Federal: “Lawmakers profit from positions in Congress” by Gary Martin in the San Antonio Express-News.

Federal: “Ethics committee: Sen. Vitter of Louisiana violated public trust in blocking Salazar salary” by The Associated Press in The Washington Post.

Florida: “Senate to decide punishment on Norman ethics violation” by Brittany Davis in the Miami Herald.

Idaho: “Idaho Senate approves series of new ethics rules” by Alex Morrell and Todd Dvorak (Associated Press) in the Idaho Statesman.

Mississippi: “Lawmaker appeals $346K ethics violation order” in The Clarion-Ledger.

New York:  “APNewsBreak: NY board won’t disclose hire record” by The Associated Press in The Wall Street Journal.

Ohio:  “Cleveland lawmaker requests legislative group’s financial records after recent bribery charge” by Joe Guillen in The Plain Dealer.

South Carolina: “Blame enough to go around for ethics rank” in the Orangeburg Times and Democrat.

Texas: “Two-thirds of Texas congressional delegation named in report on ethics lapses” by Gary Martin in the Houston Chronicle.

Thad Viers announced his resignation as State Representative for House District 68. The announcement came after Mr. Viers was charged with harassing his ex-girlfriend. She told investigators he continued to call, text and email for more than five months after they broke up, according to a Myrtle Beach police report.

Due to the vacancy, a special election will be held following the writ of election to be issued by the speaker of the house. There is currently an unrelated special election scheduled for Senate District 41 on July 17, 2012.

Photo of Thad Viers courtesy of the South Carolina House of Representatives website.

Ethics

“Blagojevich to serve sentence at Denver-area prison” by Natasha Korecki in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Missouri: “Mo. lawmaker says waiting for elections could mean better ethics bill” by The Associated Press in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Missouri: “Ethics reform in Missouri appears to be a nonstarter in election year” by Jason Hancock in the Kansas City Star.

New Mexico: “Governor signs bill intended to crack down on corruption within government” by The Associated Press in The Republic.

Government Transparency

South Carolina: “House panel OKs bill setting cost limits on FOIAs” by The Associated Press in the Greenville News.

Massachusetts: “Casinos industry spent millions lobbying in Mass.” by The Associated Press in the Boston Herald.

Oklahoma: “Lobbyist: Lawmaker Morgan sought help for ‘friends’” by Nolan Clay in the Tulsa World.

South Carolina: “Senators hold moment of silence for missing lobbyist, search continues” by Noelle Phillips in The State.

Wisconsin: “Union lobbying plummets in last half of 2011” by Bill Lueders in Wisconsin Watch.

“Candidate and Super Pac Spending” by Khang Nguyen in the Los Angeles Times.

“Bill would require disclosure of campaign spending” by Alia Beard Rau in the Arizona Republic.

“California could be model for ‘super PAC’ disclosure” by Josh Richman in the San Jose Mercury News.

Representative Kevin Ryan has pre-filed a bill to end the practice of state lawmakers policing themselves in ethics matters.

The bill would abolish the legislative ethics committees and empower the Ethics Commission to enforce the law as it applies to legislators.

Currently, the Ethics Commission oversees the state’s nine constitutional officers, certain appointed state officials, and locally elected officials. However, the Ethics Commission does not have jurisdiction over legislators. Instead, lawmakers police themselves through separate House and Senate ethics committees.

State Senator Mike Rose has sponsored a proposal in the Senate that would give the legislature explicit authority to delegate ethics enforcement to an outside entity.

Lawmakers are scheduled to begin the second half of the 2011-12 legislative session on Tuesday, January 10, 2012.

As the presidential primaries are quickly approaching, alleged threats have surfaced from the “hacktivist” group Anonymous that some worry could jeopardize the caucus results.

Anonymous is a group known for its cyber-attacks on companies and agencies which it deems corrupt. The alleged threat reported by the Associated Press surfaced in a YouTube video and targets the Iowa contest.

“We are calling on you to occupy the campaign offices of presidential headquarters … and peacefully shut down the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3,” the voice in the video says.

These threats which target Iowa are putting other states who are holding early primaries, such as South Carolina who is holding primaries on January 21st, on the alert.

“Everybody in the computer security world is aware of [Anonymous] and its capabilities. Their threats are not taken lightly,” said Chris Whitmire, a public information officer with the South Carolina Election Commission.

In a world that is becoming more and more reliant on web based programs and tools, security on the web seems to be getting worse instead of better, and every program seems to have a loophole that hackers can use to their advantage.

Read this article from The Hill to learn more about the steps South Carolina is taking to protect their primary from hackers.

Federal:

IRS Drops Audits of Political Donors

New Breed of ‘Super PACs,’ Other Independent Groups Could Define 2012 Campaign

From the States and Municipalities:

Alabama

Alabama Democratic Conference Files Lawsuit to Stop New Alabama Law Banning Political Fund Transfers

Arizona

Arizona Conservatives Scramble after Campaign Finance Law’s Defeat

California

Marijuana Lobbyist’s Fundraiser for DA Raises Questions

Veil Drawn on Donors to Latino Caucus-Controlled California Nonprofit

Connecticut

Agent Who Arrested Politicians Now Seeks House Seat

Georgia

Lobby Late Fees Add Up

Illinois

Mayor Rahm Emanuel Proposing New Round of Ethics Reforms

Iowa

Judge Upholds New Iowa Campaign Disclosure Rules

Massachusetts

House Leader Apologizes for Holocaust Remarks

Michigan

Justices Stop Political Gifts Taken at Work

Minnesota

Campaign Board Rejects NOM’s Efforts to Shield Donors in Marriage Battle

Pennsylvania

Lobbying Law on Hold

South Carolina

Lt. Gov. Ard Paying $48,000 Fine

Washington

Ex-Prisons Chief Eldon Vail Says He Resigned Because of an Affair with Subordinate

State and Federal Communications produces a weekly summary of national news, offering more than 80 articles per week focused on ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance.

News You Can Use is a news service provided at no charge only to clients of our online Executive Source Guides, or ALERTS™ consulting clients.

Jim Sedor is editor of News You Can Use.

Lobbyists and lobbyist’s principals can no longer register, reregister, or continue to be registered in South Carolina if they have outstanding late filing penalties.

House Bill 3183, which Governor Nikki Haley recently signed into law, prohibits the State Ethics Commission from allowing delinquent lobbyists and lobbyist’s principals to participate in lobbying until the fines and filing have been remedied.

The bill also delineates what the fines and penalties are for late filing. Persons filing late are first fined $100 if a report is not filed within 10 days of the due date. After receiving notice by certified or registered mail that a required report has not been filed, there is a $10 a day fine for the first 10 days after receiving the notice. The fine increases to $100 a day for each additional day the required report is not filed, capping at $5,000.

If the report is still not filed, the offender faces an additional misdemeanor conviction with imprisonment or fines.

Flag of South Carolina courtesy of mapsof.net.

The South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled the Legislature does not have to meet today in a special session called by Governor Nikki Haley.

In a 3 to 2 decision, the court denied the special session, writing: “Although the General Assembly is currently in recess, it has not adjourned sine die and, therefore, is still in its annual session. Under these specific facts, respondent cannot convene an ‘extra’ session of the General Assembly since it is currently in session. To do so would interrupt the annual session and would violate the General Assembly’s authority to set its calendar and agenda and would constitute a violation of the separation of powers provision.”

The Legislature will meet in a previously scheduled session on June 14.

This blog post follows up a previous article “South Carolina’s Extra Special Session” by George Ticoras on June 3.

The regular session of the South Carolina Legislature adjourned on June 2 and a special session is scheduled for June 14. However, Governor Nikki Haley has requested an earlier additional special session for June 7 to pass further legislation, but the elected representatives may not convene.

While House Speaker Bobby Harrell has instructed house members to return on June 7, Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell has said the senate will not return, even though both the governor and Senator McConnell are in the same political party.

Several legislators challenge the governor’s legal authority to convene a special session without extraordinary circumstances.

The House has included a provision in their appropriations bill which would double lobbyists’ registration fees. House Bill 3700 increases lobbyist and lobbyist’s principal registration fees to $200. The State Ethics Commission would retain fifty percent of the increased fee and the remaining fifty percent would go to the state’s general fund.

Also included in the bill is a provision precluding the State Ethics Commission staff from making any public comment which in any way reflects a personal opinion on any matter which is before the commission.

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.

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