The Connecticut General Assembly is scheduled to convene for a special session on December 18.

The special legislative session is to vote on issues regarding a hospital tax settlement and a restaurant workers wage bill.

Gov. Ned Lamont and the Legislature also agreed to convene a special session in early January to address a bonding bill and a long-term infrastructure plan.

Campaign Finance

National: “Pete Buttigieg Agrees to More Transparency on Campaign Money” by Amy Wang (Washington Post) for San Francisco Chronicle

Pennsylvania: “Councilwoman Darlene Harris Sues City to Nix Campaign Rules” by Staff for Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Ethics

National: “Watchdog: Interior official’s meetings broke ethics rule” by Ellen Nickmeyer for AP News

Kentucky: “Kentucky House Changes Course on Ex-Speaker Investigation” by Bruce Schreiner (Associated Press) for Seattle Times

Maryland: “Baltimore Approves More Than $13 Million Financed by Pugh Donor’s Firm Amid Call for Probe of His Deals” by Kevin Rector and Talia Richman for Baltimore Sun

Michigan: “Before Losing Election, Clawson Mayor Sought Secret Deal to Hurt Opponent” by Bill Laitner for Detroit Free Press

Michigan: “Inman Not Guilty of Lying to FBI; Hung Jury on Bribery and Extortion” by Paul Egan for Detroit Free Press

Pennsylvania: “He’s the FBI Agent Who Took Down Allentown’s Mayor. Now He’s Talking Publicly About the Case.” by Steve Novak for LehighValleyLive.com

The Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced a special election for January 28 for House District 171.

The seat is vacant after Rep. Jay Powell unexpectedly died in November while attending a Republican leadership retreat.

A runoff election is scheduled for February 25 if no candidate receives a majority of the vote during the special election.

The winner of the election will serve the remaining year of Powell’s term.

The Chicago City Council Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight unanimously passed a proposal on December 4 to prohibit city elected officials and employees from lobbying state or local government on behalf of private clients.

Proposed ordinance 2019-8541 also precludes elected officials anywhere in Illinois from lobbying on behalf of private clients in Chicago.

In both circumstances, the proposed ordinance carves out an exception for elected officials who are attorneys providing legal representation in certain administrative or legislative actions.

The proposal will be presented for a vote on December 18.

If approved, the ordinance would take effect 90 days after passage and publication.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Maryland law aimed at extending the state’s campaign finance oversight into online political ads to prevent foreign interference in local elections is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment.

The Online Electioneering Transparency and Accountability Act, passed by state legislators in 2018, requires newspapers and other media platforms to collect and self-publish information about sponsors of online political ads.

The three-judge panel found that the law targets political expression and compels certain speech, and affirmed a lower court’s ruling to strike down the law.

The state’s attorney general’s office will review the decision and decide whether to file an appeal.

Campaign Finance

Maryland: “Federal Appeals Court Rejects Maryland Online Political Ad Law That Sought Information from Digital Publishers” by Jeff Barker for Baltimore Sun

Elections

National: “Critics Say Facebook’s Powerful Ad Tools May Imperil Democracy. But Politicians Love Them.” by Craig Timberg for Washington Post

Ethics

National: “Trump Business Dealings Argued at Federal Appeals Court in Emoluments Case” by Ann Marimow and Jonathan O’Connell (Washington Post) for Greenwich Times

National: “Trump ‘Ignored and Injured’ the National Interest, Democrats Charge in Impeachment Articles” by Nicholas Fandos (New York Times) for MSN

Florida: “Tampa City Council Member Went to Chicago on Nonprofit’s Dime, Later Paid for It” by Charlie Frago for Tampa Bay Times

Hawaii: “Honolulu City Council Voted on Company’s Project Then Let It Buy Lunch” by Cristina Jedra for Honolulu Civil Beat

Michigan: “County Official Who Displayed, Wore Trump Hat During Meetings Focus of Complaint” by Ben Solis for MLive.com

Lobbying

California: “Former L.A. City Hall Aide Fined $37,500 for Failing to Report Lobbying” by Emily Alpert Reyes for Los Angeles Times

Campaign Finance

California: “Taxpayers Should Foot the Bill for ‘Clean Money’ Campaigns, L.A. Council Members Say” by David Zahniser and Emily Alpert Reyes for Los Angeles Times

New York: “$100K in Campaign Cash to Gov, Mayor, County Exec Is Routine Business Expense, Cor Says” by Tim Knauss for Syracuse Post-Standard

Oklahoma: “Public Campaigns Being Conducted with Donations Kept Private” by Chris Casteel for The Oklahoman

Elections

National: “‘Trump Changed Everything’: Big cities break hard left in Dem primary” by Holly Otterbein for Politico

National: “Inspector General Report Says FBI Had ‘Authorized Purpose’ to Investigate Trump Campaign’s Russia Ties but Finds Some Wrongdoing” by Karoun Demirjian, Matt Zapotosky, Ellen Nakashima, and Devlin Barrett (Washington Post) for Anchorage Daily News

Ethics

South Carolina: “This Judge Is Married to the Sheriff. Ethics Complaints Have Piled Up.” by Joseph Cranney (Charleston Post and Courier) for Pro Publica

Washington: “How Much Money Did Tim Eyman Make Last Year: Depends what form you check” by David Gutman for Seattle Times

Lobbying

National: “How the Mueller Investigation Changed K Street” by Luke Mullins for Washingtonian Magazine

Gov. Ned Lamont announced a special election on January 21, 2020 for House District 151.

The seat for House District 151 was vacated earlier this week by Rep. Fred Camillo after being elected first selectman of Greenwich in November.

The winner of the special election will complete the remaining year of Camillo’s term.

The Portland Auditor has announced administrative rule changes to the city’s lobbying regulations.

The revised rules clarify the definition of lobbying to include grassroots lobbying and attempts to gain goodwill.

Fiscal disclosures are required to include expenses related to grassroots lobbying.

The rule changes also provide guidance on governments registering as lobbying entities if certain types of lobbying occur.

Governments will be considered lobbying entities when certain outside individuals lobby on their behalf.

The regulation changes also exclude certain cultural gifts from the city’s lobbying registration and reporting requirements if the market value of the gift cannot be easily determined and declining the gift is likely to cause offense.

Additionally, the revised rules provide guidance on when lobbying groups and city officials may be fined for late filings.

The auditor’s office will issue a warning notice for late filings.

Reports must be filed within 24 hours after the deadline or a late fee will be assessed up to $500 per report.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill on December 5 requiring increased disclosure from lobbyists.

Senate Bill 1639 provides that lobbyist registration must include each unit of local government for which the registrant is or expects to be required to register to lobby, as well as each elected or appointed public office to be held by the registrant at any time during the registration period.

The bill also requires the secretary of state to create a combined online database for lobbyist disclosures, campaign contributions, and public officials’ annual statements of economic interest.

Senate Bill 1639 became effective when signed.

Campaign Finance

National: “‘Dark Money’ Ties Raise Questions for GOP Sen. Ernst of Iowa” by Brian Slodysko for AP News

Texas: “Dannenbaum Pleads Guilty to Campaign Finance Violations” by Stephanie Lamm and Gabrielle Banks for Houston Chronicle

Virginia: “A Congressman Could Go to Prison for Misusing Campaign Funds. What He Did Is Totally Legal in Virginia.” by Graham Moomaw for Virginia Mercury

Ethics

National: “Trump Asks Supreme Court to Review Decision Granting Congress Access to His Financial Records” by Robert Barnes (Washington Post) for Danbury News Times

National: “The Accidental Celebrities of the Impeachment Inquiry” by Katherine Rosman for New York Times

Florida: “‘This Is Big’: City of Tallahassee ethics package passes amid challenging year, FBI probe” by Karl Etters for Tallahassee Democrat

Louisiana: “Former LSU Employee Fined $111K Over Money Missing from School of Theatre, Invoices to His Company” by Jacqueline DeRobertis and Andrea Gallo for New Orleans Advocate

Lobbying

Florida: “Local Lobbyist Database Could Increase Ethics Board’s Workload” by Renzo Downey for Florida Politics

On December 4, the Tallahassee City Commission approved an ordinance amending the city’s ethics code.

The ordinance expands the Independent Ethics Board’s jurisdiction to covered individuals including:

• Each public official
• An employee or member of a city board, commission, or council required to file financial disclosures, or with purchasing authority exceeding $35,000
• Employees participating in the procurement of services or commodities exceeding $10,000

The amended ethics code extends the ban on solicitation and acceptance of gifts to covered individuals.

Additionally, the amended code extends the prohibition against misuse of public position to all public officials and employees of the city.

The ordinance becomes effective January 1, 2020.

Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. announced a special session for December 18.

The special session is to consider an amendment to the Medicinal Cannabis Patient Care Act.

The amendment provides more regulatory controls and enables the generation of tax and fee revenues.

If passed, the amendment would allow for the sale of cannabis products to tourists and create a regulated system to prevent fraud, increase transparency, testing, licensing and penalties.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to prevent real estate developers who have project applications pending at city hall from making campaign contributions to elected officials or candidates for municipal office.

City Councilman David Ryu introduced the proposal to ban developer donations to prevent interference with the ethical commitments candidates make when running for office.

Under the new ordinance, real estate developers will be barred from giving political contributions to Los Angeles city officials and candidates for council, mayor, or city attorney while the city decides on key approvals for building projects.

These restrictions will be in effect for one year after a final decision on each developer application.

The law does not prohibit developers from hosting fundraisers or raising money from other donors and does not apply to major subcontractors on a development project.

Critics contend the new rules will spur developers to donate more money to independent expenditure committees, which have no limits on how much they can receive and cannot coordinate with their chosen candidates.

The council also voted to have a committee reexamine possible restrictions on behested payments, which are donations solicited by candidates or elected officials for various charities or causes.

The ordinance becomes operative the first day a candidate for elected city office can file a Declaration of Intent to Solicit and Raise Contributions for the 2022 general election.

Mayor Eric Garcetti has until December 16 to act on the ordinance.