Federal:

Democratic National Convention Rules Set off K St. Scramble

GOP Uses Citizens United to Challenge Corporate Donation Ban

What Donors? Super PACs Buy Time to Keep Secret the Names of Donors Ahead of GOP Primaries

From the States and Municipalities:

Arizona

State Sen. Scott Bundgaard Resigns from Legislature

California

Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi’s Shoplifting Incident Raises Medical Questions

Georgia

Wild Hog: Lobbyists’ trough?

Idaho

Idaho Leaders Ready to Strengthen Ethics Laws

Illinois

Lobbying Disclosure Rules Spotty

Massachusetts

Ex-Avon Worker’s Revenge Attempt Brings $5,000 Fine

Mississippi

Mississippi Court Halts Quick Release of Some Pardoned

Montana

SCOTUS Expected to Weigh Montana Campaign Finance Appeal

New Jersey

Bill to Prohibit Political Fundraising at Government Facilities Wins Legislature’s Approval

New Mexico

Judge Puts Parts of Contribution-Limits Law on Hold

North Carolina

Judge Clears Former Lobbyist

Oregon

Campaign Finance Regulations Go Before High Court

State and Federal Communications produces a weekly summary of national news, offering more than 80 articles per week focused on ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance.

News You Can Use is a news service provided at no charge only to clients of our online Executive Source Guides, or ALERTS™ consulting clients.

Lobbying:

“Group pushes ethics reform in hopes of curbing lobbyist influence at Georgia Legislature” by Errin Haines (Associated Press) in The Republic.

Campaign Finance:

“Late Night: Stephen Colbert drops ‘super PAC’ to run for president” by Meredith Blake in the Los Angeles Times. (with a wink…)

“Super PACs are making their rich presence felt in 2012 campaigns” David Goldstein in the Sacramento Bee.

“Summary of Kansas Senate Campaign Finance Reports” in the Missouri News Horizon.

“The 20 Largest Campaign Donors in Rhode Island” by Dan McGowan on golocalProv.com.

“No action taken on Oklahoma’s campaign disclosure laws” by Michael McNutt in the Daily Oklahoman.

Ethics:

“John Edwards trial: Lawyers request for delay will be considered by judge” by The Associated Press on Politico.

“Prison for ex-Rep. Siljander: He aided terrorist-linked charity” by Matt Pearce in the Los Angeles Times.

The Ethics Resource Center reports in a new study that four times as many employees of large corporations have seen illegal donations given to public officials.

According to an article in today’s edition of Politico: “Four percent of 4,600 private-sector employees surveyed this fall by the Ethics Resource Center said they witnessed improper contributions to campaigns and parties. By comparison, only 1 percent of respondents reported these transgressions in the group’s previous study, completed in 2009.”

For the full story, read “Ethics Study: More Employees Report Seeing Illegal Donations” by Janie Lorber in Politico.

NEW MEXICO: The federal district court in Albuquerque has issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of state limits on financial contributions to be used in federal campaigns and for independent expenditures in state races.

The contribution-limits law, which took effect at the conclusion of the 2010 election cycle, limits contributions to non-statewide candidates for office to $2,300 per election from any entity except a political committee, which can give $5,000 to non-statewide candidates. It limits contributions to statewide candidates for office, political action committees and political parties to $5,000 per election from individuals and groups.

The preliminary injunction is not a definitive ruling tossing any of the limits, but it is a temporary stay against the enforcement of non-statewide and independent expenditure limits based on findings that the plaintiffs were likely to be successful in their challenge to those limits, that they faced irreparable damage if the injunction wasn’t granted, and that the injunction serves the public interest.

The injunction was widely anticipated in light of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United. Limits on contributions to candidates for state office and to groups intending to spend money on state races in coordination with candidates remain in place.

On Monday a bill passed the New Jersey Senate that would prohibit political fundraising by any candidate on any public property in the state.

The legislation has gone to the Assembly and if it is passed, it would have to be signed by Governor Chris Christie.

You can find the story in the article “N.J. Senate passes bill banning political fundraising on all public property” by Christopher Baxter in the Star-Ledger.

With text ads, graphics ads, and even YouTube videos at their disposal, SuperPACs have a powerful tool with Google’s AdWords’ search-based advertising platform as a way to get their messages out.

This article on techPresident explores how Google is gearing up for big ad sales and what this may mean for the 2012 election cycle. Be sure to read “Google’s Preparing for Super PAC Spending Online in 2012” by Sarah Lai Stirland.

The practical result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s January 21, 2010, Citizens United decision allows corporations, labor unions, and others to make independent expenditures and electioneering communications regarding candidates without restrictions.

We are approaching the second anniversary of Citizens United. We said at the time of the decision the biggest impact would come when states chose to react – or not react – to the decision. We have tracked what the states are doing – whether the state has passed new laws, clarified existing laws, or has bills pending.

Be sure to take a look at the essential and up-to-date report we have made available on our website regarding how the states are reacting to Citizens United.

Just in time for the second anniversary of the Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Sunlight Foundation is crafting a bill that would require disclosure of the money behind independent expenditures, SuperPACs, and more. Called the Stop Undisclosed Payments in Elections from Ruining Public Accountability in Campaigns Act, the text of the bill (in its current form) can be found here.

According to the announcement on their website, the SUPERPAC Act would require the following:

• Ensure disclosure of donors who fund independent expenditures and electioneering communications made by Super PACs or other 501(c) organizations. Donors giving to an organization for other purposes may remain anonymous if the organization establishes separate accounts for non-election related spending.

• Require real-time, online disclosure of all reports. Data must be in searchable, sortable, machine-readable formats and reports must include unique IDs for all filers.

• Require disclaimers (stand-by-your-ad statements) and identification of top funders in the ad.

• Require registered lobbyists to report their spending on independent expenditures and electioneering communications.

• Require all candidates and committees to file electronically with the Federal Election Commission.

The organization is encouraging input from the public in order to improve the proposed legislation via publicmarkup.org.

Be sure to read “Campaign-finance regulations go before high court” by Peter Wong in the Statesman Journal.

According to the article: “Justices of the Oregon Supreme Court are pondering whether the state should enforce campaign-finance regulations that Oregon voters approved in 2006 despite their rejection of a companion constitutional change in the same election. … Measure 47 would have limited individual contributions — to $500 in statewide contests and $100 in all others — and barred corporate and union contributions. It also would have set limits on contributions to all types of political committees.”

Photo of the Oregon Supreme Court courtroom doors by Aboutmovies on Wikipedia.

Federal campaign contributions are prohibited from individuals living in the U.S. but not admitted for permanent residency, the Supreme Court affirmed today.

The Supreme Court, through a summary disposition, upheld a lower court ruling finding aliens who are in the United States on temporary work visas may not make political contributions to federal candidates or political parties, as proscribed in 2 U.S.C. §441e and its implementing regulations.

Bluman v FEC was brought on behalf of two plaintiffs, a doctor in residency and a recent law school graduate, both citizens of other countries. They argued the Court’s earlier Citizens United v FEC decision mandated allowing financial political contributions by the plaintiffs as part of their protected free speech.

In upholding the law and denying the plaintiff the relief they sought, the lower court had written in its decision, “It is fundamental to the definition of our national political community that foreign citizens do not have a constitutional right to participate in, and thus may be excluded from, activities of democratic self-government.”

Today’s one-line summary disposition by the Supreme Court affirms the lower court’s holding without judicial opinion.

Photo of the U.S. Supreme Court Building by Joe Ravi on Wikipedia.

“Ethics watchdog alleges that Gingrich might have violated lobbying laws” by Rachel Leven in The Hill.

“Super PACs: The WMDs of Campaign Finance” by Ben Heineman, Jr. in The Atlantic.

“Rick Santorum, ‘Stealth Lobbyist’” by Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross on ABCNews.com.

“More women seeking, achieving greater political clout in Wisconsin” by Michael Louis Vinson in the Appleton Post-Crescent.

“SCOTUS expected to weigh Montana campaign finance appeal” by Robin Bravender in Politico.

“State GOP accused of campaign finance violations” by Brad Schrade in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The Joint Standing Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs of the Maine State Legislature has killed LD 120, a bill aiming to stop gubernatorial candidates from participating in the state’s clean elections program.

“An Act to End Taxpayer-funded Campaigns for Gubernatorial Candidates” was held over from last session, but the Joint Committee voted for a recommendation of “ought not to pass” with little debate.

For the full story read “Committee kills bill that would weaken clean election law” by Eric Russell in the Bangor Daily News.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has appealed the judge’s ruling in Alabama Democratic Conference v. Strange, the case overturning a portion of the state ban on the transfer of funds from one PAC to another.

While the appeal is pending, the attorney general is prohibited from enforcing the PAC-to-PAC transfer law against the Alabama Democratic Conference.

In response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, there are states and cities taking action to deny personhood to corporations. The Montana Supreme Court upheld a ban on corporate spending in local elections and a measure was introduced in the Vermont Legislature calling for a constitutional amendment distinguishing the rights of individuals from those of corporations.

The city councils of Los Angeles, Oakland, Albany, Boulder, and New York City are listed in the article as having passed resolutions – some calling for a constitutional amendment –  eliminating corporate personhood, which could affect SuperPAC spending in their jurisdictions.

For the full story, read “Cities, states pass resolutions against corporate personhood” by Bailey McCann on CivSourceonline.com.