Another Virginia special election has been scheduled for January 7, 2014.

The seat in Senate District 6 will be vacated when Sen. Ralph Northam becomes lieutenant governor.

A special election for the Massachusetts Fifth Middlesex Senate District has been called to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of state Senator Katherine M. Clark.

The Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin announced the special primary election will be held on March 4, 2014. The general election will follow on April 1, 2014.

On December 10, 2013, Clark won a special election for the U.S. House of Representatives seat left vacant by Ed Markey.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics is performing maintenance on its Lobbying Online Filing System beginning today.

The system will not be accessible starting Friday at 4 p.m. through Monday until 8:00 a.m.

Filers will be unable to log into the system and no electronic filings or amendments will be accepted while the system is down.

Also, the data contained in the system will not be accessible by the public during the shutdown.

On Thursday, the Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling striking down rules reducing or eliminating disclosure requirements for issue committees, political committees, and more than 500 political organizations. The rules, put forth by Secretary of State Scott Gessler in 2012, also capped penalties for failure to file major contributor reports in the days leading up to an election.

Challengers argued the rules were invalid because Gessler exceeded his authority by effectively amending the Colorado constitution and campaign finance laws passed by the General Assembly.

In addition to finding the rule changes invalid, the appeals court overturned Gessler’s 2012 rule narrowing the definition of “electioneering communications.”

The Hawaii State Ethics Commission issued an advisory last week urging public school employees to refrain from promoting charitable fundraisers at school.

The advisory was issued after Department of Education teachers and administrators were asked to support and encourage students to participate in a popular holiday fundraising campaign for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The state ethics code prohibits state employees from using work time and state resources for non-state related business purposes, which generally include supporting or promoting private charities.

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration is currently at odds with the City Ethics Commission. Earlier in the year the Commission inquired as to whether the Department of the Corporation Counsel has the power and duty to advise city employees on matters of ethics.

In a memorandum to all municipal agencies, the Department announced it does have said authority; the Ethics Commission disagrees.

The administrative decision may potentially result in city attorneys and Ethics Commission attorneys offering conflicting advice. Also problematic, the Ethics Commission is insulated from retaliation as an autonomous agency, whereas city attorneys are afforded no such protection.

If nothing else, the memo is likely to cause public confusion as the relationship between administration and Commission deteriorates. Subpoenas may be on the horizon for Mayor Caldwell’s top executives as the Ethics Commission investigates possible corruption in city hall.

State school board member Bryan Williams resigned after allegedly violating provisions of the state ethics laws by lobbying the government for private interests. The law prohibits an elected member of a state board or commission from receiving compensation for services he or she performs personally on a matter before any state agency.

When first appointed to fill a vacant seat, an exemption in state law allowed Williams to simultaneously serve in a public position while advocating as a lobbyist. Upon his election in 2012, however, the exemption no longer applied. The Ohio Ethics Commission has not confirmed any investigation or future legal actions.

On December 6, the Missouri General Assembly adjourned its first special session sine die.

The legislative body convened earlier in the week to prepare an aerospace industry incentive bill.

Effective immediately, Senate Bill 1 is designed to encourage growth and expansion of the aerospace industry and serves as an incentive proposal for Boeing to build its new commercial 777X airplane within the state.

Photo of the Missouri State Capitol courtesy of RebelAt on Wikimedia Commons.

State Rep. Mike Reynolds filed hundreds of ethics complaints with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. The complaints, filed against candidates and legislators, call attention to what he believes is a lack of enforcement.

Most of the violations involved late filings of campaign contribution and expenditure reports. Reynolds reports he spent three weeks, using computer programs he developed, to analyze Ethics Commission data. Lee Slater, the Oklahoma Ethics Commission’s new executive director, declined to comment on the complaints. –

The Michigan Legislature is considering a bill to amend existing campaign finance law.

The bill would require those making independent expenditures for a candidate or ballot question within 60 days of an election where that candidate or ballot question is on the ballot to file an electronic report with the secretary of state within seven days of making such expenditure.

Failure to file such a report would result in a late filing fee equal to the lesser of the total amount of the independent expenditure or $2,000.

The Delaware Department of Elections has begun construction on a new campaign finance reporting system, which will debut on December 17.

The new system will allow all contribution reports, both those filed online and via paper submission, to be searched with one system. It will allow the public to track all contributions by one donor, an action taking more than 40 hours using the current online system.

The system upgrade does not affect filing or reporting requirements.

City Council President Herb Wesson abandoned a plan to increase the value of gifts lawmakers can accept from companies seeking city contracts, opting to leave the amount unchanged at $100.

In October, City Council instructed the city’s lawyers to draft an ordinance increasing the gift limit to $150, despite a recommendation by the Ethics Commission to prohibit most gifts of any value.

The city’s ethics law will continue to bar lobbyists from giving gifts to elected officials and other high-level decision makers.

Those who do not have business before the city will continue to be permitted to give gifts to elected officials within the state limit of $440 per year. –

Gov. Jerry Brown issued a proclamation declaring a special election for Senate District 23. The primary will be held on March 25, 2014.

If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, a special general election will be held June 3, 2014.

The vacancy occurred following the resignation by Bill Emmerson. Senate District 23 includes portions of Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.

The Government Accountability Board has updated the lobbying website at https://lobbying.wi.gov.

Visitors to the site can search by lobbyist or lobbyist principal to view total lobbying hours by lobbyists and total lobbying expenditures by lobbyist principals.

A lobbyist principal’s entire report can also be accessed, including the subject matter of lobbying efforts.