National:

Election Spending to Exceed $6 Billion Thanks Partly to Jim Bopp

Twitter to Launch Political Advertising

Federal:

K Street Cool to Obama Lobbying Plan

Watchdog Spotlights Lawmaker Ethics in ‘Most Corrupt’ Report

From the States and Municipalities:

Alabama

Former Governor Riley Gets Ethics Training He Pushed

California

California Pension Managers Fined for Unreported Gifts

Connecticut

‘Shock Jock’ Hal Turner Acquitted in Connecticut Threats Case

District of Columbia

Wells Drafts D.C. Bill to Limit Lobbyists’ Influence

Illinois

The Price of Influence in Chicago

Louisiana

Sugar Bowl in Violation of Tax Law with Purchases to Fundraiser

Missouri

T.D. El-Amin Gets Record Ethics Fine

Montana

Supreme Court Looks at Campaign Finance for Political Spending

Oklahoma

Oklahoma High Court Hears Former Senator’s Appeal

Pennsylvania

Soon, Lobbyists Must Register

Wisconsin

Judge: Wisconsin campaign law is unconstitutional

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.

Jim Sedor is editor of News You Can Use.

An amendment to the U.S. Constitution seeking to reverse the ruling of the Citizens United decision has been reintroduced in Congress.

Congressman John Conyers and Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards, co-sponsors of House Joint Resolution 78, want to give Congress and the states specific authority to regulate corporate expenditures on political activity. The amendment reads “nothing in this Constitution shall prohibit Congress and the States from imposing content-neutral regulations and restrictions on the expenditure of funds for political activity by any corporation, limited liability company, or other corporate entity, including but not limited to contributions in support of, or in opposition to, a candidate for public office.”

In Congresswoman Donna F. Edward’s press release she states, “Justice John Paul Stevens warned that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United threatened ‘to undermine the integrity of elected institutions around the nation’ and how right he was. Since that flawed ruling was issued, campaign spending by outside groups including corporations surged more than four-fold to reach nearly $300 million in the 2010 election cycle.”

The amendment also reads “nothing contained in this Article shall be construed to abridge the freedom of the press.”

Salant begins with: “Attorney James Bopp Jr. has spent 30 years fighting limits on campaign spending, and next year’s political landscape could be transformed by his labor: An election season in which at least $6 billion is likely to be spent, more than $700 million higher than 2008.”

The article assesses the increase we are seeing in political spending. It also details Bopp’s landmark legal challenges over the years,  his loyalty to his home state of Indiana, and how free speech is at the heart of his mission.

For the full text of the article, got to “ Election Spending to Exceed $6 Billion Thanks Partly to Jim Bopp.”

Politico today reports that Twitter will be offering the opportunity for political campaigns to run ads on it social network.

The article, “Twitter to launch political advertising” by Ben Smith, says Twitter has had five years of observing online behavior. Like Google with its ads, Twitter wishes to cash in on what should be a great money-maker.

As for the issue of disclosure, Smith spoke with Twitter’s government liaison Adam Sharp, who said disclosure statements probably are not legally necessary for their ads. But Twitter will offer the ability to show “paid for by” information via a mouse-over on the paid Tweet.

It will be interesting to see if any regulation springs from this new development.

The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear the state’s appeal of the 2010 decision in Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. State of Montana finding the state’s ban on direct corporate spending for or against political candidates unconstitutional.

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock found the Montana law unconstitutional.

Attorney General Steve Bullock, who has stated the overturned law guaranteed citizens the right to participate in elections without their interests being overshadowed by corporations, will argue the case.

Federal:

New Rule Would Expand Tight Obama Lobbying Rules to All Federal Workers

‘Revolving Door’ of Employment between Congress, Lobbying Firms, Study Shows

Without Scandal, Lobby Reform Stalls

From the States and Municipalities:

Colorado

Gessler to Help Raise Cash to Pay off GOP Fine

Delaware

Social Media Policy Rejected

Kentucky

Gubernatorial Candidates Back ‘No Cup of Coffee’ Rule

Massachusetts

Disgraced DiMasi Is Given Eight Years

Montana

Conservative Groups File New Lawsuit over Montana Election Laws

New Jersey

Report: Serious flaws in N.J. ‘pay-to-play’ law

New York

Former Hospital Chief Convicted of Offering Bribes to Albany Legislators

North Carolina

Groups Seek to Overturn N.C. Campaign Spending Law

South Dakota

Ethics Rules for State Workers Weak, Critics Say

Texas

Anita Perry’s Salary Comes Indirectly from Governor’s Backers

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.

Jim Sedor is editor of News You Can Use.

This week’s Highlighted Site of the Week is the political contributions database on OpenSecrets.org. The Get local! tracker provides charts, lists, and interactive maps for searches by state or even down to the zip code level.

According to the site, “These profiles can show you who’s making the big political contributions in your state, as well as where the money’s coming from (by city, by zip code, and graphically with our “money maps”). You’ll also find links to a money profile of your senators and representative, with a detailed look at where their campaign warchest came from.”

Each search provides a summary of political contributions, from which you can drill down to top contributors, top recipients, and presidential campaign contributions. You can also search representatives from your own, or other Congressional  Districts. You can also find search results for previous election cycles.

A big thank you goes to State and Federal Communications Research Associate Sarah Kovit for finding this Highlighted Site.

Photo of the U.S. Capitol with the flag by Florian Hirzinger on Wikipedia.

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors will be considering a proposal today which would make electronic filing mandatory for all campaign finance reports filed by candidates and PACs.

The county registrar of voters presently has a system that allows for electronic filing; however, use of the system is optional.

The move to mandatory electronic filing is being proposed as a mechanism to increase transparency.

As The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction holds its first public hearing today, a new bi-partisan bill introduced last week is circulating which would require its 12 members to disclose meetings with lobbyists and special interests between committee members and staff 48 hours after the meeting on the committee website.

The bill also requires the same disclosure before any meetings occur within 48 hours of the November 23 vote and the submission of legislative text on December 2, and disclosure of lobbyist and special interest contributions to committee member campaigns or leadership PACs, and any contributions over $500, all within 48 hours after the donation occurs.

The committee is streaming today’s meeting live, but the bill would also require committee hearings to be streamed live on its website and be televised.

Additionally, the committee’s report and proposed legislative language would have to be published online 72 hours before the vote occurs.

The bill is sponsored by House Representatives Jim Renacci, Dave Loebsack, and Mike Quigley. Representative Renacci’s press release can be found here.

 Federal:

Bipartisan Bill Would Require Transparency of Super Committee

Facing Voter Discontent, Lawmakers Skip Town Halls

Lobbying Groups Take a Stand

Members of Debt Panel Have Ties to Lobbyists

From the States and Municipalities:

California

Campaign Accountant Held in Theft of Funds

Connecticut

Watchdog Agencies Spared as Malloy Nails Down Budget Cuts

Georgia

Ethics Chief Arrives Amid Makeover

Rhode Island

R.I. Rep. Leo Medina Is Charged with a Felony

Washington

Seattle City Employee to Be Fined for Driving City Car to Casino

Wisconsin

Attorney: New Wisconsin ad rules too broad

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.

Jim Sedor is editor of News You Can Use.

On September 8, 2011 New York City’s Campaign Finance Board proposed new rules requiring the reporting of certain independent expenditures.

The proposed reporting rules would cover expenditures that are for the design, production, or distribution of public communications, that are either express advocacy made at any time in an election cycle or an electioneering communication made within 90 days of an election, and that, when combined with all other expenditures made by the independent spender in support of or in opposition to that candidate or proposal, exceed $1,000.

Generally, in non-election years reports would be due semi-annually and in election years eight reports would be required, with expenditures required to be reported within 24 hours during the two weeks before the election.

The Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission has voted to approve the creation of the proposed First Spouse’s Fund to benefit the spouse of the state’s governor.

The Commission voted 7-1 to approve an advisory opinion concerning the legality of collecting private donations to cover expenses of the governor’s spouse.

The fund is designed to reimburse the spouse of the governor for expenses incurred as a result of his or her position as first spouse, while also ensuring there is no conflict with Nebraska gift and contribution laws.

We now provide information on lobbying, political contributions, and procurement lobbying for:

Tempe, Arizona

Evansville, Indiana

South Bend, Indiana

Flint, Michigan

North Las Vegas, Nevada

Reno, Nevada

Fayetteville, North Carolina

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee

The Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission voted unanimously Friday to stop enforcement of a 1992 law aimed at leveling the playing field in state political races. This decision stems from the recent United States Supreme Court decision concerning the state of Arizona where a similar law was deemed unconstitutional.

Under Nebraska’s law, candidates could qualify for “fair fight” money from the state if they adhered to voluntary spending limits and their opponent had exceeded such limits.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, who had recently opined the law would be found unconstitutional if challenged in court, will have 10 days to file suit once the Commission officially notifies his office of the refusal to enforce the law, as is required in Nebraska any time a state agency refuses to enforce a law.

Photo of the Nebraska State Capitol by Decumanus on Wikipedia.