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

After we celebrated our 30th anniversary in 2023, we found we met milestones with affiliations with our stakeholder groups. One of the first we joined was NCSL—National Conference of State Legislatures. This year will be our 25th year as an exhibitor at its Legislative Summit and our 19th year as a member of the NCSL Foundation.

Why is this important to an organization whose mission it is to bring state legislators together? Because that is where we meet our clients. I know their mission is to meet the legislators… But the Summit is a great way to meet a lion’s share of our clients, which definitely helps us understand the work they do.

In 2024, eight of us from State and Federal Communications will head to Louisville, Kentucky for this year’s Summit. You should see our schedule. Between the summit sessions, exhibitor hours, SGAC member lunch, SGAC Professional Advanced Class, late afternoon receptions for incoming and outgoing NCSL executives, various trade association receptions (shout out to WASRG), the very popular SGAC late night (I have tickets to this hot event), and the great NCSL events at The Kentucky Center, and the closing reception at Churchill Downs.

Let me just say this is not a conference for the weak. We meet every morning for breakfast to discuss our day and divide the conflicting events.

The best is when we meet our clients at our exhibit booth. We “stateandfederalize” people with our popular red, white, and blue lanyards, take a quick photo for future issues of Compliance NOW, and just generally catch up.

We take our relationship with NCSL seriously. Just last week, CEO Tim Storey met with Jean Cantrell and me when we happened to be in Denver for another one of our stakeholder groups, ALEC. We definitely complimented him on the work done to bring more than 5,000 people to Louisville and meet the foundation goal for the year. We also spoke about concerns about the reduced number of days/times for the exhibitors. He listened and we hope to see some improvements in the future.

When the budget for NCSL is one of the top groups we are involved in, we will always make sure we can communicate our concerns. If you are going to Louisville, you will not have to look hard to find us! Hope to see you.

Thank you.

Elizabeth Z. Bartz
@elizabethbartz

Good morning, Denver. The State and Federal Communications team flew to town yesterday and today we are setting up our booth.

In fact, this is our 22nd year at NCSL…Would have been 23 had it not been for the pandemic. It is interesting how things have changed in the 22 years we have been at the conference.

State and Federal Communications considers the NCSL Legislative Summit as our #1 trade show to attend and we make sure our booth is inviting for our clients, and prospective clients, and friends. There really isn’t another conference like it. I am so impressed how bipartisan the programs are how well both parties work together for the states.

This year’s team includes Jean Cantrell, Rebecca South, Gamble Hayden, Jon Spontarelli, Anthony Didion along with my husband, John Chames, to build up our booth, attend sessions, welcome guests to our booth, catching up with our government relations friends from Washington State Relations Group (WASRG) and State Government Relations Group (SGAC), and attend a number of evening receptions.

Years ago…okay decades ago…State and Federal Communications also joined the NCSL Foundation and that has instrumental in meeting so many others not only in government affairs but also state legislators from all over the country.

It really isn’t too late to fly to Denver and register for the great programs, which include Kevin O’Leary—Mr. Wonderful—from Shark Tank along with Charlie Cook widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading authorities on U.S. elections and political trends. And if you are already in Denver stop by Booth 428 and we will “stateandfederalize” you.

Thank you.
Elizabeth Z. Bartz, @elizabethbartz

Check out everything happening, LIVE from the floor of the National Conference of State Legislators Legislative Summit!

If you follow me on Facebook you know moss does not grow under my feet. I travel wherever there are meetings where our fabulous clients are together. I knew a long time ago business was not going to stop in at our office on S. Summit Street in Akron, Ohio.

So, we are heading to the NCSL Legislative Summit in Boston for our 18th year. State and Federal Communications is well represented at the Summit and will be in Booth 730 in the exhibit hall. It is a very busy week in Boston, starting with the NCSL Executive Committee meeting Saturday afternoon.

When State and Federal Communications is involved, we are not the wallflowers in the room.

We are a sponsor to the State Government Affairs Council Late Night at House of Blues, and we have a few tickets left if you need one.

We are also sponsoring the coffee break in the exhibit hall on Tuesday, August 8, which is a help to the legislators who are trying to find a cup of coffee during the long day of sessions. And, in case you saw our Facebook ad about a cup of coffee, I can assure you this is 100% compliant.

We love seeing you out on the road. Do not hesitate to stop by and say hello. We will “State and Federalize” your badge.

State and Federal Communications is headed to the NCSL Legislative Summit in Boston. Stop by and see us at booth 730!

The Tennessee House voted unanimously last week to require legislators to disclose travel expenses provided by anyone with an interest in public policy if the travel was for the purpose of educating a legislator with respect to said policy.

The bill, as originally introduced, would cover national organizations such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), or other organizations where corporations provide scholarship funds for legislators to attend a conference.

The bill would require disclosure of the corporation or entity providing the scholarship or funding, but would not require specific dollar amounts.

The Senate passed an amendment to the House bill to exclude from the definition of travel expense any expense paid for by an organization of elected or appointed state government officials, or any other established and recognized organization serving as an umbrella organization for legislative officials and staff.

It has been placed back on the House calendar for early May.

Here is our March calendar. If you are attending any of these events, please say hello!

March 6-9   PAC National PAC Conference, Miami Beach, Florida

March 7   NCSL Foundation Lunch, Washington DC

March 7   Women in Government Relations Leadership Program Session #3, Washington, DC

March 9   Montgomery County Council – African American Affairs Advisory Group Meeting, Silver Spring, Maryland

March 12-14   NASPO Exchange – How to Market to State Governments, St. Louis, Missouri

March 14   WGR Toastmasters, Washington, DC

March 23   NCSL Foundation and SGAC Annual Roundtable, Washington, DC

March 23-25   American Copy Editors Society National Conference, St. Petersburg, Florida

March 28   WGR Toastmasters, Washington, DC

March 29-31   SGAC National Summit, New Orleans, Louisiana

Here is our December calendar. If you are attending any of these events, please say hello!

December 6-9   NCSL Capitol Forum, Washington, DC

December 6   SGAC Holiday Reception, Washington DC

December 7   Ohio Holiday Reception, Washington, DC

December 7   WGR Holiday Party, Washington, DC

December 8   DDC Advocacy Holiday Party, Washington, DC

December 11-14   COGEL Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana

The 2016 election was about a lot more than just a battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Across the country, states asked voters to consider a variety of ballot measures, including a few campaign finance issues. At the 2016 National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) State Vote seminar held in Washington, D.C., Wendy Underhill recapped a number of those issues and the decisions that voters made on Nov. 8.

Both California and Washington held votes related to the United States Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United vs. FEC. Voters approved ballot measures that urged government leaders to use their power to work to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling, possibly through a constitutional amendment, if possible.

In Missouri, voters approved an initiative establishing limits on campaign contributions to candidates for state or judicial office; while in South Dakota, voters approved an initiative to create a publicly funded campaign finance program and an ethics commission.

For more from the NCSL State Vote seminar you can view some of the presentation slides here. To see a list of ballot measure election results of interest to government relations professionals, take a look at our 2016 election dashboard.

Here is our November-December calendar. If you are attending any of these events, please say hello!

November 16-18   NABPAC Biennial Post-Election Conference, Breakers Palm Beach, Florida

November 19-22   SGAC Leaders’ Policy Conference, Dana Point, California

December 2   Advocacy Leaders Network – Benchmarking, Training, & Next-Level Advocacy, Washington, DC

December 6-9   NCSL Capitol Forum, Washington, DC

December 7   Ohio Holiday Reception, Washington, DC

December 7   WGR Holiday Party, Washington, DC

December 11-14   COGEL Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana

We had an amazing experience at the 2016 NCSL Legislative Summit. Our team offered immediate, up-to-date knowledge to clients throughout the week.

You can benefit from the same expertise. We are always available to answer questions. Contact us today at info@stateandfed.com.

State and Federal Communications is proud to be a sponsor of coffee at the NCSL 2016 Legislative Summit! Stop by the coffee table and say hello!