The Board of County Commissioners passed an amendment to the county’s lobbying ordinance on September 6, 2012. Expenditure reports are no longer required if a lobbyist had no expenditures during the reporting period.

The ordinance previously required expenditure reports to be filed even if no lobbying expenditures were made.

The ordinance will become effective 10 days from the date of enactment.

The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board issued an advisory opinion clarifying the disclosure rules a trust must follow when making a political contribution.

If a trust raises or spends more than $750 for campaign activities, it will have to register with the ethics board as a political committee.

As a political committee, the trust will have to file periodic reports with the board and will also have to identify the name of the trust, the trustee, and the trustor.

The committee that receives the contribution will also to have to disclose the trust, trustee, and trustor on its disclosure report.

The opinion also restricts prohibited contributors, such as corporations, insurance companies, or banks, from giving money or anything of value to a trust that makes campaign contributions.

The advisory opinion was in response to a 2002 advisory opinion which incorrectly allowed trusts to anonymously give money to political committees for the past 10 years.

The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision that Secretary of State Scott Gessler overstepped his authority when he changed the financial disclosure threshold for issue committees to $5,000.

The previous threshold, established by constitutional amendment, required issue committees to register with the secretary of state and file financial disclosures if they accepted contributions or made expenditures of more than $200.

Secretary Gessler argued that the rule change was needed to clarify uncertainty in the law created by a federal appeals court ruling, but the court ruled that the change exceeded his rulemaking authority and voided the rule.

The Board of Supervisors has adopted an ordinance limiting campaign contributions for all county elective office candidates, and increasing public disclosure requirements for independent expenditures.

The new ordinance limits contributions to $3,900 per election cycle from a single source, including corporations, special interest groups, and individuals. The ordinance also requires all county candidates and independent expenditure committees to electronically report contributions and expenditures exceeding $10,000.

The ordinance goes into effect January 1, 2013.

Seal of San Bernardino County courtesy of Jetijones on Wikipedia.

A St. Louis County judge ordered a new election between state Representative Stacey Newman and Susan Carlson for the 87th House District. The new Democratic primary election is scheduled to be held on Monday, September 24, 2012.

Initial results of the August 7, 2012 primary showed Newman had won the election by a single vote, but the St. Louis County Board of Election found irregularities soon after the results were announced. The mistakes occurred at a polling place in Brentwood, where poll workers accidentally handed voters ballots with the 83rd District race between James Trout and Gina Mitten.

During the court hearing, it was revealed that 100 voters in the 83rd District received ballots to vote in the 87th District, while two 87th District residents received ballots for the 83rd District. Judge Michael Jamison cited Revised Missouri Statute section 115.593, which allows the court to order a new election if the evidence provided demonstrates irregularities were sufficient to cast doubt on the outcome of the election.

The state legislature will convene a special session Friday afternoon to approve a flood relief package for parts of the state which were devastated by summer flooding. The session will convene at 2:00 p.m. and must end by 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning.

The legislature will vote on a $167.5 million relief package, but it is expected to pass without issue. Governor Mark Dayton and the legislative leaders have already agreed on the package and the deal restricts any other legislators from making changes to the bill.

Lobbyists and political committees will be paying more for registration when Governor Jerry Brown signs Senate Bill 1001 into law. The bill passed both houses with the two-thirds majority required to amend the state’s Political Reform Act. Political committees would pay $50 to register and lobbyists would pay $100 to register for a biennial session.

The increased revenue will help with maintaining California’s Cal-Access website, which tracks lobbying activity and campaign finance reports. Political committees currently have no registration fee and lobbyists currently pay $50 to register for the biennial session.

Governor Robert Bentley has called a special election to fill the seat for House District 34, currently held by Representative Elwyn Thomas. Representative Thomas was appointed to be executive director of the Alabama Manufactured Housing Commission, and will hold the seat until August 31.

The primary for the seat will by October 23, with a general special election scheduled for December 11 if no runoff is needed. If a runoff election is needed, it will be held December 11, with the general special election to be held January 29, 2013.

Trustees of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) hope to change ethics rules involving vendor contracting.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the new rules would require trustees to disclose relationships with vendors, prohibit trustees from voting on contracts where a vendor contributed $500 or more to a trustee’s political campaign, and prohibit vendors’ contributions while bidding for HISD contracts.

Last October, similar ethics changes were discussed but not implemented by HISD. The trustees are expected to vote on new policies in September.

The Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved campaign contribution limits to take effect January 1, 2013. The ordinance subjects supervisors and countywide candidates to the same limits as state legislative candidates at $3,900 per election cycle from individuals and $7,800 from small contributor committees.

Contributions or expenditures of $10,000 or more to candidates and independent expenditure committees will now be disclosed electronically. Currently, state law requires disclosure for amounts greater than $50,000 for state and independent committees, but no requirements are in place for local races.

The ordinance goes before the board again Tuesday, August 28, 2012 for adoption.

Seal of San Bernardino County, California by Jetijones on Wikipedia.

California: “Bill would let voters impose greater disclosure requirements on political campaign spending” by The Associated Press in The Republic.

Hawaii: “Cashing In: Hawaii’s Top Ten Campaign Donors” by Lindsey Txakeeyang in the Honolulu Civil Beat.

Louisiana: “Lee Zurik Investigation: Politicians owe the state thousands in fines” by Lee Zurik on WVUE Fox 8 News.

Nebraska: “Campaign finance donation removed from state tax return” in the Lincoln Journal Star.

“Romney’s campaign coffers have $60 million more than Obama’s” by T.W. Farnam in the Washington Post.

“Ask Kim Barker Anything About Campaign Finance (a Reddit Chat)” by Amanda Zamora in ProPublica.

Governor Jerry Brown has told legislative leaders he intends to call a special session to deal with issues related to the federal healthcare law signed by President Obama in 2010.

The special session, planned for December, will give the governor and lawmakers an opportunity to keep working on healthcare proposals that have failed in the current session, which ends August 31, 2012.

Bills passed in a special session can take effect within 90 days of passage rather than at the beginning of the following calendar year.

Photo of the California State Capitol by Henri Sivonen in Wikipedia.

Governor Jack Markell signed three bills into law in an attempt to shine more light onto the state’s lobbyist and campaign finance reports.

Senate Bill 185 requires lobbyists to report any direct communication with a public official concerning a bill, resolution, or regulation pending before the general assembly or a state agency. The report will be due within five days of the first direct communication by the lobbyist. The bill also makes electronic registration and reporting mandatory for lobbyists. The new law will go into effect on January 1, 2013.

House Bill 300 requires a political committee to register within 24 hours after it receives any contribution or makes any expenditure that would cause the aggregate contributions or expenditures to exceed $500 during an election period. It will also increase disclosure and reporting requirements for campaign and third-party advertisements. These new requirements will go into effect June 30, 2013.

House Bill 310 increases the penalties and the number of people who can be penalized for late, incomplete, or missing campaign finance reports. These new penalties will go into effect immediately.

A federal judge has invalidated several campaign finance rule changes made by Secretary of State Scott Gessler. The rules struck down include one providing that organizations are only subject to reporting requirements if more than 30 percent of their spending was for or against a ballot issue, and one that limited penalties for certain campaign finance violations.

The secretary of state’s rule defining electioneering communications was upheld, and two additional rules await a decision.