Progress Now New Mexico has filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office alleging state Rep. Paul Pacheco failed to disclose a conflict of interest on a major project.

According to the complaint, Pacheco violated state law and House ethics rules when he requested over $1.2 million in state funds for the project managed by his brother, architect David Pacheco.

The Attorney General’s Office is currently reviewing the complaint.

Photo of Rep. Paul Pacheco by Gopmario on Wikimedia Commons.

Gov. Jay Nixon issued a writ of election to fill the vacancy for Missouri Senate District 4. Joseph Keaveny vacated the seat on July 7, 2016, to become an administrative law judge at the Department of Labor.

Interested candidates must file declarations of candidacy with the Office of the Secretary of State by September 7, 2016, for the special election on November 8, 2016.

Gov. Rick Snyder has called for a special primary election to take place August 30.

Candidates will be running to fill the vacancy created after the sudden death of state Rep. Julie Plawecki, who served the 11^th House District.

The general election for the completion of Plawecki’s term will be held November 8, with the winner serving through the end of 2016.

Gov. Robert Bentley has announced a special legislative session will convene August 15, 2016.

The primary focus of the session will be a constitutional amendment allowing a statewide lottery.

Bentley believes the lottery will solve the state’s financial problems.

The Oklahoma Ethics Commission will conduct a third public hearing on Advisory Opinion AOR-16-01 at its regularly scheduled meeting on August 12, 2016.

Questions to be considered pertain to a candidate committee’s use of funds in making expenditures to political party committees. Three draft opinions are now available for review.

The commission will accept written and oral comments about the draft opinions; written comments may be hand-delivered, mailed, or emailed to the commission.

After being challenged in court by a lobbyist and political consultant, a proposed Denver ballot initiative was recently withdrawn by its backers.

The initiative would have lowered contribution limits for elected officials, banned corporate contributions to candidates, and created a public financing system for city elections.

The challenge alleged the initiative violated the single-subject rule for ordinances and the ballot title inadequately summarized the measure and included words intended to sway voters.

The measure was withdrawn for 2016 due to the resources required to fight the legal challenge and to run a fall campaign in such an expensive election season.

A special primary election will be held to fill Mike Hill’s vacant seat in the House of Representatives for District 41.

The vacancy is a result of Hill’s resignation in order to accept an appointment by Gov. Robert Bentley as the commissioner of the state Banking Department.

The special primary will be held October 18, 2016, and the special general will be held January 10, 2017, provided a runoff is not required.

California Treasurer John Chiang announced that municipal finance firms seeking state business will be required to certify that they do not make contributions to bond election campaigns. Firms that fail to provide the certification will be suspended from the state’s pool of acceptable underwriters.

The new requirement aims to stop pay-to-play deals where municipal finance firms offer to fund or provide campaign services in exchange for contracts.

Photo of John Chiang by State of California on Wikimedia Commons.

The treasurer of the state Democratic Party has filed an ethics complaint against Republican nominee for secretary of state, Nora Espinoza.

The complaint alleges violations of state law in her campaign finance reports, specifically failing to report the purpose of some expenditures, failing to identify certain vendors and spending for credit card reimbursement, and failing to properly identify some donors’ occupations, instead stating “business” or “business person.”

Espinoza is running to complete the term of former Secretary of State Dianna Duran, who resigned after misusing campaign funds.

Photo of Nora Espinoza courtesy of the New Mexico Legislature archived website.

The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission announced it will begin a full review of the Municipal Lobbying Ordinance at the next commission meeting on August 9, 2016.

The commission plans to focus the review on possible amendments to key definitions in the ordinance.

Comments and suggestions from the public regarding the Municipal Lobbying Ordinance can be sent to the commission via email to ethics.policy@lacity.org.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson will call a special election to fill the House seat left vacant by the passing of state Rep. Sheilla Lampkin.

The special election will coincide with the November 8 general election.

Voters in Lampkin’s district will be able to vote in both the special election to fill Lampkin’s remaining term and in the general election for the seat.

Gov. Bentley will call a special session. The session will focus on a constitutional amendment allowing a statewide lottery.

Alabama is one of six states without a lottery, and Bentley believes it will solve the state’s funding problem.

The dates of the special session have not been determined.

Photo of Gov. Bentley by Sutherland Boswell on Wikimedia Commons.

The Republican Central Committee has nominated Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb for governor.

On July 27, 2016, 22 committee members, comprised of party insiders and elected officials, choose Gov. Pence’s replacement from four potential gubernatorial candidates.

Holcomb beat out U.S. Reps. Susan Brooks and Todd Rokita and state Sen. Jim Tomes.

Photo of Lt. Governor Eric Holcomb courtesy of the State of Indiana website.

This November, voters will decide whether to approve the addition of two at-large seats on the County Council, increasing the number of council members from nine to 11.

The at-large seats would represent countywide seats instead of a specific district, which proponents argue will combat parochialism.

Neighboring high-population counties, including Montgomery County, frequently use at-large seats to better distribute resources throughout the county.