Arizona Senator David Schapira has introduced a bill removing the lobbyists gift exception for entertainment and for some athletic events.

The Democratic Minority leader’s bill, SB 1068, amends the current law by removing the exception for expenditures of entertainment and athletic events provided to officials by lobbyists.

Sporting events would still be a permitted expenditure if the event is sponsored by a school district governing board, a community college district governing board, or any institution under the jurisdiction of the Arizona board of regents.

Photo of Arizona Senator David Schapira by DShippy on Wikipedia.

Federal campaign contributions are prohibited from individuals living in the U.S. but not admitted for permanent residency, the Supreme Court affirmed today.

The Supreme Court, through a summary disposition, upheld a lower court ruling finding aliens who are in the United States on temporary work visas may not make political contributions to federal candidates or political parties, as proscribed in 2 U.S.C. §441e and its implementing regulations.

Bluman v FEC was brought on behalf of two plaintiffs, a doctor in residency and a recent law school graduate, both citizens of other countries. They argued the Court’s earlier Citizens United v FEC decision mandated allowing financial political contributions by the plaintiffs as part of their protected free speech.

In upholding the law and denying the plaintiff the relief they sought, the lower court had written in its decision, “It is fundamental to the definition of our national political community that foreign citizens do not have a constitutional right to participate in, and thus may be excluded from, activities of democratic self-government.”

Today’s one-line summary disposition by the Supreme Court affirms the lower court’s holding without judicial opinion.

Photo of the U.S. Supreme Court Building by Joe Ravi on Wikipedia.

A new law signed by President Obama precludes federal agencies from requiring vendors bidding on federal contracts to disclose political contributions.

Buried in the 565-page National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2012, House Resolution 1540, is language amending Chapter 137 of Title 10 of the United States Code.

The amendment explicitly prohibits requiring a contractor to submit political information as part of a solicitation, or a request for bid or proposal. It also bars contractors from being required to submit political information during the modifications of a contract, or while exercising a contract option.

The language was added as an amendment to HR 1540 in response to a leaked draft executive order which required every entity submitting offers for federal contracts to disclose certain political contributions and expenditures made within the two years prior to submission of their offer.

For previous articles on Lobby Comply by George Ticoras on this topic, you can read posts from June 1, May 20, May 12, and May 10, and July 28, 2011.

The Montana Supreme Court has held the state law prohibiting independent political expenditures by a corporation related to a candidate is constitutional.

Finding Citizens United v. FEC did not compel invalidating the state’s 1912 Corrupt Practices Act, the majority opinion of the Montana Supreme Court in Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of the State of Montana states, “The corporate power that can be exerted with unlimited political spending is still a vital interest to the people of Montana.”

The Court concludes the state, because of its history and the history of the Act, has a compelling interest to impose statutory restrictions, emphasizing the Citizens United decision allows restrictions to be upheld if the government demonstrates a sufficiently strong interest.

In making its argument, the decision asserts that a “material factual distinction between the present case and Citizens United is the extent of the regulatory burden imposed by the challenged law.” The Court found in contrast to the “complexity and ambiguity” of restrictions for federal PACs, PACs formed and maintained in the state are “easily implemented” by the filing of “simple and straight-forward forms or reports.”

The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) announced lobbyists and their clients can now file annual reports via the internet.

In a press release, ELEC Executive Director Jeff Brindle stated the electronic filing will not be mandatory, but hopes to begin mandatory electronic filing next year.

Additionally, Director Brindle reported, “As soon as possible, however, we do hope to allow lobbyists to electronically file their other reports.’’ ELEC eventually hopes to enable electronic filing of quarterly lobbyist activity reports, notices of representation, and notices of termination.

The annual activity reports for 2011 are due February 15, 2012.

The dates for the Texas general primary and the runoff elections have been changed.

Judge Orlando Garcia of the United States District Court for The Western District of Texas issued an order altering the dates of the elections. The order was agreed to by all parties in the action.

The 2012 general primary date has been changed from March 6 to April 3. The 2012 general primary runoff election will be held on June 5, instead of the previously scheduled date of May 22.

Federal House and Senate resolutions meant to blunt the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision have recently been submitted to Congress.

Senate Joint Resolution 33, introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders, and House Joint Resolution 90, introduced by Representative Theodore E. Deutch, both expressly exclude for-profit corporations from “the rights given to natural persons” and prohibit corporation spending in all elections, including ballot issues.

Additionally, the resolutions allow the government “to regulate and set limits on all election contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own spending, and to authorize the establishment of political committees to receive, spend, and publicly disclose the sources of those contributions and expenditures.’’

The amendment proposed reads as follows:

Section 1. The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons and do not extend to for-profit corporations, limited liability companies, or other private entities established for business purposes or to promote business interests under the laws of any state, the United States, or any foreign state.

Section 2. Such corporate and other private entities established under law are subject to regulation by the people through the legislative process so long as such regulations are consistent with the powers of Congress and the States and do not limit the freedom of the press.

Section 3. Such corporate and other private entities shall be prohibited from making contributions or expenditures in any election of any candidate for public office or the vote upon any ballot measure submitted to the people.

Section 4. Congress and the States shall have the power to regulate and set limits on all election contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own spending, and to authorize the establishment of political committees to receive, spend, and publicly disclose the sources of those contributions and expenditures.

Other constitutional amendments introduced related to campaign finance can be found in our prior blog posts, including Constitutional Amendment to Control Campaign Financing and Constitutional Amendment to Reverse Citizens United.

The Ottawa City Council Governance Renewal Sub-Committee has directed the city clerk to refine a proposed lobbyist code of conduct.

The councillors explicitly want the differences between advocacy and lobbying to be delineated in order to exempt advocacy activities from registration. The subcommittee differentiated advocacy activities, “communications that state a position for the purpose of a general community benefit, either city-wide or local,” from lobbying activities, “communications that seek to influence a decision for the direct benefit of an individual or the group they represent.”

The clerk’s office is also directed to develop options for a definition of a community association.

Also unsure of the best manner for the city to handle lobbyist activity disclosure, an additional demand was made of the clerk’s staff to “provide a high level overview of options for disclosure, including pros and cons of disclosure by Public Officials only, disclosure by lobbyists only, and dual disclosure.”

A response to the sub-committee is during sometime in the first quarter of 2012. The Governance Renew Sub-Committee is a sub-committee of the Finance and Economic Development standing committee.

Photo of Ottawa in January by SimonP on Wikipedia.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) addressed two highly anticipated requests for advisory opinions yesterday.

In the first decision, the commissioners were unable to reach an agreement as to whether American Crossroads, an independent expenditure-only political committee, could produce and distribute television and radio advertisements with supported federal candidates involved in the creation of those messages. Although none of the four drafts of an advisory opinion were accepted by a majority of the six commissions, they released separate statements regarding the request. The statements can be found here:

• Commissioner Steven T. Walther;
• Vice Chair Caroline C. Hunter and Commissioners Donald F. McGahn and Matthew S. Petersen; and
• Chair Cynthia L. Bauerly and Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub

In the second decision, the commission voted unanimously to deny the request of Senator Michael Lee’s Leadership PAC, Constitutional Conservatives Fund PAC. The commission concluded the PAC could not act as an independent expenditure committee, receiving contributions from corporations and unlimited contributions from individuals, because the PAC is controlled by a federal office holder, Senator Michael Lee.

They reached this conclusion even though separate accounts would be used, as recently allowed for independent expenditure committees by the FEC after the Carey v. FEC court decision and a Stipulated Order and Consent Judgment. They were also not persuaded by the fact the funds would only support candidates other than Senator Lee.

This blog post follows previous entries regarding these issues, including: American Crossroads Wants Candidate Participation in its Ads, FEC Will Not Be Enforcing Certain Laws, and One PAC Is Enough.

The Fair Lawn, New Jersey Borough Council passed an amendment to close a loophole in the borough’s pay-to-play ordinance.

The amendment, to receive a final vote in December, removes the “fair and open bidding process” exception to the pay-to-play rule. The exception allows vendors to make political contributions over $300 without being barred from borough contracts.

An additional modification to the ordinance would include limiting political donations to election cycles rather than calendar years.

Map of Bergen County, New Jersey by Arkyan on Wikipedia.

Lobbyists in Texas must update their filing software to the newest version in order to properly file reports.

Becky Levy, Director of the Disclosure Filings Division of the Texas Ethics Commission, issued a memorandum stating before filing lobby activities reports, the software used must be upgraded in order to have the latest enhancements to file properly. Lobbyist activity reports in Texas must be filed electronically unless qualifying for an exemption.

More information about the software, and how to download it, is located here.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has issued an advisory opinion approving plans of a for-profit company’s mobile-based financial processing platform to collect and distribute funds to candidates, committees, and PACs.

GivingSphere, which allows individuals to make donations to charitable groups through the internet and mobile devices, requested an opinion about implementing contributions to political entities. Customer funds for contributions are accumulated by rebates earned by purchasing goods from merchants who participate in the GivingSphere affiliate program.

Advisory Opinion 2011-19 allows GivingSphere to transmit its customers’ funds in the form of political contributions. Additionally, the company may sell advertising space to political committees on its website, provide a searchable database of political committees to its customers, and permit political committees to post a ‘badge’ of the GivingSphere on their website.

Because GivingSphere is merely processing contributions, it will not be subject to any reporting requirements. The FEC press release can be found here.

The Federal Office of Government Ethics (O.G.E.) is extending the comment period for its proposed regulations concerning gifts from lobbyists.

In September, the O.G.E. proposed rules which limit, for lobbyists, the exceptions of the ban on gifts for federal employees. The proposed rules arose because of a Presidential Executive Order which had called for the O.G.E. “to apply the lobbyist gift ban set forth [in the order] to all executive branch employees.”

The period for written comments ended yesterday, November 14. However, today the O.G.E. announced it is extending the comment period to December 14.

Today’s announcement may be found here. A copy of the of the original proposed rulemaking notice is available here.

This post follows an earlier LobbyComply post concerning this rule, O.G.E. Proposes New Rules on Lobbyist Gifts.

The Rhode Island Senate and House will both convene this Thursday, November 17.

The two bodies will be meeting at different times in the afternoon to consider Senate Bill S1111A and House Bill H6319A.

The bills concern contributions and benefits related to the retirement system for public officers and employees.