Q: Now that Illinois has semi-monthly reporting, are there any changes to the contents of the report?

A: As of January 1, 2011, Illinois requires disclosure reports to be submitted on the fifth and 20th of each month.  This new schedule began on January 20, 2011.  The Secretary of State’s Office issued a 2011 Expenditure Report Filing Guide concerning how to disclose reportable activity on the Activity Detail Report.  This guide contains some changes for client or lobbying entity reporting.

Individual expenditures made on behalf of covered officials must be itemized with expanded information.  Lobbying entity reports must itemize for each individual expenditure or transaction:

• The name of the official for whose benefit each expenditure was made;
• The name of the client on whose behalf the expenditure was made;
• Whether the expenditure was made on behalf of a client;
• The total amount of the expenditure;
• A description of the expenditure;
• The vendor or purveyor to whom the expenditure was made;
• The address and location of the expenditure if the expenditure was for an intangible item such as lodging;
• The date on which the expenditure occurred; and
• The subject matter of the lobbying activity, if any.

As in previous years, the expenditure reports must also include reporting of lobbying activity that is unrelated to an itemized expenditure.  This requirement is satisfied by identifying:

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Republican Senator Jake Knotts and Democratic Senator Vincent Sheheen have announced they are submitting a bill banning leadership PACs in the Senate. Leadership PACs normally may accept contributions from lobbyists and have different contribution amounts than other campaign accounts.

Senator Sheheen said, “I want to help restore voter’s trust in government. This bill is one step to make sure elected officials answer to the voters, not wealthy contributors.”

Currently there is no member of the Senate who has a Leadership PAC.

A special election has been scheduled for May 3, 2011 to fill three seats left vacant in the Wisconsin State Assembly by legislators who accepted positions in the Walker Administration. In an executive order, Governor Walker ordered the special election for Assembly Districts 60, 83 and 94.

If primaries are necessary in any of the districts, they will be held on Tuesday, April 5, 2011, concurrent with the spring election.

Photo of the Wisconsin State Capitol by Jeff dean on Wikipedia.

Representative Keith Grover has introduced a bill allowing for some campaign contributions to be made during legislative sessions. HB 395 allows for accepting a campaign contribution when the Legislature is in session for an official who is a candidate for federal elective office. The contribution must be placed in a separate account specifically designated for the candidate’s campaign account for federal office.

Currently, no contributions may be made when the Legislature is convened in an annual general session, veto override session, or a special session convened before July 1st of a general election year.

Photo of Rep. Keith Grover courtesy of the Utah House of Representatives website.

Ms. Ravel is the commission’s first chairwoman and has an established career in public service. She has served as counsel for Santa Clara County and most recently with the U.S. Justice Department.

Ravel has indicated she may reverse the recently enacted policy of publishing allegations on the FPPC’s website before investigations are concluded out of consideration for politicians and others who may be wrongfully accused of an infraction and later cleared.

Ms. Ravel replaces Dan Schnur, a Schwarzenegger appointee, atop the commission.

Photo of Ann Ravel courtesy of the Santa Clara County website.

The Virginia General Assembly adjourned sine die on Sunday, February 27, 2011, one day after the originally scheduled sine die adjournment date. The Legislature voted to extend the session in order to finish work on the state budget. This is the sixth time in the last twelve years the Legislature has needed to extend the adjournment date, which includes having adjourned one day later than scheduled in 2010 as well.

Following adjournment, the General Assembly entered into a special session in order to consider drawing new legislative maps in response to the release of the 2010 Census numbers. The special session was immediately recessed until April 4, 2011.

Photo of the Virginia Capitol by Amadeust on Wikipedia.

Directors of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) adopted several new ethics proposals. Among the proposals are rules to regulate fee payments to placement agents, who help funds gain access to CalPERS decision makers, and rules to ensure the same staff members who negotiate investment deals do not monitor their success.

Additionally, the directors approved a requirement for investment partners to hold meetings in modest office settings instead of vacation resorts. The directors postponed decisions on proposals to reduce or eliminate travel, gifts, and other accommodations outside investment firms provide board members, and to impose a two-year “revolving door” ban on certain CalPERS employees.

These regulations being put in place are in line with legislation taking effect earlier this year requiring placement agents to register as lobbyists and regulating how the agents are paid.

Photo of CalPERS headquarters by Coolcaesar on Wikipedia.

Jim Sedor, the editor of State and Federal Communications’ News You Can Use, offers this breaking news item. Jeff Cox, a deputy attorney general in Indiana, has been fired for commenting on his Twitter account that police in Wisconsin should use live ammunition to disperse protesters.

For the full story, here is the article by Chris Sikich and Mary Beth Schneider in the Indianapolis Star: “Indiana official fired for remarks on Twitter” from February 24.

Here is a statement from the Attorney General’s Office on Jeff Cox’s online postings and his being fired.

Robert W. Hayes, Jr., Chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee has introduced a bill to redefine the definitions of committees involved in political campaigns and to add a definition of ‘independent expenditure committee.’ Senate Bill 0593 is a response to South Carolina Citizens for Life, Inc. v Krawcheck, a federal court decision finding the state’s definition of committee unconstitutional.

Based on the court decision, the State Ethics Commission announced in October of 2010 it would not enforce provisions of the state law concerning making independent expenditures. Among the refined definitional changes in the bill is wording specifically detailing the major purpose of the committees, usually for the support or opposition of a ballot issue or election of a candidate. In the bill, an ‘independent expenditure committee’ is defined as an association, a club, an organization, a group of persons or a person whose major purpose is to support or oppose the nomination or election of a candidate to elective office and makes independent expenditures in excess of $5,000 during an election cycle.

This post is an update to two previous Lobby Comply articles by George Ticoras:

“Ethics Commission Not Appealing Decision Striking Down Definition of Committee” from October 19

“South Carolina Defines Committee Too Broadly” from September 20

The new limits, which will be in effect through February 24, 2013, feature very modest increases in each category. For instance, an individual may now donate $11,543.70 to a PAC, a statewide candidate, or state-level legislative candidate; the previous amount was $11,395.56. Maximum individual contributions to statewide parties increased from $34,186.68 to $34,631.11.

Contribution limits for judicial candidates will remain at current levels.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Human Life of Washington challenging Washington’s campaign finance disclosure law.  The Supreme Court let stand without comment a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that upheld the state’s disclosure requirements for political committees, independent expenditures and political advertising.

Human Life of Washington challenged the requirements as a violation of its free-speech rights, as it sought to keep donors in a 2008 campaign opposing an assisted-suicide ballot measure confidential.   The group argued that it was not required to register as a political-action committee and disclose donors because its advertisements did not specifically reference the ballot measure.

Photo of the U.S. Supreme Court by UpstateNYer on Wikipedia.

Governor Dannel P. Malloy has proposed reducing the number of budgeted state agencies from 87 to 57 in a move intended to increase efficiency and save the state money. Included in the reduction plan is a proposal to combine the Office of State Ethics, Elections Enforcement Commission, Contracting Standards Board, Freedom of Information Commission, and Judicial Review Council into a new agency to be named the Office of Governmental Accountability.

While not detailing how these agencies would be capable of functioning as one, or where any cost savings would be seen, Malloy did question in a press release why all these agencies are presently separate, stating “…why are all of the government accountability functions…separate entities when so many of their issue areas and jurisdiction overlap? It just didn’t make sense.”

Quickly voicing their concern against this proposal was the non-profit group Common Cause, noting how each of these “watchdog” agencies presently must keep watch over the other. A statement released by Common Cause noted “If a citizen files a complaint that the Elections Enforcement Commission or the Office of State Ethics has violated the FOI Act, the watchdog agency would be both the respondent and judge. It is unlikely that the new commission would bring ethics charges against itself, and this watchdog agency would undermine the public’s confidence and become a national joke.”

Photo of the state capitol by Ragesoss on Wikipedia.

Starting July 1, those in Orange County, California who are seeking to influence county government will be required to register with the Board of Supervisors. Under the new law, county lobbyists must register within 10 days of commencing lobbying activity and renew these registrations annually.

The registration fee will be $75 for an initial registration and $50 for each annual renewal thereafter. Orange County is the largest municipality in the state without a system for monitoring and disclosing lobbying activity. The regulation does not apply to those lobbying on behalf of nonprofit organizations.

The State Ethics Commission has created a ‘Debtors’ page on its web site, posting the names of lobbyists, lobbyists’ principals, public officials and others who have failed to pay late filing penalties and enforcement fines. The commission hopes to use this publicly available consolidated listing to help ensure compliance with the registration and disclosure requirements under the campaign finance and lobbying laws of the state.

The penalties owed range from $732,400 all the way down to $10. The page includes contact information for anyone appearing in the list to arrange for payment.