New Jersey Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean, Jr. is introducing legislation applying the state’s pay-to-play laws to labor unions.

According to the Senator’s press release, his bill applies the same restrictions on campaign contributions and activities to labor unions under contract with state, county, and municipal governmental entities as are currently applied to government service providers.

“Pay to play reform was passed to limit the influence of big spending contractors over the public officials from whom they are trying to obtain work. That law missed one of the biggest recipients of public dollars and thus, must be fixed in the interest of fairness and honesty,” argues Senator Kean.

Photo of New Jersey Senator Tom Kean, Jr. courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Arizona: The Arizona Legislature adjourned its session sine die on May 3. Governor Jan Brewer has 10 days to sign or veto legislation transmitted to her, or the legislation becomes law automatically.

Hawaii: The Hawaii Legislature adjourned sine die yesterday, May 3, 2012.

Mississippi: The Mississippi Legislature adjourned ahead of schedule on May 3, 2012.

Thank you to Research Associates George Ticoras, Shamus Williams, and Jen Zona for providing us with this legislative session information.

National:

Crowd-Sourcing Site Aims to Give Voters Lobbying Power

Federal:

Conservative Group Seeks FEC Approval to Keep Donors Secret

Obama Campaign Puts Bo on the Trail

From the States and Municipalities:

California

Lawmakers Mix Work with Fundraising in Sacramento

Illinois

Mayor’s Ethics Panel Offers Tweaks, Plans to Take Bigger Steps

Kentucky

Audit: Richie Farmer abused system

Maine

Lawmakers Decry Corruption Claim

Maryland

Legislation Would Give State Voters More Political Gift Information

Montana

Groups Ask That Montana Judge Toss Ban Restricting Campaign Donations

North Carolina

Second Tillis Staffer Admits to Inappropriate Relationship with a Lobbyist

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Ethics Panel Reprimands OU Doctor for Accepting Excessive Speaking Fees

Texas

Austin Approves New Campaign Finance Rules

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.

As the general presidential election begins, swing states will start to receive more attention from the candidates and national media. This week, our highlighted site focuses on the latest polling data of three major swing states from Quinnipiac University.

Quinnipiac conducted a survey from April 25 – May 1 of registered voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. These three states were targeted as no candidate since 1960 has won the White House without winning at least two of them.

When asked: “Turning to this year’s general election for president, if the election for President were being held today, and the candidates were Barack Obama the Democrat and Mitt Romney the Republican, for whom would you vote?”

• Florida: Mitt Romney 44% – Barack Obama 43% (1,169 voters, margin of error +/- 2.9%)
• Ohio: Barack Obama 44% – Mitt Romney 42% (1,130 voters, margin of error +/- 2.9%)
• Pennsylvania: Barack Obama 47% – Mitt Romney 39% (1,168 voters, margin of error +/- 2.9%)

Clearly the race is just beginning to heat up as both Florida and Ohio are within the statistical margin of error. Look for the candidates to start spending significant time and money in both of these states as well as a number of other swing states.

Check out the site for complete polling data including favorability ratings, voter opinions on the economy and which candidate for Vice President voters would most like to see Mitt Romney choose. You can also download crosstabs and demographic summaries for each poll and parse the data as deeply as you would like.

Have a great weekend!

The Bergen County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders issued a memorandum clarifying its pay-to-play ordinance adopted last year.

In the section of the ordinance concerning the prohibition on awarding contracts to certain contributors, the phrase “any candidate for elective office in the County of Bergen or holder of elective office in the County of Bergen” is used.

The Board’s memorandum states the phrase is limited to persons “who run for, or are elected to” county offices. The phrase does not include candidates for a municipal office held in the county, statewide candidates for the Assembly or Senate, or federal candidates whose district includes Bergen County.

More information can be found at the Corporate Political Activity Law Blog.

Elizabeth Bartz, President and CEO of State and Federal Communications, IT Executive Director Ren Koozer, and Social Media Coordinator Joe May attended Campaigns and Elections’ CampaignTech Conference 2012 on April 19-20 in Washington, D.C.

On the very next morning Elizabeth Bartz, Compliance Associate Jim Warner, and Joe May participated in Kent State’s Fourth Annual National Alumni Day of Service. We were put to the task of washing dishes at Akron’s Haven of Rest rescue mission. Let’s hear it for the Kent State Alumni!

It was a happy time at our staff meeting yesterday as we celebrated the anniversaries of five employees! We recognized Nola Werren for 15 years of service, Nicolette Koozer for 11 years, Jeff Roberts for nine years, Steve Quinn for two years, and Sarah Kovit for one year. Our warmest congratulations to each of you.

As a special token of appreciation, Elizabeth Bartz presented Nola Werren with an American flag that has been flown over the U.S. Capitol. The flag was received through the office of U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton.

A new electronic lobbyist registration is now available for the Commonwealth of Virginia. All lobbyists, including those already registered for 2012-2013, will need to create a new account on the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Lobbyist Registration Portal and complete a new lobbyist registration.

New accounts must be activated through the confirmation e-mail sent from the state.

Lobbyists will also receive a confirmation e-mail when their electronic registration has been approved by the state.

Campaign Finance

New York: “Senate Democrats call for campaign finance reform” by Bill Lambdin on WNYT.com.

Vermont: “Campaign finance bill sent to Judiciary Committee” by Terri Hallenbeck in the Burlington Free Press.

Lobbying

North Carolina: “Second Tillis staffer admits to inappropriate relationship with a lobbyist” by Dan Kane and John Frank in the Charlotte Observer.

Texas:  “Texas legislator fined for failure to disclose gifts” in the  Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Ethics

District of Columbia: “D.C. Council Backs Off Pressuring Mayor to Select Ethics Panel” by Tom Sherwood on NBCWashington.com.

South Carolina: “SC House votes to open investigations into its own if ethics committee finds probable cause” by Seanna Adcox (Associated Press) in The Republic.

Alaska: “Redistricting map solutions elusive as court battle looms” by Richard Mauer in the Anchorage Daily News.

Kansas: “Kansas Senate OKs redistricting plan” by Brad Cooper in the Kansas City Star.

Kentucky: “Kentucky Supreme Court cites redistricting law as unconstitutional” by Franklin Clark in the Cadiz Record.

Mississippi: “Mississippi Senate unveils its redistricting map” by The Associated Press in the Clarion Ledger.

New Hampshire: “House redistricting plan faces more legal challenges” by Garry Rayno in the Union Leader.

Pennsylvania: “Redistricting panel to receive input on new Pa. maps” by Ali Lanyon (Associated Press) on WHTM.

South Carolina: “Supreme Court considering fate of primary candidates” by Gina Smith in The State.

South Carolina: “SC justices consider fate of dozens of candidates” by Jeffrey Collins (Associated Press) in the Spartanburg Herald Journal.

Vermont: “Vt. lawmakers finish redistricting” on NECN.com.

On April 30, 2012, the Lobbyists Registration Act came into force in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The act requires lobbyists to file returns using an electronic registry system. Although the act was originally passed in 2008, it came into force only this year upon proclamation, allowing the lobbyist registrar the opportunity to create the system with its online component.

The act categorizes lobbyists as either consultant lobbyists or in-house lobbyists. Consultant lobbyists are individuals who, for pay or other benefit, undertake to lobby on behalf of a client. An in-house lobbyist is defined as an employee, partner, or sole proprietor of an organization who lobbies, or has a duty to lobby, on behalf of the organization. However, to be designated as an in-house lobbyist, an individual’s lobbying or duty to lobby has to constitute a significant part of his or her activities, which the regulations define as meeting or exceeding 100 hours annually. Additionally, if an individual’s lobbying, together with lobbying by others in the organization, meets or exceeds 100 hours annually, the senior officer of the organization must file a return.

The act defines lobby to mean communicating with a public official in an attempt to influence the development of a legislative proposal; introducing a bill or resolution before the assembly; making or amending a regulation; developing, amending, or terminating a program or policy; or awarding a financial benefit. For consultant lobbyists the definition of lobby also includes arranging a meeting with a public official or communicating with a public official in an attempt to influence the award of a contract.

Consultant lobbyists already lobbying before April 30th have 30 days to begin filing. If lobbying begins after April 30th, consultant lobbyists have 10 days to file. A senior officer filing on behalf of an organization with in-house lobbyists has two months in which to file, regardless of whether lobbying begins before or after April 30th. Additionally, the officer must file returns within two months after the end of each six-month period after filing the previous return.

The state of Oklahoma has just announced the debut of its new web portal, OK.gov. The site sports a new look and promises to offer a wealth of searchable  datasets on Data.OK.gov. For instance, you can view state expenditures and vendor payments by quarter.

According to their site: “Data.OK.gov strives to make Oklahoma government more transparent through an unprecedented level of openness in Oklahoma government. By publishing raw datasets in different formats, you can look up statistics, build applications, conduct analysis and perform research. Data.OK.gov allows for a simple way to gather Oklahoma government data about the economy, public health, transportation, environment, and more on one website. Centralized access to this data saves you from having to visit multiple websites.”

Perhaps you don’t find the information you need on OK.gov? The state invites you to send your feedback and let them know what data you would like to see included.

Here is the press release for the new site.

The Alaska House of Representatives adjourned the special session on Monday following the Senate’s adjournment last week.

While lawmakers passed a bill pertaining to human trafficking, the governor pulled his oil tax measure after the bill appeared to be going nowhere.

The Senate adjourned claiming that the governor’s removal of a bill on a special session call, while the session was under way, ended the session.

Q. Some of the state lobbying reports ask about my travel expenses. What does this include?

A. “Travel expenses” is a phrase used by several states. It can refer to two different types of expenditures.

Some states require the disclosure of personal, reimbursed expenses incurred while lobbying. This would include food and beverage, hotels, cab fare, and travel expenses for a lobbying trip. Iowa, for instance, requires lobbyist employers to disclose all reimbursements made to their lobbyists. So, if a lobbyist lives in Topeka and flies to Des Moines to communicate with a legislator, the airfare is a reportable expense. Note, however, this generally only applies if the primary purpose of the trip is lobbying as defined by the state. A trip during which the lobbying contacts made were incidental to the main purpose of the travel would usually not need reported.

Other states, however, require the reporting of airfare or other travel costs paid by a lobbyist on behalf of a legislator or other public official. In Idaho and Mississippi, for example, a lobbyist or lobbyist employer may pay for a public official to travel to an event or to the company’s facilities, and the cost of the travel must be reported.

In all of these cases, the state reports request “travel expenses.” As you can see, it is very possible for the same words to have different meanings in the eyes of different states. When in doubt, lobbyists and employers can always contact us for guidance.

You can directly submit questions for this feature, and we will select those most appropriate and answer them here. Send your questions to: marketing@stateandfed.com.

(We are always available to answer questions from clients that are specific to your needs, and we encourage you to continue to call or e-mail us with questions about your particular company or organization. As always, we will confidentially and directly provide answers or information you need.) Our replies to your questions are not legal advice. Instead, these replies represent our analysis of laws, rules, and regulations.