The U.S. Supreme Court has announced it will hear arguments on January 9 regarding Congressional and State Legislature districts in Texas. This has put Texas campaigning and fundraising in a state of confusion.

You can find the news coverage here:

“Redistricting Orders Throw Texas Politics Into Disarray” by Ross Ramsey in the Texas Tribune.

“Texas Elections Are in Limbo Over Redistricting Issue” by Manny Fernandez in the New York Times.

“Judges to offer guidance to party leaders after Supreme Court blocks maps” by Tim Eaton in the American-Statesman.

State lawmakers in Louisiana will be going through what has been called a “crash course” in the craft of lawmaking.

Be sure to read “Newest Louisiana legislators will get crash course in their new roles” by Ed Anderson in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

The article says, “[House Clerk Alfred] Speer said the House’s agenda will include mock committee meeting and floor sessions, as well as discussions of ethics laws, parliamentary procedure, introduction to legislative staff, key dates for filing bills, and one called ‘Norms of Behavior or How to Operate within the House and Keep Your Integrity and Sanity.'”

You can find the Web Portal for the Louisiana State Legislature here.

Photo of the Louisiana State Capitol by Bluepoint951 on Wikipedia.

Thanks to Eric Brown’s Political Activity Law Blog for bringing this news item to our attention.

Gallup.com just published a poll placing lobbyists and lawmakers at the bottom of their list in the areas of honesty and ethics. For the full story read “Record 64% Rate Honesty, Ethics of Members of Congress Low” by Jeffrey M. Jones.

According to the article: “Gallup has asked Americans to rate the honesty and ethics of numerous professions since 1976, including annually since 1990. Lobbyists also received a 64% low honesty and ethics rating in 2008.”

Photo of the Gallup Organization window by Kate Mereand on Wikipedia.

Their profile and first tweet say “Updates from the Twitter Government & Politics team, tracking creative & effective uses of Twitter for civic engagement…Welcome to @gov! Stay tuned for best practices, case studies and other updates from the Twitter Government & Politics team…”

With a big presidential election year ahead of us, I wonder if they intend to keep track of the use of Twitter in political campaigns. We should keep an eye on the official Twitter blog for more information.

Governing broke this news in “Twitter Launches @Gov Account for Tracking Civic Engagement” by Dylan Scott.

On Wednesday, K Street was the center of focus for many Occupy protesters. Offices were on lock-down and dozens of arrests were made.

Be sure to read Politico’s “Occupy D.C. protesters shut down K Street” by Robin Bravender and Abby Phillip.

The action was part of a larger demonstration this week in Washington D.C. According to the article, “About 2,000 activists flooded Washington, D.C., this week to participate in the weeklong  ‘Take Back the Capitol’ movement, according to a labor organizer close to the protests.”

K Street sign is a derivative of a photo by Ben Schumin on Wikipedia.

One of the remarkable moments I had at the 2012 COGEL Conference in Nashville was visiting with Hawaii State Senator Les Ihara, Jr. We spoke about COGEL and I had to put in a plug that the conference will be held in Columbus next year! He spoke about NCSL and other things coming in the next year.

Senator Ihara was interested in sharing about the Hawaii Ethical Lobbying Association and so that is our Highlighted Site of the Week. The website has the organization’s pledge of ethics, as well as listing news about an Ethical Lobbying and Campaign Spending Workshop.

Senator Ihara, who was named co-chair of NCSL’s Legislative Effectiveness Committee, has received the Good Government Angel Award from the Hawai‘i Pro-Democracy Initiative, Lawmaker of the Year from Small Business Hawai‘i, the Good Government Award from Common Cause Hawai‘i, and many other awards. The Hawaii State Legislature site offers an interesting list of the measures the senator has introduced.

Have a great weekend!

State and Federal Communications President and CEO Elizabeth Bartz and seven of the company’s staff will be attending the Council on Government Ethics Laws (COGEL) 2011 Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

We are looking forward to COGEL 2011, which will run from December 4 – 7.

If you are planning to attend, be sure to say hello!

Following in the footsteps of California, the state of Maryland will be allowing political campaign contributions via text messages on mobile devices. Jared DeMarinis, Maryland State Board of Elections’ Director of Candidacy and Campaign Finance,  says this will open the process up to more people giving smaller donations.

For the full story, read “Rule would allow campaign donations by text message” by Annie Linskey in the Baltimore Sun.

According to the article: “Maryland’s General Assembly passed legislation this year authorizing campaign contributions by text message and directing the Board of Elections to implement the change. The board has drafted regulations, which are subject to public comment before they can go into effect.”

Our Highlighted Site of the Week is Gov 2.0 Radio, hosted on blogtalkradio. Produced by Adriel Hampton, Government 2.0 covers topics such as government transparency, open data, citizen engagement, social media, and much more. You can enjoy streaming the dozens of radio programs at any time.

Stay on top of the latest Gov 2.0  announcements by following them at Gov 2.0 Radio Twitter and at their Citizen 2.0 Facebook.

According to his blog, Adriel Hampton: Wired to Share, Adriel has worked as an investigator for the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office and is a journalist and gov 2.0 strategist.

Newt Gingrich claims he was not lobbying after he left public office. The charge by some that he was lobbying – and Gingrich’s response – has raised issues regarding whether one can tell the difference between a lobbyist and someone engaged in non-lobbying advocacy.

Read more about it in this Reuters article, “Gingrich’s work shows limits of U.S. lobbying law” by David Ingram.

Also: “Gingrich Says He Was Acting as a Citizen, Not a Lobbyist” by Jim Rutenberg in the New York Times.

Photo of Newt Gingrich by Gage Skidmore on Wikipedia.

The agenda for the today’s FEC open meeting can be found here.

Thank you to Eric Brown’s Political Activity Law Blog for giving everyone this alert.

State and Federal Communications President and CEO Elizabeth Bartz is attending the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Fall Forum 2011 in Tampa, Florida.

The conference runs from November 30 until December 3, 2011.

State and Federal Communications is proud to be one of the Event Sponsors of the Women in Government Relations 2011 PACs, Politics & Grassroots Conference.

Compliance Manager Amber Fish Linke and Federal Compliance Associate Rebecca South are attending the conference today in Washington, D.C.

Political ads are not only optimized for mobile devices, now they target their markets precisely: “Political advertisements go mobile for 2012 elections” by Emily Shultheis from Politico.

The White House’s We the People online petition project has brought surprising results – more petitions were submitted about animal rights and legalizing marijuana and fewer were about education, the economy, and foreign affairs. Read Nextgov’s “We the People draws a curious crowd” by Joseph Marks. Here is Nextgov’s summary of the results.

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has received more grief than it was worth over a disparaging tweet: “Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback apologizes to teen after she refuses to apologize to him” by Melissa Bell in the Washington Post.