If things are running slowly in your office this afternoon, don’t miss out on this fun photo slideshow from the National Conference of State Legislatures: “Holidays at state capitols around the country”

Here is their description on the NCSL website: “Legislative staffers from across the nation shared their capitol Christmas decorations with NCSL. You can view the entire slideshow in full screen mode on NCSL’s Flickr homepage.”

Photo of holiday ornament by Kris De Curtis on Wikipedia.

For full news coverage of the group’s statement, read “Trade group says Abramoff shouldn’t teach ethics” by Catalina Camia in USA Today.

According to the article: “To have a state-run, government ethics commission give this ex-con a paid platform sends the public the wrong message about the Kentucky Legislature,” Howard Marlowe, president of the American League of Lobbyists, said in a statement. “I doubt that many of the lawmakers will want to have their picture taken with this crook.”

Here is the League’s press release on Scribd.

We had lunch at the Tangier restaurant and then headed back to the office for more festivities.

Days in advance, the staff made the office look merry by decorating their cubes. On the day of the party we held a cube decorating contest and, as you can see, we have some true artisans in our midst. Santa showed up, as well as reindeer, penguins, the North Pole, and even Lucy van Pelt’s counseling booth. It is amazing what can be done with post-it notes, lights,  and cotton batting!

Next, we pitted the Compliance, Research, and IT departments against each other in contests requiring feats of skill, endurance, and great courage. A political button quiz was followed by stacking apples, blowing balloons, building chapstick architecture (with chopsticks, of course), and a tissue-pulling contest. Much was at stake for each department, but the Compliance Department came out the winner of the day.

My personal favorite event was the baking contest with an amazing array of sweets. The pictures speak for themselves. There was, of course, the Herculean task of tasting all of those fine creations, but we the staff managed just fine.

Our holiday Giving Tree was full, with the gifts going to the Battered Women’s Shelter of Summit County.

We were thankful for the chance to get together for a party. It has been a good year.

New York Senator Carl Kruger pleaded guilty in United States District Court in Manhattan yesterday to federal corruption charges.

Prosecutors offered a complex tale of federal wiretaps, bribes in return for political favors, and Kruger living in a mansion built for the boss of a New York crime family.

Kruger could face a sentence of up to 50 years.

The New York Times covers the news in “After Resigning, Tearful Senator Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribes” by William Rashbaum.

Photo of the Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan by Americasroof on Wikipedia.

As a kick-off to their 2012 General Assembly, the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission will be hosting Jack Abramoff as a speaker during their training session on ethics.

Abramoff will be paid $5,000 plus expenses. He will be speaking on January 4, 2012.

You can read about it in “Ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff to speak at Kentucky legislative ethics session” by Tom Loftus in the Courier-Journal.

“Robocall Campaigns Dialing Up As Election Season Draws Near” by Sarah Lai Stirland on TechPresident.

“Republicans accuse Gingrich of illegal robo-calls” by Steve Peoples in The Associated Press.

“Robocalling Hillary 2012” by Emily Schultheis in Politico. Apparently a group of Hillary Clinton supporters are using robocalls to get her on the 2012 presidential ballot.

“Afternoon Fix: Nikki Haley robocalls for Romney” by Aaron Blake in the Washington Post.

Did you know you can return the favor with political candidates by calling them back with your own robocall? This website offers a service to contact politicians: Reverse Robocall: Talk Back. Be Heard

According to the website: “Welcome to the Robocall Revolution. We believe that voters should have access to the same technology political groups use to get their message across; so we built a simple web-based robocall tool to literally give citizens back their voice in the political discourse.

ReverseRobocall.com provides voters an easy way to communicate with one or hundreds of politicians or political groups using the same technology politicians use, the robocall or automated phone call.”

Amy Loprest, Executive Director of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, testified last Friday before the City Council about the effects of the Citizens United decision on New York City’s campaign finance regulation.

According to their press release:

“Campaign Finance Board Executive Director Amy Loprest testified before the City Council Committee on Governmental Operations regarding the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision earlier today. The Council is considering a resolution that calls for a Constitutional amendment to reverse the decision and establish that corporations are not entitled to the same rights as natural persons.”

“Recognizing a First Amendment right where none had previously been found, Citizens United opened the floodgates to allow massive amounts of unlimited—and too often, undisclosed—independent spending by corporations, unions, and other groups,” Loprest said.

Here is a link to a pdf file of the entire testimony.

Arizona

“Redistricting commission up against own deadline” by The Associated Press in the Arizona Capitol Times.

“State redisctricting panel closes in on final maps” by Howard Fischer in the East Valley Tribune.

Colorado

“Colorado Republicans fear loss of legislative seats held by women from redistricting” by Lynn Bartels in the Denver Post.

Maryland

“Baltimore loses clout in redistricting” by Annie Linskey in the Baltimore Sun.

New Jersey

“Panel to decide which N.J. congressional district to sacrifice” by Matt Friedman in the Star-Ledger

New York

“Common Cause/NY Launches Redistricting Maps on Newsday.com” on readmedia.com

North Carolina

“NC Redistricting Opponents: ‘Lawmakers Can’t Pick Voters’” by Stephanie Carroll Carson of the North Carolina Public News Service.

Ohio

“Ohio redistricting sets up battles of incumbents” by Andrea Billups in the Washington Times.

Pennsylvania

“Congressional redistricting puts Pa. congressmen at a distance” by Charles Thompson in the Patriot-News

Rhode Island

“RI panel to vote on redistricting proposal” by The Associated Press in the Boston Globe.

Washington

“Draft maps out for Western Washington redistricting” by Brad Shannon in The Olympian.

GoLocalProv.com published a snapshot of campaign fundraising in Rhode Island. They compiled a list of the candidates with the top figures in campaign funds as the state enters the race toward the 2o12 elections.

The list is topped by U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and state General Treasurer Gina Raimondo. You will also  find Governor Lincoln Chaffee at the number 9 position, as well as a number of mayors, state senators, and state representatives in the list.

Read the full article at “Top 25 Richest Politicians in Rhode Island” by  Dan McGowan.

California’s campaign finance online database, the Cal-Access system, has been out of service for two weeks leaving people unable to search the state’s political contribution and lobbying reports.

The Los Angeles Times reported about the situation in “Campaign database still down, prompting calls for investigation” by Patrick McGreevy.

According to the article, “State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) announced Wednesday that he is introducing legislation to double the registration fees paid by the state’s 1,000 lobbyists to finance proper maintenance of Cal-Access.”

CityCampSF gathered app developers for a hackathon last weekend. The result was a series of apps that took raw government datasets and turned them into usable, searchable information. One app will allow people to receive city legislative alerts and agenda item alerts based on keywords. Another app will make ethics commission data and lobbyist filings searchable.

Don’t miss what Govtech reported in “SF Hackathon Produces Legislative Alert App Prototype” by Sarah Rich.

Here is CityCampSF’s summary of the results from the Hackathon in “CityCampSF Outcomes” on AdrielNation’s blog:

“What happened at CityCampSF Hackathon 2011 on Saturday and Sunday? Lots of great discussion about technology and open government, folks meeting for the first time over pizza, Red Bull and Peanut M&Ms, and some civic hacking on online lobbyists filings, timber harvest plans and text notifications for public meeting agenda keyword alerts.”

Common Cause Rhode Island released a statement asking the state to stop the redrawing of congressional districts.

For news coverage read “Common Cause calls for R.I. to stop redistricting process / Poll” by Philip Marcelo in the Providence Journal on December 13.

For more background information, read “New maps for Congress and state House of Representatives draw criticism” by Randal Edgar in the Providence Journal from December 12.

You can find Common Cause’s statement in “Common Cause calls for pause to redistricting process” on the Common Cause Rhode Island blog. Video coverage of the Rhode Island Redistricting Project meetings this week can be found here.

The Baltimore Sun reported that lobbyist Bruce Bereano has settled the ethics case with the Maryland State Ethics Commission by agreeing to pay a $2,750 fine.

For the full story read “Bereano settles ethics charges for $2,750” by Michael Dresser.

The American League of Lobbyists recently posted two videos on their YouTube channel from an October event where they invited Tim Farnum and Peter Overby to speak about Citizens United and soft money in the 2012 elections. ALL President Howard Marlowe was the moderator.

According to the site, “On Friday, October 28th, 2011 the American League of Lobbyists hosted two award winning journalists, Tim Farnum of the Washington Post and Peter Overby of NPR, for a discussion about the role that ‘soft money’ will play in the 2012 elections.”

Part 1

Part 2