Meet Michael Beckett, Esq., Associate Director, Research Services!

What are your areas of expertise?

I direct the Research Department and oversee website content regarding lobbying, campaign finance, ethics and gifts, procurement, and pay-to-play.

How long have you been with State and Federal Communications?

I have been with the company for 10 years.

How do you help our clients?

Overseeing the content produced by the Research team allows me to provide high-level consulting on compliance-related matters for subscribers and clients. My experience allows me to provide in-depth analysis based on over a decade of keeping up with the latest developments in corporate compliance.

A bill to shine light on dark money groups is the latest attempt to ensure better transparency in Ohio’s political spending.

House Bill 13 would end an exception for nonprofit 501(c)(4) groups who are currently not required by Ohio law to disclose who funds them.

While these nonprofits are to promote general social welfare and cannot spend a majority of resources on political activity, there is opportunity for flouting the rules, allowing dark money groups to influence elections without being publicly exposed.

House Bill 13 would require disclosure of donations to the nonprofit meant to influence elections, but would allow groups to separate their accounts to limit such disclosures.

The Wyoming Legislature adjourned sine die on April 7 after passing an increase to lobbying fees.

House Bill 148 raises the annual registration fee from $25 to $75.

Fees for individuals receiving $500 or less in compensation increases from $5 to $10.

The bill becomes effective July 1.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) announced additional time to file registrations and reports due in January 2021.

Any filing due in January will be considered timely filed if submitted by January 29, 2021.

The extension is in response to the breadth of changes to the lobbying regulations taking effect January 1, 2021, and the corresponding changes to the online filing system.

Additional guidance relating to upcoming registrations and verification of user profiles is expected soon.

The 2021-2022 Statement of Registration is expected to launch on December 16, 2020.

Voters passed a state constitutional amendment paving the way for the Oregon State Legislature and local lawmakers to limit political contributions and expenditures.

Measure 107 also allows for rules regarding disclosure of campaign activity in order to require campaigns to be transparent about who paid for political advertisements.

Currently, there are no contribution limits due to Oregon Supreme Court rulings declaring campaign finance reform to be in violation of the state constitution. Measure 107 is retroactive, but only to legislation passed on or after January 1, 2016.

Legislative leaders declined the proposal of Gov. Tony Evers postponing in-person voting for the presidential primary and state elections Tuesday, April 7.

Evers called the Legislature into a special session on April 4 to take up legislation avoiding in-person voting.

The legislation created an all-mail election with a deadline of May 26 to return ballots.

An effort in federal court to delay the election also failed, but did result in a one-week extension for absentee ballots to be received.    

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced he wants to postpone the presidential primary and state Supreme Court elections scheduled for Tuesday, April 7.

Evers is calling the Legislature into a special session on April 4 to take up legislation to avoid in-person voting.

The legislation calls for an all-mail election with a deadline of May 26 to return ballots.

Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to sign a coronavirus response bill passed by legislators.

The bill includes a provision to extend absentee balloting till April 28 for the presidential and state primary elections.

The state’s Health Department postponed in-person voting originally scheduled for March 17 in response to COVID-19 concerns.

House Bill 197 cancels the rescheduled date of June 2 and instructs Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office to send a postcard to every registered voter in the state to notify them of methods to obtain an application for an absentee voter’s ballot.

The bill does not require an absentee ballot request actually be mailed to every voter.

An extremely limited group of voters will be able to vote in-person on April 28.

This includes disabled voters and those without a home address, but for most people, the option is not available.

Gov. Mike DeWine has delayed Ohio’s in-person voting by order of the state’s Health Department after a day of uncertainty about the status of the presidential primary election.

DeWine indicated earlier in the day at a press conference he did not have authority to unilaterally delay the primary and a lawsuit would be filed to move the election to June 2 over concern about COVID-19.

On Monday evening, Judge Richard A. Frye of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas rejected the request.

After the court ruling allowing the election to proceed and an evening of conflicting information, DeWine ended speculation with a tweet at 10:11 p.m.

The Health Department ordered all polling places not to open for Tuesday’s primary elections to protect voters and poll workers from the coronavirus outbreak.

The state budget bill signed by Gov. DeWine includes a provision removing a tax exemption for attorneys and lobbyists beginning in 2020.

Since 2013, the state business income deduction (BID) has allowed those deriving income from any pass-through entity (e.g., LLCs, LLPs) to pay no tax on the first $250,000 of income and a flat 3% on any income above the threshold.

House Bill 166 excludes otherwise eligible income from legal services provided by an attorney or income from legislative, executive agency, or retirement system lobbying activity.

A professional coalition including the Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA) is beginning a grassroots campaign to reverse the exclusion.

Gov. Larry Hogan allowed two election law bills to become law without his signature.

House Bill 878 alters fees due for failure to file campaign finance reports or affidavits.

The bill raises the fees from $10 each day a report or affidavit is overdue to $20 for each of the first seven days.

Thereafter, the fee increases to $35 for the next seven days, and $50 for each day after that.

The maximum fee for overdue reports or affidavits has also been raised from $500 to $1,000.

House Bill 1025 authorizes the state administrator of elections or the state administrator’s designee to investigate potential violations of coordinated expenditure provisions.

The bill also authorizes the administrator to, in furtherance of an investigation, issue a subpoena for the attendance of a witness to testify.

The state administrator may also subpoena for the production of records.

The Elections Commission adopted legislative rules to enforce the provisions in Senate Bill 622.

Provisions include increasing campaign contribution limits and disclosure requirements for PACs and independent expenditure groups.

The commission worked on language to better clarify what committees and organizations are required to file contribution and spending disclosures.

It was also determined the law applies to organizations whose major or primary purpose is to influence the outcome of elections by spending money to support or oppose particular candidates or issues.

However, the law does not apply to other ballot issues such as referenda on proposed constitutional amendments.

The legislative rules will need to be approved by the full Legislature as part of its rule-making review process.

The process must happen during the 2020 regular session for the changes to go into effect before the 2020 elections.

Allen Superior Court Judge Jennifer DeGroote heard arguments on Wednesday in a case focused on a 2018 Fort Wayne City Council ordinance.

The ordinance limits financial contributions of contractors and their family members to political campaigns in Fort Wayne.

The measure prohibits business entities from bidding on city contracts if any officer, partner, or principal with more than 10% ownership has donated more than $2,000 to a campaign of someone with ultimate responsibility for awarding city contracts.

Kyle and Kimberly Suzanne Witwer filed the suit in April challenging the ordinance and requesting a judge block it’s implementation.

While no ruling was made on Wednesday, both sides must submit proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law by Friday.

There could be a potential ruling next week.

The main issue being considered at this time is whether state contribution laws make this ordinance unnecessary.

Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the Fair Elections Emergency Amendment Act of 2019 on May 22.

The act amends the definition of a qualified small-dollar contribution to set a minimum value of cash or in-kind contributions at $5.

The act became effective following the approval by Mayor Bowser and will remain in effect until August 20.