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.

The Fair Political Practices Commission will hold an interested persons’ meeting on Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. to discuss the proposed text message contribution regulation.  The commission has also issued a notice to adopt the text message regulation at a public hearing to be held on or after October 13, 2011.

The proposed regulation permits candidates and committees to raise funds through low-dollar text message contributions. For the purposes of the regulation, contributions are deemed to be received on the date that a mobile fundraising vendor, acting as an agent of the candidate or committee, obtains possession and control of the funds. Once received by the mobile fundraising vendor, contributions must be promptly reported to the candidate or committee’s treasurer or a designated agent thereof no later than the closing date of any campaign statement the candidate or committee is required to file.

For text message contributions of less than $25, candidates and committees will be required to maintain the dates and daily totals of contributions. For contributions exceeding $25 but less than $100, the proposed regulation requires that candidates and committees record the full name and street address of the contributor, the cumulative amount received from each contribution, and any information regarding an intermediary where applicable. When a contribution exceeding $100 is received, the regulation requires that the candidate or committee maintain a record of the contributor’s name and address, occupation, employer, the cumulative amount received from the contributor, and any information regarding an intermediary where applicable.

Under the proposed regulation, a contribution made by text message will be attributed to the person who is subscribed to the cell phone number from which the contribution is received.

National:

National Organization for Marriage Repeatedly Rebuked For Disclosure Violations

Federal:

Super Committee and K St. Creativity

From the States and Municipalities:

California

California Lawmakers-Turned-Lobbyists Cultivate Relationships under the Dome

Florida

Firefighters’ Fundraiser Gets Ethics OK, with Difficult Restrictions

Georgia

State Utility Commissioner’s Pursuit of Masters Tickets Improper, Critics Say

Nebraska

In-Session Fundraisers Questioned

Nevada

Fake Twitter Accounts Force Their Way onto Political Landscape

New Jersey

How an Irate Response to a Carl Lewis E-Mail Cost an N.J. Assemblyman His Job

New Jersey

Union Sidestep Donation Limits

Pennsylvania

Experts Question Use of $400,000 in Private, Anonymous Funds to Buy out Philadelphia Superintendent

Texas

Perry’s Fundraising for Governors Group Draws Scrutiny

Washington

Longtime Government Worker Now PDC Director

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.

Disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show that U.S. House and Senate candidates set a new record in campaign fundraising for the first half of 2011. The total was more than $285 million dollars.

Here is the Federal Election Commission’s news release from August 24. The FEC also has great interactive campaign finance maps for both Presidential Campaigns as well as House and Senate Elections. The maps offer campaign finance information down to the zip code level for the current and previous election cycles.

You can read Emily Goodin’s story “House and Senate candidates raise $285.2 million in first half of 2011” from The Hill.

Alex Knott offers “Election Fundraising Sets Records in First Half of 2011” in Roll Call.

The Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission has named Holly LaBerge as its new Executive Secretary.

LaBerge, a former Budget Analyst for the House Budget Office and Director of Government Relations for the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, beat out Jerry R. Presley, a former lobbyist, government official, and private consultant, for the position.

The commission interviewed each candidate at its meeting Friday before meeting in private to make a decision.

LaBerge takes over for Stacey Kalberman, who left the commission over disputes concerning the agency’s budget and her request for subpoenas to investigate Governor Nathan Deal’s campaign.

The Wall Street Journal reported last night that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz will not give a penny in campaign contributions to incumbents until Congress comes up with a long-term solution to the debt problem. According to the article, 100 other heads of corporations have joined him in that pledge.

Schultz also made a plea to business leaders to start hiring again.

In “Starbucks CEO: Pledge to Halt Campaign Donations Gains Steam,” Julie Jargon names a few of the other CEOs following Schultz in the promise.

Could a movement be brewing?

The Federal Election Commission has entered into a Stipulated Order and Consent Judgment with the National Defense PAC (NDPAC) agreeing not to enforce some provisions of law regarding contribution limits for political committees and candidates.

These provisions, 2 U.S.C. §§ 441a(a)(1)(c) and 441a(a)(3), were ruled unenforceable by the District Court in a prior decision, Carey v. FEC. Prior to the District Court’s decision, the FEC had been unable to issue a binding resolution for an earlier NDPAC advisory opinion request.

As a single committee, the NDPAC may now contribute directly to candidates and political committees, and make independent expenditures, separating the funds only by using two separate bank accounts. It must maintain the statutory limits on the solicitation of funds used for direct contributions while it may simultaneously seek unlimited funds for use in their independent expenditures. While the Stipulated Order and Consent Judgment specifically regards the FEC withholding enforcement of the law as it applies to NDPAC, it does not address other PACs utilizing the same procedures for solicitation and separation of funds.

This post updates a previous article by George Ticoras, “One PAC is Enough” from June 15, 2011.

State and Federal Communications  is the most trusted source in the nation for comprehensive, accurate, and timely compliance information lobbying laws, political contributions, procurement lobbying, and Canadian Compliance for U.S. Companies.

Our Executive Source Guides cover every important jurisdiction – federal, all 50 states, and more than 200 municipalities. We cover Canada too!

For the latest information on campaign finance requirements in Michigan, the state’s Bureau of Elections now has a Twitter account to keep you informed. The Twitter feed will include information about reporting deadlines, electronic filing updates, and announcements regarding training sessions. You can follow the Twitter account at @MichCFR.

According to a Michigan Department of State press release, “Secretary of State Ruth Johnson announced today that the Bureau of Elections is launching a Twitter account to alert candidates, committees and those interested in campaign finance of reports detailing campaign contributions and expenditures.”

For another way to receive the latest information, the release also mentions that the Secretary of State also has a Facebook presence.

The Council of the District of Columbia has passed the Campaign Finance Reporting Emergency Amendment Act of 2011 which requires increased campaign finance reporting in the year preceding an election, commensurate with the change of the September primary election and the February presidential preference election to the 1st Tuesday in April in an election year.

A political committee supporting a candidate or candidates participating in the April 3, 2012 primary election must file reports of receipts and expenditures in the 7 months preceding the date on which the election is held.

Political committees supporting a candidate or candidates participating in the April 3, 2012 primary election must now file reports of receipts and expenditures on October 10, 2011; December 10, 2011; January 31, 2012; March 10, 2012; and March 26, 2012.