary ballot and requires that the primary election be held on June 23.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the General Assembly has extended the postponement of the legislative session.

All House and Senate sessions are canceled for the week of May 4 to May 8.

Additionally, the House Finance Committee is expected to resume budget hearings the week of May 11, and the full General Assembly are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, May 12.

This does not affect lobbyist reporting.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the General Court has suspended all legislative activities until further notice except for remote public meetings.

Lawmakers previously suspended legislative activities until May 4.

The State House and Legislative Office Building will be closed to legislative members, legislative staff, and visitors during the suspension.

The New York Joint Commission on Public Ethics introduced a new feature on the state Lobbying Application.

Their aim is to minimize the risk of duplicate profiles and improve functionality.

Additionally, this feature allows creating or claiming an organization profile (lobbyist, client, public corporation, or coalition).

In turn, this allows information to prepopulate a client’s semiannual report, provide more transparency, increase reliability, and reduce filing delays.

JCOPE also announced the mechanism to assign an individual as a Chief Administrative Officer and Delegated Administrator has changed.

To authorize an individual for either of these specific roles, the individual’s user identification number must be provided.

The ability to assign an individual as the CAO or the DA merely by entering their first and last name in a search field has been eliminated.

Any questions about navigating the Lobbying Application may be directed to the JCOPE Lobbying Helpdesk at (518) 474-3973 or by emailing helpdesk@jcope.ny.gov.

Due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns, the Board of Elections voted to cancel the presidential primary on June 23.

The presidential primary was previously rescheduled from April 28 to June 23 due to the state of emergency.

The decision to cancel the presidential primary does not affect the congressional special election, state, and local primaries scheduled for June 23.