Nevada lobbyists must now complete training before they can lobby the Legislature.

The Legislative Commission issued amended regulations on lobbying on December 20, 2012. The training will be provided by the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

Lobbyists can either attend a training session in person or arrange to obtain a video of the training and then certify having watched the video.

Additionally, the photo identification badges for lobbyists have been assigned different colors based on a category, such as whether a lobbyist is paid or not paid.

On December 19, 2012, the Jersey City, New Jersey City Council adopted a number of new pay-to-play measures while tabling another competing version of changes.

City ordinance 12-158 limits vendors winning no-bid contracts from making political contributions over $200 to committees for local state senate, local state assembly, and school board candidates, and to other entities, associations, and forms of association required to register annually with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.

Vendors are also prohibited from participating in voter-registration drives, get-out-the-vote activities, and advertising for municipal candidates.

Once signed by the Mayor, the ordinance takes effect on January 8, 2013. City ordinance 12-157, with alternate pay-to-play measures, was tabled by the city council.

Photo of the Jersey City skyline by Gryffindor on Wikipedia.

A special election for Louisiana house district 79 has been set for March 2, 2013. Representative Anthony Ligi announced on December 14, 2012 that he is resigning on January 1, 2013 to work in the private sector, leaving his seat in district 79 vacant.

If necessary, a runoff election will be held on April 6.

Texas Governor Rick Perry announced a special election for the currently vacant district six state senate seat. The position was held by Senator Mario Gallegos, who died last October but was nonetheless reelected posthumously in November.

The Governor has set the election for Saturday, January 26, 2013.

In the event a single candidate does not receive a majority of the votes in the January election, a runoff election will be held between the top two candidates receiving the most votes.

A Montana judge has dismissed parts of a complaint brought by an organization seeking to block disclosure of its activities that the state believes to be political activity.

On Monday, December 10, 2012, District Court Judge Jeffrey M. Sherlock issued an order dismissing five counts from the court complaint of American Tradition Partnership (ATP), striking additional requests for relief made by ATP, ordering ATP to comply with previously made discovery requests, and requiring ATP to pay the attorney fees and costs incurred by the state in bringing the initial motion to discovery and the motion for sanctions.

Judge Sherlock was upset at ATP’s apparent refusal to comply with his orders, writing, “Never in this author’s 24 years on the bench has he had a litigant flatly refuse to comply with two discovery orders.”

ATP had initially brought the court action against the state in 2010 to prevent Montana from classifying the organization as a political committee required to disclose expenditures and contributions. ATP maintains it is an educational organization not subject to political disclosure and disclaimer statutes.

The organization, known as Western Tradition Partnership (WTP) when it initially filed suit, additionally maintains the state’s statutes are unconstitutional and has repeatedly raised this objection is its discovery responses. Judge Sherlock ended his decision decreeing, “The Court is no longer interested in hearing WTP’s objections. All the Court wants is answers to the questions that have been propounded.”

The Federal Election Commission issued an Advisory Opinion on December 6, 2012, concluding a federal candidate’s campaign committee may make a contribution to an independent expenditure-only committee from funds raised for the federal candidate’s terminated political campaign.

Friends of Mike H, the principal campaign committee of former candidate Mike Haridopolos, requested an opinion to determine whether it could give $10,000 or more of its excess funds raised for Mr. Haridopolos’s 2012 U.S. Senate primary election campaign in Florida, from which he withdrew, to an independent expenditure-only committee called Freedom PAC. Currently, Mr. Haridopolos does not hold federal office and is not seeking any elected federal office.

Because Friends of Mike H. is not using its funds for personal use or for any unlawful use, the Commission found Mr. Haridopolos’s political committee may make its requested contributions to Freedom PAC. The Commission also noted that “amount limitations are generally unconstitutional as applied to contributions that will be used to finance independent activity.”

Massachusetts lobbyists using a LinkedIn online discussion group are not prohibited from soliciting contributions for candidates from the group.

The Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) issued an opinion, AO-12-03, on November 20, detailing when a lobbyist can solicit contributions on LinkedIn without being considered a regulated intermediary or conduit bundling contributions. The OCPF considers the use of social media, such as LinkedIn, as a “personal service” that is generally exempt from campaign finance limitations or disclosure requirements.

Asking members of a lobbyist’s LinkedIn group “to contribute directly to candidates does not involve ‘arranging’ for the making of contributions” requiring application the law,” the opinion holds. However, a lobbyist could be regulated if contributions are either “‘delivered, whether in person or by mail [by the regulated intermediary], to a particular candidate or such candidate’s authorized committee or agent’ or made ‘in a manner that identifies in writing the person who arranged the making of the contributions.’” For example, in the instance of direct contributions to a candidate, if a lobbyists “actually instructs the contributors to identity, with a note on their contribution checks, the legislative or executive agent as the person responsible for arranging the contribution, the legislative or executive agent would be subject” to regulation.

The restrictions for bundling apply only if at least one of the bundled contributions is more than $156. The OCPF also opined that persons who are not lobbyists may use LinkedIn or similar sites to solicit contributions for candidates, with certain restrictions for public employees.

A new executive director for the Oklahoma Ethics Commission may be selected next week.

According to The Oklahoman, commissioners intend to interview the final four applicants, all from Oklahoma, for the position on November 27.

Outgoing executive director Marilyn Hughes, who has held the position for nearly 25 years, is leaving the job on November 30.

Also retiring on November 30 are the Ethics Commission’s general counsel, Rebecca Adams, and its investigator, Darey Roberts. Ms. Adams was general counsel for the last 21 years and Mr. Roberts its investigator for 17 years.

Some federal employees and interest groups are asking lawmakers to lower the cap on non-Department of Defense (DOD) contractor compensation.

Yesterday, in a letter addressed to leaders of the Senate and House Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittees, a coalition of 11 public interest, government accountability, research, and labor groups urged a reduction in the maximum allowable compensation to $400,000 for non-DOD contract employees.

Referring to a Senate version of the 2013 Financial Services Appropriations Bill that is being considered by Congress, the letter argues the cap is needed for “fiscal responsibility and fairness.” The petitioners submit the increase in allowable governmental compensation to contractors has “outpaced inflation by 53 percent” in the last 12 years while the salaries for government employees, the military workforce, and elected officials has stagnated or been frozen.

The letter reasons, “It is grossly unfair to expect working people to pay for the inflated salaries for contractor employees.”

Initiative 166 passed yesterday, charging Montana’s officials to implement a policy that corporations are not human beings with constitutional rights.

The initiative is a reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Additionally, Montana’s congressional delegation is now charged with offering an amendment to the United States constitution which would overturn the Citizens United decision, establish that corporations are not human beings with constitutional rights, establish that campaign contributions and expenditures by corporations be prohibited at any level of government, and achieve “a level playing field in election spending.”

The initiative also directs the state’s elected and appointed officials to regard “money as property, not speech.”

Voters rejected changing Arizona’s primary election system to a top-two structure.

Proposition 121 would have allowed primary elections in which all voters, regardless of party affiliation, vote in a single and combined primary. The top two vote-getters for each seat would then have advanced to a general election ballot. The proposition would not have affected elections where no party affiliation appears on a ballot.

Voters also rejected a proposition aimed squarely at the judicial department. Proposition 115 would have increased the term length of judges and raised their retirement ages.

The proposition additionally included procedural changes, such as requiring court decisions to be published online, requiring the Supreme Court to send copies of judicial performance reviews for each judge who is up for retention to the legislature, and allowing a joint legislative committee to meet and take testimony on justices and judges up for retention.

A Federal District Court has held Congress may constitutionally bar federal contractors from contributing to candidates, parties, and their committees.

Finding in favor of the Federal Election Committee (FEC), the United States District Court for The District of Columbia granted a summary judgment on Friday, November 2.

In Wagner v. FEC, the Court rejected challenges to the constitutionality of section 441c of Title 2 of the U.S. Code, which prohibits any vendors with contracts with the federal government from making political contributions to federal candidates or political parties.

The case, initially brought by the ACLU, asked the Court to declare the law unconstitutional as applied to individuals who have personal services contracts with federal agencies. Because federal workers who are not contractors may make federal political contributions, while contractors performing the same work may not, the suit argued section 441c violates both the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution and the First Amendment.

The Court found no First Amendment or Equal-Protection violations, noting “the dissimilar roles of contractors and employees, moreover, justify the distinct regulatory schemes that the Government has fashioned.”

Because of the state of emergency declared in advance of Hurricane Sandy, the Massachusetts Office of Campaign & Political Finance (OCPF) has issued a notice extending the due date of pre-election reports until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, October 30, 2012. Reports covering activity from August 20 to October 19 were to be due October 29.

Although its office is closed today, the OCPF notice states, “Office staff will be checking their office voice mail during the day on Monday and will be returning calls to assist filers as they are able.”

Two separate pay-to-play ordinances were proposed at yesterday’s meeting of the Jersey City Council. While one proposal was not approved by the council, the remaining ordinance will be considered for a final vote on November 14, 2012.

The surviving ordinance expands the existing pay-to-play law by placing restrictions on vendors contracting with the city from contributing to Board of Education candidates.

Aerial photo of Jersey City courtesy of Creative Commons on Wikipedia.