Federal:

Jesse Jackson Jr. Resigns from Congress, Acknowledges Federal Probe

The Un-Super PACs

From the States and Municipalities:

California

Ex-Treasurer to Democrats Receives 8-Year Sentence

California

State Lawmaker Brothers Accused of Money Laundering

District of Columbia

Crafting D.C. Ethics Bill Proving Difficult

Florida

State Ethics Commission Says Jacksonville Council Member’s Poker Party is OK

Georgia

Legislators Ask Governor to Let Indicted Victor Hill Take Office of Sheriff on January 1

Indiana

Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma Criticized for Hiring Lobbyist

Maine

Anti-Gay Marriage Group Fined by Maine Ethics Commission

Missouri

Freebies from Lobbyists Becoming Harder to Track in Missouri

North Carolina

Appeals Court Throws Out Suit Testing ‘Stand by Your Ad’

Pennsylvania

Former Pennsylvania Democratic Leader Mellow Would Set ‘Record’ by Going to Jail

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.

Campaign Finance

“Gessler: Campaign finance laws fail” by Joe Hanel in the Durango Herald.

Lobbying

“Ex-Rep. Davis, Bates Team Up” by Kate Ackley in Roll Call.

“Activists press SEC to expose political giving of US companies” by Kevin Bogardus in The Hill.

Ethics

“Ethics Commission to consider taking over watchdog job from Austin prosecutors” by Mike Ward in the Austin American-Statesman.

Government Tech

“Dashboard Government: The Politics of Measurement” by David Eaves in Politico.

The Ethics Commission will conduct two interested persons meetings following a report comparing the city’s campaign finance, enforcement, and lobbying laws with the laws of the city of Los Angeles.

Discussion topics include whether or not the city should increase pay-to-play restrictions, prohibit political contributions from lobbyists, and whether to adopt more stringent enforcement policies.

The meetings are scheduled for Tuesday, December 4, 2012 at 5:30 p.m. in Room 408 of City Hall and for Monday, December 10, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. in Room 416 of City Hall.

Feedback may also be sent by email to ethics.commission@sfgov.org.

Campaign Finance

“Column: Campaign-finance tweaks can fix big problems” editorial by Peter Schweizer in USA Today.

Missouri: “Missouri House Democrats propose new campaign finance restrictions, stiffer ethics rules” by Chris Blank (Associated Press) in The Republic.

Lobbying

“Lobbying group’s next president expected to fight White House rules” by Kevin Bogardus in The Hill.

“Marlowe to Step Down as Head of American League of Lobbyists” by Andrew Ramonas in The Blog of Legal Times.

“Lobbying World” in The Hill.

“Lobbying, America’s One Truly Unstoppable Growth Industry” by Jim Geraghty in the National Review.

“When ‘Super PACs’ Become Lobbyists” editorial in The New York Times.

“VIDEO: Rep. Shuler Said He Wouldn’t Become A Lobbyist; Now He Will” by David Halperin in The Huffington Post.

Florida: “Slow revolving door to lobbying in Fla. Capitol” editorial in the Orlando Sentinel.

Florida:  “Dorworth has a new career – as a lobbyist” by Jason Garcia in the Orlando Sentinel.

Ethics

New York:  “Ethics panel investigating New York Republican” by The Associated Press in CBS News.

Pennsylvania: “Ethics board fines Philadelphia official for Facebook posts” by Dave Davies in Newsworks.

Redistricting

Montana: “Redistricting panel works on Montana Senate boundaries” by The Associated Press in the Billings Gazette.

Ohio:  “Ohio Supreme Court upholds legislative maps” by Jim Siegel in the Columbus Dispatch.

Outgoing senate president Tom Niehaus has introduced a bill to overhaul the state’s ethics law. Senate Bill 391, if passed, will:

• Increase the lobbyist registration fee to $35 (will take effect 12/1/14 if passed);
• Change the registration period for executive and retirement system lobbyists to two years, expiring on December 31 of even-numbered years (will take effect 12/1/14 if passed);
• Codify the percentage of time a lobbyist must spend on lobbying before being required to register;
• Increase the itemizing threshold for lobbyist expenditure reporting to $100;
• Exclude maintenance of office facilities and compensation paid to legislative agents from the definition of expenditure; and
• Increase the limit on gifts to public officials to $250, aggregated per calendar year.

The bill also provides additional requirements for financial disclosures from public officials.

The Tallahassee city commission has approved the volunteers appointed to the newly-created ethics advisory panel.

The panel will spend six months reviewing the city’s policies on ethics, financial disclosure, and transparency to determine whether to keep the current policies or adopt new ones.

The meetings will be publicly noticed, and the panel has already invited several outside experts to give feedback.

Lobbying

“K Street Files: On a Mission, Lobbying Power to the People” by Janie Lorber and Kate Ackley in Roll Call.

“Lobbying is stepped up on ‘fiscal cliff’ talks” by Maria Recio and David Lightman in the Sacramento Bee.

“Influence game: Election over, campaign continues” by Stephen Ohlemacher (Associated Press) in the Abilene Reporter News.

“With second term assured, Obama aides eye jobs as lobbyists on K Street” by Kevin Bogardus in The Hill.

Florida:  “House Speaker Dean Cannon jumps from legislating to lobbying” by Jason Garcia in the Orlando Sentinel.

Missouri: “Freebies from lobbyists becoming harder to track in Missouri” by Virginia Young in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Campaign Finance

“Bevy of Fixes Might Complicate Efforts To Reshape Campaign Finance System” by Eliza Newlin Carney in Roll Call.

“States crack down on campaigning nonprofits” by Matea Gold and Chris Megerian in the Los Angeles Times.

“Democratic super PACs get jump on 2014, 2016” by Kenneth P. Vogel in Politico.

California:  “2 lawmakers accused of money laundering” by Lance Williams in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Ethics

“Ex-state official loses job in ethics flap” by Laura A. Bischoff and Meagan Pant in the Dayton Daily News.

Wisconsin:  “Campaign, county work intertwined under Walker, prosecutor says” by Steve Schultze and Daniel Bice in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

National:

States Challenge ‘Secret’ Campaign Money

Unions Flexed Muscles in State Campaigns

Federal:

David Petraeus Affair Scandal Tests Washington Code

Forget Creativity: Can lobbying be taught?

From the States and Municipalities:

California

Go Lorrie’s Executives Plead Guilty to Money Laundering in 2011 Mayor’s Race

Florida

Homestead Mayor’s Wife Bought Developer’s Mercedes

Georgia

Governor Denied in Bid to Recover Legal Fees from Watchdog

Illinois

15 Members of Joe Berrios’ Family on County, State Payrolls

Ohio

Fix Redistricting? Sure, But How?

Rhode Island

RI Ethics Board to Require Officials to Disclose Out-of-State Travel Expenses Paid by Others

Rhode Island

Struggling RI City’s Ex-Mayor Pleads Guilty to Federal Corruption Charge over Gifts

Washington

Tea Partiers Fight Disclosure Law in the Ninth

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.

A new executive director for the Oklahoma Ethics Commission may be selected next week.

According to The Oklahoman, commissioners intend to interview the final four applicants, all from Oklahoma, for the position on November 27.

Outgoing executive director Marilyn Hughes, who has held the position for nearly 25 years, is leaving the job on November 30.

Also retiring on November 30 are the Ethics Commission’s general counsel, Rebecca Adams, and its investigator, Darey Roberts. Ms. Adams was general counsel for the last 21 years and Mr. Roberts its investigator for 17 years.

Lobbying

“Targeting the ‘Lobbyist’ Next Door” by Jeanette M. Petersen in The Wall Street Journal.

“K Street Files: The British Are Coming to Venn” by Kate Ackley in Roll Call.

Campaign Finance

“Watchdog group files FEC complaint against Crossroads GPS” by T.W. Farnam in The Washington Post.

“Technology Leaders Endorse Effort to Overhaul Campaign Finance” by Thomas Kaplan in The New York Times.

“California’s political watchdog agency will probe $11 million political donation” by Steven Harmon in the Mercury News.

Michigan: “Campaign finance software updates designed to make filing easier; Candidate committees to experience simpler data entry” in Equities.com.

New York: “NYC Campaign Finance Board Throws The Book At Ex-Brooklyn Councilman Kendall Stewart” by Celeste Katz in New York Daily News.

Ethics

New York: “Annapolis to rewrite ethics rules for elected officials” by Erin Cox in the Baltimore Sun.

“Longtime Oklahoma Ethics Commission workers are honored” by Michael McNutt in the Oklahoman.

National:

If Your Side Lost The Election, Time to Secede from The Union?

Super-Sized Majorities Shift Legislative Power

Federal:

Campaign Finance Reformers Get Back to Work after Record Election Spending

Is Part of Voting Rights Act Outdated, Unfair? High Court to Decide

From the States and Municipalities:

Arizona

Tougher Campaign Finance Disclosure Laws Sought

California

After Election, State Lawmakers and Interest Groups Travel in Tandem

Georgia

Georgia Lawmakers Get Luxury-Box Tickets to Dome

Maryland

Ethics Oversight Board Hasn’t Met in Years

Ohio

Ohio Elections Panel Again Clears Gerald McFaul in Controversial Campaign Finance Case

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Ethics Commission Narrows Field of Applicants

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.

Campaign Finance

“Campaign Finance Reformers Get Back To Work After Record Election Spending” by Paul Blumenthal in the Huffington Post.

“Abramoff, Occupy Wall Street join forces on campaign finance reform” by Megan M. Wilson in The Hill.

“U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown calls for campaign finance reform” by Stephanie Warsmith in the Akron Beacon Journal.

Lobbying

“Lobbyists Woo New Lawmakers in D.C. Mating Dance” by Kate Ackley in Roll Call.

“Incoming freshman lawmakers already have bundlers on K St.” by Kevin Bogardus in The Hill.

“Tax fight sneaks up on K Street” by Bernie Becker and Peter Schroeder in The Hill.

“Rove Super PAC will try lobbying” by Rachel Weiner in The Washington Post.

Florida:  “Cretul, Cannon are lobbyists; former speakers start new firm” by Bill Thompson in the Gainesville Sun.

Ethics

“Secretary of state accused of moving too slow on PAC ethics complaint” by Steve Terrell in the Santa Fe New Mexican.

“Montreal Hackathon Aims to Combat Government Corruption” by Elisabeth Fraser in TechPresident.

Redistricting

“Ohio State Bar Association urges commission to take up redistricting reform” by Kate Irby in the Plain Dealer.

Some federal employees and interest groups are asking lawmakers to lower the cap on non-Department of Defense (DOD) contractor compensation.

Yesterday, in a letter addressed to leaders of the Senate and House Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittees, a coalition of 11 public interest, government accountability, research, and labor groups urged a reduction in the maximum allowable compensation to $400,000 for non-DOD contract employees.

Referring to a Senate version of the 2013 Financial Services Appropriations Bill that is being considered by Congress, the letter argues the cap is needed for “fiscal responsibility and fairness.” The petitioners submit the increase in allowable governmental compensation to contractors has “outpaced inflation by 53 percent” in the last 12 years while the salaries for government employees, the military workforce, and elected officials has stagnated or been frozen.

The letter reasons, “It is grossly unfair to expect working people to pay for the inflated salaries for contractor employees.”

Mayor Joshua J. Cohen has introduced legislation to revise the city’s ethics code, based upon recommendations prepared by the City Ethics Commission. Ordinance 41-12 will grant the commission additional power to impose penalties for ethics violations and will prohibit city officials from accepting tickets to sporting events.

The proposed legislation was reviewed and approved by the State Ethics Commission in late October. Annapolis is required by a 2011 state law to revise certain provisions of its ethics code.