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

On June 28, the Houston City Council passed an ordinance updating its campaign finance law by delineating clear periods of time when candidates may receive political contributions.

Under the new ordinance, a person may make contributions to a city candidate of up to $5,000 per contribution cycle. A political action committee may make a contribution of up to $10,000 for the same period of time. Each contribution cycle lasts two years, from January 1 (following a general election or after the end of the last contribution cycle) to December 31 of the next year. Additional contributions can be made to a runoff candidate during a separate runoff contribution cycle.

The ordinance, passed on Wednesday, becomes effective tomorrow, July 1.

Photo of downtown Houston by Henry Han on Wikimedia Commons.