The State Ethics Commission has called a public hearing to introduce new rules regarding lobbying complaints. The hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m. on May 9, 2014, at the Capehart Crocker House, Commission Meeting Room, 424 North Blount Street, Raleigh, North Carolina. Oral comments about the new rules will be accepted at this meeting.

Written comments should be directed to Pam Cashwell via U.S. mail at 1324 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699; via fax at (919) 716-1644; or via email at pam.cashwell@doa.nc.gov. The written comment period began March 17, 2014, and will end May 5, 2014.

The city of Lakewood, Colorado revised its campaign finance ordinance; the new provisions are effective April 1.

The most notable change is a shift away from state law. Colorado allows any municipality with an adopted ordinance covering any issue addressed in the Fair Campaign Practices Act to assume jurisdiction over all campaign finance matters occurring within the municipality.

Lakewood will no longer fall within the jurisdiction of the secretary of state, as the ordinance adds provisions concerning contribution limits, registration and reporting requirements, and civil penalties for violations of municipal campaign finance law.

Photo of the Lakewood Civic Center courtesy of Jeffrey Beall on Wikimedia Commons.

The Utah Legislature adjourned its 2014 session sine die on March 13, 2014.

Governor Gary Herbert has until April 2 to veto or sign legislation. The Governor does not possess a pocket veto. May 12 is the last day a veto-override session may begin.

The normal effective date for bills passed this year is May 13.

Photo of the Utah State Capitol by Scott Catron on Wikimedia Commons.

The Service Employees International Union has agreed to pay a $199,000 fine in a settlement agreement arising out of allegations of campaign finance violations. This fine is the second-largest in the history of the state.

The violations were a result of a 2012 ballot question to amend the state Constitution regarding home health care. They included commingling of funds, late filings, not identifying all accounts used, and not providing complete or accurate campaign statements.

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said of the settlement agreement, “This agreement reflects our commitment to transparency and accountability in the campaign finance process, especially in an election year.”

The Senate passed a bill to widen the ability of lobbyists to provide campaign contributions. Senate Bill 655 allows a lobbyist to deliver or personally make political contributions as early as April 15 of a general election year. Currently, lobbyists must wait till June 1 to personally make contributions.

A proposal to allow lobbyists to deliver campaign contributions during a floorperiod did not pass. The bill now goes to the Assembly.

Georgia lawmakers and lobbyists are adapting new gift limits to old reporting methods while the ethics commission attempts to draft rules. House Bill 142 established the first-ever limit on lobbyist spending by capping the value of a gift a lobbyist could give a lawmaker at $75.

The bill, effective January 1, 2014, has several exceptions including one to remove the $75 cap for any caucus approved by the House or Senate ethics committees.

Once approved as a caucus, the members can accept a gift greater than $75 without everyone in a caucus attending a dinner, so long as the entire group is invited. Even before committee approval, delegations and more traditional caucuses began accepting expensive meals from lobbyists, leaving lobbyists to figure out how to disclose the spending.

The Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission is still months away from unveiling rules governing the new ethics law.

A new Texas Ethics Commission Rule regarding contributions to direct campaign expenditure-only committees became effective today.

Texas Ethics Commission Rule §22.5 requires a political committee intending to act exclusively as a direct campaign expenditure-only committee to file an affidavit with the Texas Ethics Commission stating the committee intends to act exclusively as a direct campaign expenditure-only committee and will not use its contributions made to it to make political contributions to any candidate for elective office, any officeholder, or any political committee making a political contribution to a candidate or officeholder.

The new rule requires the committee file the statement before it can accept a political contribution from corporations or labor organizations.

The Virginia State Board of Elections is seeking public comment on a proposed change to its campaign finance filing deadline. The Board is proposing moving the deadline for electronic filing from 5:00 p.m. on the due date to 11:59 p.m. on the due date.

The change was proposed by Board Chairman Charles Judd, who said backup in online traffic shortly before the deadline could result in late filings, and the 5:00 p.m. deadline was based on a close-of-business mindset prior to the existence of electronic filing.

The Board will accept public comments through March 26, 2014, and may be submitted at http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/.

Contributions limits will likely remain in place for the entire 2014 election cycle as Illinois Liberty PAC v. Madigan carries on. In July 2012, the Liberty Justice Center filed suit against Attorney General Lisa Madigan, challenging the Illinois Disclosure and Regulation of Campaign Contributions and Expenditures Act on constitutional grounds.

Specifically, Plaintiffs claim the Act violates the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause by exempting political parties from the contribution limits applicable to PACs and individuals, by lifting contribution limits in races where a self-funding candidate or independent expenditure committee spends more than a particular threshold, and by imposing lower contribution limits on PACs than are imposed on corporations, labor unions, and other organizations.

The complaint also challenges the Act’s constitutionality because it classifies legislative caucus committees as political party committees and thereby treats them more favorable than PACs, corporations, and individuals, without valid reasoning.

On March 3, U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman denied Defendant’s motion to dismiss with respect to the treatment of legislative caucus committees but granted the motion with respect to all other challenges.

Although the court suspects legislative caucus committees are sufficiently similar to political party committees for purposes of constitutional analysis, the case remains open to give both sides a fair opportunity to address the issue.

Lawmakers sent Gov. Jerry Brown a bill designed to strengthen campaign finance laws in response to a recent case prompting the largest campaign reporting fine in state history. Assembly Bill 800 gives the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) the authority to audit campaign funds and seek court injunctions to force compliance with its investigations before elections.

The bill is a response to $15 million in anonymous donations given through an Arizona-based nonprofit that funneled the cash to California political action committees through intermediary groups. The FPPC issued a $1 million fine against two of the groups involved.

Lawmakers are considering a bill to block one of the firms seeking to bid on a multibillion-dollar light rail project from winning its bid unless it agrees to pay reparations to Holocaust victims. Delegate Kirill Reznik co-sponsored House Bill 1326 to block Paris-based Keolis from winning a contract worth $6 billion for the state’s Purple Line project.

Keolis is a subsidiary of the government-owned French railway Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF), which has admitted transporting about 76,000 Holocaust victims to concentration camps in Nazi-occupied France.

The bill would expand a 2011 law requiring companies to disclose involvement in transporting victims during the Holocaust.

The Oregon Legislative Assembly adjourned sine die on Friday, March 7. The 2014 session lasted 33 days, 2 days short of the maximum allowed under the Oregon Constitution.

Lawmakers will now turn their attention to campaigning, as all 60 House seats and half of the 30 Senate seats will be up in November.

The Virginia General Assembly adjourned sine die on Saturday, March 8, 2014. The session ended without a state budget, the result of a standoff on whether to expand the state’s Medicaid program. Governor Terry McAuliffe announced he would call legislators back for a special session to begin March 24.

Before adjourning, the General Assembly passed significant ethics reform, limiting gifts from lobbyists, principals, and persons seeking to do business with the state to $250. The legislation also created the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council, tasked with receiving disclosure forms from legislators and lobbyists and enforcing the newly-created ethics laws.

A new semiannual lobbyist reporting schedule will take effect July 1, 2015, with the first report filed under the new framework due December 15, 2015. The new filing schedule does not affect the annual report due July 1, 2014. The final bill awaits signature by Gov. McAuliffe.

Photo of the Virginia State Capitol by Varmin on Wikimedia Commons.

Steve Raborn, the Tarrant County, Texas Elections Administrator since 2006, will be leaving office on March 14. Raborn will next be working for Votec Corporation, a private company dealing with public election-related products and services. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Tarrant County Elections Commission intends to hire Raborn’s replacement before he leaves office.