Campaign Finance

Oregon: “The City’s Public Campaign Financing Program Allowed Candidates with Little Support to Snag Taxpayer Dollars” by Sophie Peel for Willamette Week

Ethics

California: “Assessor Reports $1M Behested Payment, Biggest Charitable Donation Made at a Local Elected Official’s Request” by Jeff McDonald (San Diego Union-Tribune) for MSN

National: “Trump Transition Team Ethics Pledge Appears to Exclude President-Elect” by Betsy Klein, Steve Contorno, and Arlette Saenz (CNN) for MSN

Florida: “Tickets to Master’s Tournament Trigger Feud in Hillsborough County Politics” by Jack Evans and Justin Garcia (Tampa Bay Times) for MSN

Indiana: “Nonprofit Braun Transition Group Follows Former Governors’ Model” by Leslie Bonilla Muñiz (Indiana Capital Chronicle) for Yahoo News

Legislative Issues

National: “Supreme Court to Examine Power of Congress to Delegate Authority” by Justin Jouvenal (Washington Post) for MSN

Lobbying

National: “As His Power Grows, D.C. Wonders: How do you lobby a man like Elon Musk?” by Cat Zakrzewski, Faiz Siddiqui, and Pranshu Verma (Washington Post) for MSN

New York: “N.Y. Ethics Commission Faces New Constitutional Challenge” by Brendan Lyons for Albany Times Union

Political contributions from federal lobbyists and political action committee (PACs) are now being accepted by the Democratic National Committee (DNC). A self-imposed ban on receiving contributions from lobbyists and PACs began in 2008 during the presidential campaign. Lobbyists and PAC representatives are still prohibited from attending events featuring the president or vice-president or their spouses, according to The Hill.

Mark Paustenbach, deputy communications director for the DNC, explained the change to The Washington Post by saying, “The DNC’s recent change in guidelines will ensure that we continue to have the resources and infrastructure in place to best support whoever emerges as our eventual nominee.” Last year it was announced the DNC would accept contributions from lobbyists and PACs for its party conventions.

A ban on contributions from lobbyists and PACs will be lifted for the 2016 Democratic National Convention. The ban was imposed by the party in 2008.

According to the New York Times, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) will accept these once banned contributions for both the convention and for joint fundraising with presidential campaigns. Holly Shulman, a DNC spokeswoman, said the party will “not [be] accepting donations from political action committees and lobbyists for its general fundraising operations.”

Photo of the Philadelphia skyline by Massimo Catarinella on Wikimedia.

ALABAMA: The Alabama Democratic Conference has filed a lawsuit against Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange and two district attorneys alleging that a new Alabama law violates the Conference’s first amendment rights by placing restrictions on political contributions.

The new law bans the transfer of money from PACs, 527 groups, and private foundations to other PACs, 527 groups, and private foundations.

Here is a campaign finance news item from last Friday. According to an article in the New York Times, the Democratic Party has announced it will not use corporate money for their national convention. The article said there will still be a chance for corporate in-kind contributions, and they can still pay for parties on the periphery of the official event.

For the full story, see “Democrats Promise No Corporate Money for Convention” by Michael Shear in the February 4 issue of the New York Times.

Photo of the 2008 Democratic National Convention by Qqqqqq on Wikipedia.