Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has selected July 27 as the date of the special election runoff to replace the late Rep. Ron Wright in Texas’ 6th Congressional District.

Ron Wright, a second-term congressman, died in February after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

The race for Wright’s unfinished term pits Wright’s widow, Susan Wright, against state Rep. Jake Ellzey of Waxahachie.

Wright, a member of the State Republican Executive Committee, finished first in the May 1 special election, which had 23 candidates. She got 19% of the vote.

Ellzey came in second with 14%.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has called for state legislators to meet in a special session May 19 to discuss issues including accepting and appropriating funds from the American Rescue Plan.

The Legislature will also discuss prohibiting face mask requirements in K-12 schools, amending provisions related to the sale of electronic cigarettes, and extending the state of emergency for drought conditions.

However, lawmakers will not discuss critical race theory and Second Amendment sanctuary legislation during the special session.

Cox said Second Amendment sanctuary legislation should wait for a future general session.

The length of the special session has not been announced. This does not affect lobbying dates.

Individuals, political committees, lobbyists, or their principals may not make a campaign contribution to the governor, the governor’s personal campaign committee, or a PAC controlled by the governor when the Legislature is convened in a special session.

Wichita City Council members will no longer be left to police themselves on ethics violations after passing a long-awaited and much-debated policy on May 11.

The ethics policy sets gift limits for elected and appointed city officials for the first time in city history.

It applies to all city board appointees and council members.

The new policy creates a seven-member Ethics Advisory Board to investigate and rule on ethics complaints.

City officials could be censured or fined up to $1,000 for serious violations.

Lesser offenses would require an official to undergo ethics training.

It also offers whistleblower protection to city employees who report violations.

The City Council also kept in place a 63-year-old ethics ordinance prohibiting favorable treatment to “friends,” a word council members struggled to define last month before scrubbing it entirely from the new policy.

After the vote May 11, the City Council now has two ethics codes: a city law, which has been in place since 1958, and a new City Council policy.

Keeping the ordinance in place will be a helpful transition until the council appoints an Ethics Advisory Board and an ethics officer to lead the board.

Related to gifts, the new policy caps what city officials can receive at $150 a year from a specific donor, with some exceptions.

Additionally, any gifts more than $50 must be reported annually.

The policy carves out exemptions to what is considered a gift, allowing city officials to accept unlimited gifts in the form of food and event admission from any nonprofit organization, political or policy-based group, educational institution, community development or faith-based organization.

Those gifts could include anything from free tickets to college sporting events to golf tournaments.

City officials covered by the policy are also entitled to unlimited free meals “when their presence is requested to attend a meeting or event.”

The Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission electronic filing systems will be down and offline for scheduled maintenance on Thursday, May 13 from 8 a.m. to noon.

The offline systems will include the candidate filing system, noncandidate committee filing system, and the noncandidate committee import system.

During this downtime, new candidate and noncandidate committees will not be able to electronically file the Organizational Report to register with the commission, and currently registered candidate and noncandidate committees will not be able to enter campaign spending data and electronically file disclosure reports or any other reports.

Currently registered noncandidate committees will also not be able to import contribution and expenditure data into the noncandidate committee filing system.

Additionally, campaign spending reports filed by candidate committees and noncandidate committees will not be accessible on the candidate filing system and noncandidate committee filing system public sites during this downtime.

However, the candidate and noncandidate committee data visualizations and the candidate and noncandidate committee searchable databases are still accessible.

Louisiana election officials have scheduled a special election for the District 7 seat in the Louisiana State Senate for July 10.

The seat became vacant after Troy Carter was elected to the U.S. House to represent Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District on April 24.

The primary will take place on June 12, and the filing deadline is on May 7.

The 31st session of the Hawaii Legislature will adjourn sine die on April 29 after 55 days in session.

During the legislative session, lawmakers introduced several bills related to campaign finance and lobbying laws.

Senate Bill 0166, related to campaign finance, prohibits foreign nationals and foreign corporations from making independent expenditures. The bill requires every corporation that contributes or expends funds in a state election to file a statement of certification regarding its limited foreign influence.

Additionally, the bill requires noncandidate committees making only independent expenditures to obtain a statement of certification from each top contributor required to be listed in an advertisement. If passed, the bill would become effective immediately.

Senate Bill 0557, relating to administrative action lobbying, expands the definition of administrative action for purposes of the lobbying laws to include granting or denying applications for business or development-related permits, licenses, or approvals.

The bill also clarifies that lobbying laws apply to lobbying by the executive branch. If passed, the bill would become effective September 1, 2021.

Bills signed by Gov. David Ige will go into effect July 1. Bills not signed by the governor will take effect 90 days after adjournment sine die.

Wichita City Council introduced an ethics proposal to establish gift restrictions for elected and appointed city officials.

Proposal 2021-01-26 would cap the value of gifts Wichita’s mayor and City Council members may receive from people doing or planning to do business with the city at $150 a year and require disclosure of gifts worth $50 or more.

The proposal would also establish a whistleblower hotline with protections for those who want to report a violation, and an ethics advisory board to be appointed by the mayor and council to handle complaints against the mayor, council members or any members of city boards or commissions.

Penalties for violations of the proposed code of ethics would result in a fine between $100 and $1,000 for each violation.

Council members will hold a workshop on the ordinance April 27 and vote on the proposal in May.

The Colorado Secretary of State will host a rulemaking hearing April 19 on proposed amendments to Colorado Secretary of State Rules Concerning Lobbyist Regulation (8 C.C.R. Section 1505-8).

The proposals amend the definition of redistricting commission lobbyist as a person who is contracted or compensated to communicate directly or indirectly, including through providing public comment.

The proposal further provides such communication would be with a member of a redistricting commission as a whole, with an individual member of a redistricting commission, or with redistricting commission staff, to advocate for the adoption or rejection of any map, amendment to a map, or to otherwise aid or influence such redistricting commission, commissioner, or staff.

The hearing will begin at 3:00 p.m. and will conclude at the end of public comment.

The Oklahoma Ethics Commission will hold a regular meeting on Friday, April 9 at 10 a.m. to discuss the use of campaign funds for officeholders and lobbyist expenditures.

On the topic of campaign finance, the meeting will cover the campaign funds for officeholders to purchase gifts of small value for visitors, including students, to their offices at the capitol. The commission will also review campaign fund expenditure categories to provide more clarity for what expenses are campaign-related, officeholder-related, or surplus funds.

On the topic of lobbyist expenditures, the commission will review the expenditure lump-sum category of food and beverage provides for a caucus event to include events that do not pertain to caucus business. Implementation of a non-solicitation requirement for gifts from lobbyists and liaisons for state officers and employees will also be considered.

The meeting will be held in person and live-streamed for the public. The next regular meeting is scheduled for Friday, May 14.

The City Council in Aurora, Colorado passed an ordinance to create lobbyist registration and reporting requirements in the city.

Ordinance 2021-08 requires lobbyists to register their clients and income with the City Clerk and submit quarterly, detailed activity reports by January 15, April 15, July 15 October 15 of each year.

City council members, city staff, commission members, and zoning officials will also have to disclose activities with lobbyists.

Lobbyists who do not comply with the regulations could lose the ability to influence city officials on matters from development to zoning rules, permits, and city contracts, face possible expulsion and up to $2,500 fines per charge.

The ordinance passed on March 22 with one nay vote.

Ordinance 21-08 will become effective on August 1, 2021. This effective date was suggested to allow time for the implementation of a platform the city will use for reporting and developing training materials.

The Oklahoma Ethics Commission voted to increase the individual contribution limit to $2,900 per election for candidate’s whose name appears on the 2022 ballot.

This limit increase applies only to candidates registered for the 2022 election. The individual contribution limits for the 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2020 candidate committees remain the same.

Other candidates remain under the contribution limits for their specific election. All other PAC or political party committee limits remain the same.

When candidate committees contribute to other candidate committees, contribution limits apply to both the giving and receiving committees.

When the giving and receiving candidate committees were formed for different election years, they are subject to different contribution limits. The lesser contribution limit of the two will be the contribution limit that applies.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will call a special session of the New Mexico Legislature tentatively for Wednesday, March 31 to address the regulation of cannabis in the state.

The Senate Majority Leader addressed the fact that there was not enough time in the 60-day session to pass House Bill 12 before the session adjourned at noon on March 20.

The length of the special session has not yet been addressed.

During a special legislative session, a lobbyist or lobbyist employer must file a report within 48 hours of making or incurring expenditures of $500 or more.

The 55th New Mexico Legislature is set to adjourn sine die March 20.

During the session, several bills were introduced relating to lobbying and campaign finance.

Two key bills related to lobbying and the legislative session are advancing through the Legislature.

House Joint Resolution 13, relating to the legislative session, proposes to change the date each regular session of the Legislature begins and seeks to remove the restrictions on bills that may be considered in even-numbered years and the date laws would go into effect after adjournment sine die.

Under the bill, the legislative session would convene on the third Tuesday of February rather than January and would remain in session no longer than 45 days instead of thirty.

Additionally, bills would go into effect 75 days rather than 90 days after adjournment of the session.

If passed, House Joint Resolution 13 would be submitted to voters for their approval or rejection at the next general election or at any special election prior to that date that may be called for that purpose.

Separately, House Bill 244, relating to ethics commission responsibilities for campaign reporting and lobbyist regulations, provides the ethics commission, in consultation with the secretary of state, must issue advisory opinions when requested.

The bill designates the ethics commission, rather than the secretary of state, to receive any complaints regarding a violation of the Campaign Reporting Act.

Under the bill, the secretary of state may promulgate rules to implement the provisions of the Lobbyist Regulation Act.

If passed, House Bill 244 would become effective July 1, 2021.

Legislation not acted upon by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will be pocket vetoed on April 9, meaning passed bills will become law without her signature.

Voters in New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District will go to the polls June 1 for a special election to fill the seat left vacant by Rep. Deb Haaland.

Haaland was confirmed to lead the Department of the Interior on March 18.

The district consists of Torrance County, most of Bernalillo County and just parts of Sandoval, Santa Fe and Valencia counties. Only those living in these counties will vote.