The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) has adopted updates to regulations affected by the recent enactment of Senate Bill 27. The new law closes “dark money” loopholes used to avoid disclosure of contributors by requiring large donations from nonprofits and other multipurpose organizations to be reported.

The new regulations modify the definition of “contribution” to include a payment made to a multipurpose organization when used for a contribution or expenditure by the multipurpose organization. Large transfers from one multipurpose organization to another will now require the original source of the funds to be disclosed. The top 10 contributors to state committees will be posted online by the FPPC.

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie is seeking candidates and recently expediting appointments for various state boards and commissions. More than two dozen volunteer members resigned following the enactment of Senate Bill 2682, a bill requiring them to make their financial disclosure statements available to the public as well as to the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.

Originally on his list of bills to veto, Abercrombie allowed the financial disclosure bill to become law without his signature.

The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, the State Land Use Commission, the Agribusiness Development Corporation, the Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources, the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, and the University of Hawaii Board of Regents are among those having lost members as an unintended consequence of the bill aimed at increasing transparency. Some were forced to cancel meetings because they lacked enough members for a quorum.

The Ethics Commission has produced a summary of changes to the city lobbyist ordinance taking effect July 26, 2014. Ordinance File No. 130374 expands the definition of “lobbyist” and requires random audits of lobbying reports.

Meeting the registration threshold of a lobbyist will now depend on the number of compensated contacts with a covered official rather than the level of compensation received. The lobbying exemption for contractors and their attorneys will be limited to in-house officers and employees. Outside consultants communicating with public officials regarding contract bidding and negotiating will be subject to the registration and reporting requirements of lobbying.

The commission’s summary is available here. 

New restrictions on legislative lobbying expenditures take effect Monday, July 14, 2014. House Bill 28 includes a “no cup of coffee rule” to eliminate the gift exception allowing legislative lobbyists to spend $100 on food and beverage for a legislator.

Legislative lobbyists and their employers are now also prohibited from providing out-of-state transportation or lodging for legislators.

Employers of legislative lobbyists are prohibited from making campaign contributions during a regular legislative session and required to disclose the cost of advertising supporting or opposing legislation.

The Ethics Commission has voted to prevent independent committees from using material produced by candidates in committee advertisements.

The amendment to the Election Campaign Control Ordinance (ECCO) will classify a committee’s otherwise independent payment as a “contribution” if the payment is for an advertisement duplicating materials found in a candidate’s advertisement or on the candidate’s website. Such payments would be subject to both contribution limits and source prohibitions.

The amendment now must be considered by City Council. Approval is not expected before September, 2014.

Photo of the San Diego skyline courtesy of Tomcio77 on Wikimedia Commons.

A special election is expected for Florida’s House District 13, a district covering the heart of Jacksonville and its surrounding areas. Incumbent state Rep. Reggie Fullwood was projected to run unopposed, but problems were found with his qualifying papers. Jacksonville City Council member Johnny Gaffney now plans to enter the race.

Gov. Rick Scott must determine the date of the special election, although Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland projects the primary for the special election to be November 4, 2014. If necessary, a runoff would likely be in December 2014.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed Senate Bill 2629 on Monday, July 7, amending Section 97-3 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. Effective immediately, registered lobbyists, lobbyist employers, and certain individuals are required to file statements of expenditures with the state ethics commission within 30 days of adjournment sine die of any special session of the Legislature.

Individuals who are not lobbyists or lobbyist employers must only file if spending $750 or more in any six month period for the purpose of influencing legislative or administrative action, or a ballot issue, by communicating with public officials or engaging in grassroots activity.

The report must cover the period from May 1 through adjournment sine die of the special session and applies to and includes only those expenditures and contributions relating to legislative action considered during said special session.

The special report is an addition to, but does not take the place of, all other reporting requirements.

A federal lawsuit was filed July 7, 2014, challenging certain provisions of Maine’s campaign finance law. Sections 1015(1) and 1015(2) of Chapter 21-A of the Maine Revised Statutes limit political contributions to a gubernatorial candidate from an individual, political committee, corporation, or business entity to $1,500 in any election. Therefore, a candidate can collect a total of $3,000 from each contributor because there are ordinarily two elections – a primary election and a general election.

The lawsuit, filed by four supporters of gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler, alleges this provision of law is unconstitutional on First and Fourteenth Amendment grounds. Cutler is running as an independent and therefore did not participate in the state’s June 10 primary election. As a result, the law only allows contributions of $1,500 per contributor because Cutler will only participate in one election. The suit alleges minor parties, including independent candidates, are at a disadvantage under the existing scheme.

Defendants named in the case include the Maine Ethics Commission, Walter McKee as chairman of the commission, and Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap. The suit seeks a permanent injunction ceasing enforcement of the $1,500 per election limit as applied to independent candidates.

If granted, the injunction would apply to the 2014 election cycle.

On Wednesday, July 2, a federal appeals court affirmed the judgment of a district court; independent expenditure committees can lose the right to make unlimited expenditures in certain circumstances.

In Vermont Right to Life v. Sorrell , the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled a state-level super PAC was not functionally distinct enough from a sister committee actively contributing to candidates and parties. Whether a group is functionally distinct from a non-independent-expenditure-only entity depends on factors including, but not limited to, the overlap of staff and resources, the lack of financial independence, the coordination of activities, and the flow of information between the entities.

Creating two committees and managing two separate bank accounts is not sufficient to prove the committees’ funds are actually treated as separate. To alleviate the danger of quid pro quo corruption, contribution limits may apply to super PACs when they are not functionally distinguishable from committees directly contributing or coordinating expenditures with campaigns.

State Sen. Chris McDaniel is questioning the integrity of Mississippi’s GOP Senate primary runoff. McDaniel refuses to concede the election to U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran and claims some election activity was unfair, unethical, and illegal.

Evidence suggests hundreds, if not thousands, of voters crossed party lines between primary and runoff elections. Mississippians who voted in the Democratic primary illegally cast votes in the Republican primary runoff.

State election law experts speculate the election results will stand because it is impossible to assume all the irregular votes went to Cochran. Additionally, a strong public policy interest exists in accepting the finality of the runoff election; questioning the integrity of or redoing elections is a slippery slope.

Nevertheless, a conservative group known as True the Vote filed suit in federal court on Tuesday, July 1, against the Mississippi secretary of state and the Republican Party of Mississippi to challenge the results of the runoff.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Legislative Ethics Commission announced J. William Roberts has been named acting legislative inspector general.

Roberts is a former U.S. attorney and served as legal counsel to former Gov. Jim Edgar. He will take over for Tom Homer, who served 10 years following the creation of the position as part of the 2003 Ethics Act.

Roberts will be responsible for investigating complaints of rule violations, abuse of authority, and other forms of legislative misconduct.

Tom Homer stepped down from his post as legislative inspector general at the end of June. Homer, an advocate for modern ethics reform, took the job in 2004 and served as the state’s first and only legislative watchdog.

It is unclear who will replace him; the inspector general is appointed by a resolution approved by three-fifths majorities in both houses of the General Assembly.

Photo of Illinois State Capitol by Martin Haase on Wikimedia Commons.

The 147th Delaware General Assembly adjourned sine die Tuesday, July 1, 2014. In keeping with longstanding Delaware tradition, legislators worked into the early hours of the morning attempting to pass dozens of bills before the end of the session. Noteworthy among those bills are measures to provide $10 million in relief to the state’s three ailing casinos and to toughen penalties on DUI offenders.

On July 1, the maximum value for food, drink, or refreshment an individual may provide to an elected official or public employee in Louisiana for a single event increases from $57 to $58.

This threshold value is adjusted each year by the Board of Ethics to reflect changes in the consumer price index.