Comprehensive ethics reform has advanced through the House of Delegates. Senate Bill 649 was passed by the House on February 26 with a committee substitute.

The passed bill included an amendment prohibiting the governor and attorney general from accepting tangible gifts from representatives of companies engaged in litigation with the state. The amendment stems from former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s acceptance of Thanksgiving dinner from Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams, and is designed to prohibit such conduct.

The Senate bill and a similar House proposal will likely be worked into one broad ethics proposal in conference committee before heading to Governor Terry McAuliffe for his signature.

Photo of the Virginia Capitol Rotunda courtesy of Albert Herring on Wikimedia Commons.

A proposed ordinance setting a dollar limit for gifts has advanced out of committee. On February 24, the City Council’s Committee on Law and Government voted to submit the bill for Council action.

The proposed ordinance prohibits gifts exceeding $99 per calendar year to any city officials or employees, and bans all cash gifts.

The ordinance could pass as early as next week.

The Chicago City Council approved an ordinance introduced by Mayor Emanuel requiring every city contractor to report corrupt activity.

The ordinance requires city contractors to notify the city’s inspector general of bribery, theft, forgery, perjury, and fraud they are aware were committed against the city. Knowingly failing to report such activity is a violation of the ordinance.

The ordinance becomes effective on March 5, 2014.

ORESTAR, Oregon’s online campaign finance filing system, is back up and running after a security breach disabled the system for almost three weeks.

All saved passwords have been deleted. Users must create a new password when logging in to ORESTAR.

Deadlines for PAC filings have been extended due to the security breach. The new deadline for all transactions formerly due between February 4 and February 26 will now be March 7 at 11:59 p.m.

Regular deadlines will apply to all transactions due on February 27 or later.

By a vote of 6-1, the Bergen County Board of Freeholders has, for the second time in less than a year, reformed the county’s pay-to-play laws.

Essentially reversing the May 2013 bill, Monday’s resolution lowers the allowed contribution from no-bid county contractors from $5,200 to $2,000.

Freeholder John Felice, the only individual to vote against the bill, worries it may result in only wealthy citizens running for office.

A Missouri judge recently denied a request to compel Gov. Jay Nixon to set special legislative elections. County Circuit Judge Dan Green issued a one-sentence written opinion but provided no reasoning for the ruling. After the lawsuit was filed in January, Nixon set special elections to fill three of the four vacancies. He has not called an election to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Ryan McKenna.

McKenna left office in December after being appointed by Nixon to serve as Labor Department Director.

Photo of Gov. Jay Nixon courtesy of Bernard Pollack on Wikimedia Commons.

Lawmakers approved a pair of bills to strengthen the authority of the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) and require political nonprofits to reveal their donors. The Assembly approved Senate Bill 27, requiring tax-exempt nonprofits actively involved in elections to comply with campaign finance reporting requirements.

The bill also requires campaign committees raising more than $1 million to maintain an accurate list of the top 10 contributors of $10,000 or more. Those lists would be placed on the FPPC website before elections.

The Senate approved Assembly Bill 800 to give the FPPC more enforcement powers including the ability to audit campaign reports before elections and for two years after elections. Both bills return to their original house for votes on amendments.

If signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, the changes would be effective July 1, 2014.

Photo of the California State Capitol courtesy of Sascha Brückon Wikimedia Commons.

The Legislature adjourned sine die on Thursday, February 20, 2014.

A bill to expand revolving door restrictions passed the House, but did not move out of the Senate Rules Committee.

Gov. Susana Martinez has until March 12 to act on legislation. Any bill failing to reach her desk is now dead.

On February 13, the Texas Ethics Commission issued an advisory opinion concerning the requirements of lobbyists to disclose office holders or candidates compensating or reimbursing the lobbyist for services from political contributions.

In Ethics Advisory Opinion No. 515, the commission held that while a lobbyist must disclose in a registration the full name and address of a candidate or officeholder who uses political contributions to compensate or reimburse the lobbyist, he or she is not required to disclose compensation or reimbursement received by an entity for services rendered by someone other than the lobbyist or a person acting as an agent of the lobbyist.

Lobbyists must disclose the full name and address of a candidate or officeholder who uses political contributions to compensate or reimburse an entity that employs or hires the lobbyist to render services for the candidate or officeholder.

A lawsuit was filed in federal court this week challenging Louisiana’s $100,000 limit on contributions to political action committees (PACs).

The plaintiff in the suit is an independent expenditure-only PAC called The Fund for Louisiana’s Future. It is arguing that, because it only makes expenditures independent of any candidate, the limit violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

According to The Advocate, the PAC was created to support Sen. David Vitter’s future bid for governor or re-election bid for Senate.

Vermont may soon move off the list of states without an independent ethics commission if new legislation passes this spring.

House Bill 846 establishes the Vermont Ethics Commission, tasked with investigating complaints relating to breaches of legislative ethics law.

The bill also includes revolving door provisions and ethics guidelines for legislators and executive branch employees.

Lawmakers agreed by resolution to consider a bill aimed at avoiding a special election for the lieutenant governor’s office, which was vacated by former Lt. Gov. Mark Darr following ethics violations. Senate Bill 139 would enable Gov. Mike Beebe to call a special election “as soon as practicable” if calling a special election within 150 days of the vacancy would be impracticable or burdensome.

The bill was introduced in an effort to avoid the cost of a special election until the general election on November 4, 2014. The resolutions required a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate because they occurred during the fiscal session.

Gov. Mary Fallin called for special elections to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Jerry Ellis. Ellis left two years remaining in his four-year term because state legislators can serve a maximum of 12 years.

The special elections will be held at the same time as the state’s regularly scheduled elections. The primary will be held on June 24, a potential runoff would be August 26, and the general election will take place on November 4.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon called an August 5 special election to fill three vacant seats in the state House of Representatives. The announcement came after being confronted with a lawsuit seeking to compel him to call special elections for four legislative seats. He has yet to set an election date to fill the Senate vacancy.

On February 13 House Republican Mike Moon filed articles of impeachment against Nixon for the delay in filling all four vacancies – a delay he says has denied representation for almost 300,000 Missourians.