Washington’s Short Special Session Ends

The Washington Legislature adjourned a one-day special session after passing a new drug possession law. The new bill makes it a gross misdemeanor to use drugs in public or possess small amounts of drugs and adds alternative sentencing for minor drug offenses. The original bill failed on the last day of the regular session, with both progressive Democrats and Republicans voting down the bill. The new law is a compromise between the parties, with both sides getting inclusions into the law.

Gov. Jay Inslee signed House Bill 1317 and Senate Bill 5152, updating campaign and lobbying rules in response to current technologies and practices involving online activity and social media. House Bill 1317 was designed to shed light on special interest “astroturfing” in grassroots lobbying. The new law expedites registration of sponsors of grassroots lobbying campaigns and increases the disclosures that must be made in the registration and any advertisements made by the lobbying campaign.

Senate Bill 5152 seeks to combat the advent of “synthetic media” political ads. These ads are created when, via artificial intelligence or other such programs, media is manipulated to cause a person (in this case a politician) to say or act in a way that did not happen. Senate Bill 5152 gives a target of synthetic media a course of action to force a sponsor or media platform to terminate the synthetic media campaign. The bill also gives the sponsor the ability to add a disclosure to the synthetic ad stating the ad or image is a synthetic media post. Both bills become effective July 23.

The Montana Legislature adjourned sine die May 2, after a surprising motion from Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers leading to an impromptu close of the contentious 2023 session.

The House, playing catch up to the Senate’s sudden adjournment, was able to pass both of the session’s marque bills.

House Bill 2, the state’s $13.4 billion budget bill, and House Bill 816, an income and property tax rebate bill.

This does affect lobbyist reporting. The principal end of session report is due June 1.

The Washington Legislature adjourned sin die on April 23.

Lawmakers passed over 450 bills during the session, including a $69 billion dollar budget bill that raises pay for state employees and public-school teachers.

Additionally, Senate Bill 5170 was signed into law, allowing the solicitation of gifts, grants, or donations to support conferences of national or regional legislative organizations held outside the state by certain legislators and staff.

Jeff Brindle, Director of New Jersey’s Election Enforcement Commission, has sued Gov. Murphy to block the recently signed Elections Transparency Act.

The new law allows the governor to directly appoint the four members of the Election Enforcement Commission without Senate oversight if within a 90-day period.

The new law also reduces the time the commission has to investigate campaign finance violations from 10 years down to two years following a violation.

The timeline change applies retroactively, effectively wiping out the majority of the commission’s caseload.

Brindle believes the new law and calls for his resignation are in response to his efforts against dark money in New Jersey’s politics.

The three other members of the Election Enforcement Commission resigned in protest two days after the new law was passed.

The Public Disclosure Commission certified increases in reporting and contribution limits in response to inflation.

The inflationary adjustments touch almost every threshold and limit.

Contribution limits increase from $1,000 to $1,200 for state and county legislative candidates and from $2,000 to $2,400 for other state offices.

Limits for political parties increase from $5,500 to $6,000.

The Idaho Legislature adjourned sine die Thursday, April 6.

During the contentious session, legislators were able to pass a revised Medicare budget, a new public school budget, and overturn a veto to enact a property tax reduction bill.

Legislators also passed House Bill 11, expanding the prohibition regarding the use of private moneys for the purpose of election administration to include officials and state employees.

This does affect lobbying reporting. The final lobbyist activity report for the year is due May 15.

The Wyoming State Legislature adjourned sine die March 3, after passing 196 bills during the 37-day session.

Among the passed bills, the legislature ratified Senate Bill 40. Senate Bill 40 closed an exemption for federal political action committees (PACs) active in Wyoming elections.

Under the new law, federal PACs must file state campaign finance reports unless they are solely making contributions or expenditures to federal candidates or issues.

Other major bills passed during the quick session include universal tax-relief and an omnibus bill focusing on rehabilitating the state’s water infrastructure.

Gov. Mark Gordon has signed a bill removing an exemption from state campaign finance reporting for federal political action committees (PACs) active in Wyoming elections.

Senate Bill 40 requires federal PACs to report in Wyoming unless they are making contributions or expenditures only to federal candidates or federal issues.

The law takes effect July 1.

A coalition of business groups have filed a lawsuit against the Fair Political Practices Commission, seeking to stop enforcement of new pay-to-play restrictions in Senate Bill 1439.

The new law removed the exception for locally elected officials and extended the restricted period from three to 12 months.

The lawsuit seeks to throw out the new law, claiming the bill is unconstitutional, both in the manner it altered the Political Reform Act and in practice.

Plaintiffs allege Senate Bill 1439 does not further the original purpose of the Political Reform Act, but directly conflicts with the original provisions regulating certain financial conflicts of interest of public officials.

Additionally, the plaintiffs claim the bill is unconstitutional on freedom of speech grounds, stating the bill significantly restricts the making and receiving of campaign contributions to local elected officials throughout the state.

No trial date has been set at this time.

The Orange County Council has voted to raise the campaign contribution limit from $2,200 to $2,500 per election cycle.

The Orange County Campaign Reform Ordinance requires the board to adjust the campaign contribution limitation in February of every odd year.

The Orange County Council adjusts the contribution limit according to changes in the Consumer Price Index and rounds to the nearest $100.

The city of Anaheim raised campaign contribution limits to $2,500 per election cycle.

Anaheim reevaluates contribution limits at the start of every odd-numbered year and alters them based on the consumer price index (CPI) of the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim region.

The area’s CPI increased by 11.8% and the contribution limit was changed, rounded to the nearest $100, to reflect this change from the previous limit of $2,200.

The Los Angeles’ Ad hoc committee on governance reform has recommended the approval of an ethics commission report that would change the rules on persons and organizations lobbying the city.

The commission, whose origins revolves around a controversial leaked audio tape from two former members of the city council, have been tasked on overhauling the city’s ethics laws.

The commission recommended setting a compensation threshold of $5,000 per year that would require a person to register as a lobbyist.

The recommendation also included a requirement for lobbyists to identify their positions on matters about which they are lobbying and lowering the threshold which triggers disclosures when lobbyists distribute political fundraiser solicitations to 15 or more people, down from a threshold of 50 people.

The next step is for the City Council to vote on the commission’s recommendations at their next meeting.

Governor Greg Gianforte has appointed Chris Gallus as Montana’s new Commissioner of Political Practices.

Gallus previously served as legal counsel for the Montana Chamber of Commerce before starting his own private practice.

The Montana Senate has not yet confirmed Gallus’s appointment and no date has been set for his confirmation hearing.

If his appointment is approved, Gallus will serve a six-year term as Commissioner of Political Practices.