The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down three provisions of Alaska’s campaign finance law.

In Thompson Vs. Hebdon the plaintiffs challenged four of the state’s finance contribution restrictions.

After being remanded back to the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals Court from the United States Supreme Court, the 2-1 panel rejected the $500 per-year limit on the amount of money an Alaskan can contribute to a particular candidate, the $500 per-year limit on contributions to a particular political group, and the $3,000 limit on the amount of money a candidate can accept from all out-of-state donors combined in a given year.

Until the legislature passes a new restriction, individuals may give unlimited amounts to Alaskan politicians.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson reinstated the states’ general health emergency July 29 and called for a special legislative session to convene in the first week of August.

Hutchinson cited staffing shortages at hospitals along with the rising number of COVID cases.

His emergency directs the state to seek help from other states and to ease licensure rules for health care professionals. Huthcinson also contacted the White House for possible assistance.

The special session will amend Act 1002, which prohibits the state government from requiring face masks for most entities, including schools.

The Arkansas Legislature is currently in extended recess and is still considered to be in session for purposes of lobbyist activity reports. Lobbyists who are registered to lobby the General Assembly are required to file a monthly report for any month the General Assembly is in session.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation creating an elected school board for Chicago Public Schools and increasing the size of the board.

The first election will be held in November 2024 to elect 10 board members, with 11 members including the board president to be appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who currently appoints all of the existing board’s seven members.

Chicago voters will elect the full slate of 21 board members beginning in 2026.

House Bill 2908 also includes language to prevent individuals with conflicts of interest from serving on the board and will be effective June 1, 2022.

The North Dakota Ethics Commission unanimously approved an exception to the gift ban for food or beverage with a value of $10 or less, excluding gratuity, purchased for a public official in conjunction with an informal social and educational event.

The purchased food and beverage must be consumed during the event and a state resident must be present but is not required to be the purchaser of the food or beverage.

This new exception is effective immediately.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed Executive Order 127 calling for a special session of the Legislature to begin Tuesday, July 27 to consider a proposal to invest more than $500 million in funding for K-12 schools, the University of Wisconsin and Technical College systems, special education funding, and per pupil aid.

The Hawaii State Senate will convene a special session Tuesday, July 27 to review judicial appointments.

The special session will only address the judicial appointments of Dan Gluck to the Intermediate Court of Appeals and Lesley Maloian to the District Family Court of the First Circuit.

The Senate will convene in a floor session on Wednesday, July 28 at 10 a.m. followed by a separate decision-making meeting of the Judiciary Committee at 10:30 a.m.

Final Senate votes on the appointments are expected on Thursday, July 29 at 11 a.m.

A lobbyist and employer activity report must be filed if expenditures or contributions are made relating to legislative action considered during the special session. Any such report would be due within 30 days of adjournment sine die of the special session covering the period from May 1 through the adjournment sine die date.

The Louisiana Legislature ended its first-ever veto override session July 23 after failing to gather enough support to overturn any of the 28 bills Gov. John Bel Edwards had vetoed.

During the session, which could have lasted until midnight July 24, lawmakers failed to reach the necessary two-thirds majority in each chamber to revive the vetoed legislation.

The most noteworthy proposal, Senate Bill 156, would have banned transgender athletes from taking part in girls’ and women’s sports.

The House voted 68-30 July 21 in favor of overriding the governor’s veto of the bill with two votes shy of the 70 needed to make the bill law.

This does not affect lobbyist reporting.

Pennsylvania State Rep. Margo Davidson resigned from her seat in House District 164 on July 22.

This comes after she was charged with theft, solicitation to hinder apprehension, and election code violations related to her improper use of state funds and improper campaign finance reporting.

House Speaker Bryan Cutler is expected to announce a special election to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term ending November 30, 2022.

Oregon State Rep. Gary Leif passed away this Thursday, having served as the representative of House District 2 since 2018.

Before being appointed, he was elected as the Douglas County commissioner in 2016.

Commissioners from Douglas, Jackson, and Josephine counties will select a replacement from a list of nominees gathered by the Oregon Republican Party.

North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger approved petitions for term limits, changes to the constitutional amendment process, and to recall state House District 24 Rep. Dwight Kiefert.

The term limits petition would limit the governor and legislators to eight years of service, though lawmakers could serve up to eight years each in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The measure also prohibits the Legislature from proposing a constitutional amendment to eliminate the term limits in the future.

The petition to change the process for constitutional amendments would raise voter approval from a simple majority to 60% and limit ballot measures to a single issue.

The petition by a group of lawmakers to recall Kiefert is in response to his vote to expel a colleague accused of sexual harassment earlier this year.

He is one of several representatives who were censured for the vote to expel Rep. Luke Simmons.

Each petition group has one year to gather the required number of signatures.

Louisiana lawmakers will convene for the first veto override session in history as the Republican-dominated Legislature plans to challenge Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ vetoes on a transgender sports ban, a gun rights expansion and as many as 26 other vetoes.

The veto session, which will begin at noon July 20 and must end by midnight July 24, was triggered when a majority of legislators in both the House and Senate withheld their ballots that would have canceled the session.

Only 12 of 39 senators returned ballots to cancel, while 35 of 104 members of the House returned ballots to cancel. One seat is vacant in the 105-members House.

The most often mentioned targets for override have been Senate Bill 156 by Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, to ban transgender athletes from competing on girls sports teams and Senate Bill Senate Bill 118 by Sen. Jay Morris, R-Monroe, to allow anyone 21 and older to carry a concealed firearm without a permit or training.

If any veto is overturned, the bill becomes law without the governor’s signature.

This does not affect lobbyist reporting.

The New Hampshire General Court stands adjourned until the next call of the chair.

Before adjourning, lawmakers passed House Bill 263, which would repeal voluntary expenditure limits, increase the expenditure and contribution reporting threshold for all political entities, and increase the dollar threshold for reporting by political committees.

The bill now awaits Gov. Sununu’s signature.

Both chambers of the Rhode Island General Assembly recessed after passing the budget for the fiscal year 2022.

The Legislature is expected to reconvene in the fall in order to address some outstanding issues.

This includes a voting package that would continue less restrictive absentee voting rules temporarily in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has appointed Rep. Bill Poole to succeed Kelly Butler as state finance director.

In June, Butler announced he would be retiring after over 30 years of public service due to health concerns.

Rep. Poole, who has chaired the House Ways and Means Education Committee since 2013, will begin his new position as head of the Alabama Department of Finance on August 1.