In response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, there are states and cities taking action to deny personhood to corporations. The Montana Supreme Court upheld a ban on corporate spending in local elections and a measure was introduced in the Vermont Legislature calling for a constitutional amendment distinguishing the rights of individuals from those of corporations.

The city councils of Los Angeles, Oakland, Albany, Boulder, and New York City are listed in the article as having passed resolutions – some calling for a constitutional amendment –  eliminating corporate personhood, which could affect SuperPAC spending in their jurisdictions.

For the full story, read “Cities, states pass resolutions against corporate personhood” by Bailey McCann on CivSourceonline.com.

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.

“Lobbyist Is Expected to Plead Guilty in Corruption Case” by Benjamin Weiser in The New York Times .

“Why Would a Lobbyist Need Social Media?” by John Hall on Social Media Today.

“Too many lobbyists? There’s an app for that” by Anthony Man and Larry Barszewski in The South Florida Sun-Sentinel. (Thank you George Ticoras for seeing this one!)

This quick desk reference combines information from our online resources and lists the information by state:

– The Executive Source Guide on Lobbying Laws™;
– The Executive Source Guide on Political Contributions™; and
– The Executive Source Guide on Procurement Lobbying™.

This guidebook is filled with valuable information. However, we also caution it has two limitations:

The online resources, which you receive either through your subscription or as part of your lobbying compliance service, are comprehensive. This guidebook summarizes information in the online resources, and is meant only as a quick-reference guide.

While this guidebook is accurate and timely when we print it, please understand our online resources are updated continually. We provide this guidebook to you as a convenience, but your ultimate source of information should always be the online resource(s) to which you subscribe.

We consider this guidebook another value-added benefit of your partnership with State and Federal Communications. You also receive, via e-mail, monthly updates of important compliance legislation on the federal and state levels; News You Can Use™, our weekly summary of current news and events regarding compliance; and the Compliance Now newsletter with even more information.

Please call us at (330)761-9960 or email marketing@stateandfed.com if you would like to learn more about State and Federal Communications’ compliance services. Be sure to contact us if you are already a client and need to have your subscription username or password forwarded.

We are privileged to have you as clients, and are pleased to be your trusted adviser for government affairs compliance.

The following announcement  is from the Alaska Public Offices Commission website:

The Alaska Public Offices Commission will be conducting a brief training designed to provide basic information about group campaign disclosure and to introduce filers to the new electronic filing system.

The training is scheduled for Friday, January 6, 2012 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Filers may participate in person at the Anchorage office, remotely by computer, or by telephone.

Email or call Attorney Vullnet Greva at vullnet.greva@alaska.gov or (907) 276-4176 for details regarding participation.

Title 15 requires government officials and employees to disclose their financial affairs and sets minimum ethical standards for the conduct of state and local business. The law also requires all counties, municipalities, and school boards adopt ethics standards at least equal to the state’s ethics law with regard to conflicts of interest, financial disclosure, and lobbying. Each local ethics commission is required to certify its compliance with the Maryland Ethics Commission on or before October 1st of each year, beginning in 2011.

Some local officials are still working toward agreement and passage of the required bills. Although officials may follow the state’s guidelines, many are choosing their own paths. For instance, the registration thresholds for lobbyists in Title 15 include an expenditure clause and a gift clause: $500 in expenditures towards influencing legislative or executive action; or $100 in gifts for the purpose of influencing executive action. The recently passed Charles County bill has a $100 gift threshold, while Alleghany County’s gift threshold is $200. Neither bill includes an expenditure clause. However, in Howard County, there is a $100 expenditure threshold for any lobbying activity, but no gift threshold.

Conflict of interest rules have also been the subject of debate. Title 15 forbids former public officials (other than legislators) and employees from assisting or representing a party in a contract or other specific matter for compensation if the former official or employee participated significantly in the matter as an official or employee. Frederick County attempted to limit this prohibition to one year for former commissioners with an exemption for former employees. This modification was rejected by the state. The Frederick County delegation now plans to propose changes to Title 15 before the general assembly to allow the one year limitations.

Counties such as Baltimore and Montgomery continue to debate and, as of December 1, 2011, had yet to approve a final version of the required ethics bill.

In the latest development, the State Ethics Commission met to respond to exemption requests. According to the Maryland Municipal League web site:

“The Maryland State Ethics Commission met on December 8 to consider a number of exemption requests from various municipalities around the state. Several jurisdictions were requesting an extension of an existing exemption, while some cities and towns were requesting new exemptions from the recently enacted financial disclosure reporting requirement. The results were varied, although it seemed as though population and budget size were the criteria most often cited by the members of the Ethics Commission when exemptions were being considered. For more information, please contact Tom Reynolds or Candace Donoho on the MML staff.”

January 8-13, 2012   Public Affairs Council Institute, Laguna, Calif.

January 19, 2012        NCSL Executive Committee Meeting, Kaiwah Island, South Carolina

January 30 – February 2, 2012      National Grassroots Conference, Miami, Florida

February 25 – February 27, 2012 NGA Winter Meeting, Washington, D.C.

February 27 – March 1, 2012        National PAC Conference, Orlando, Florida

Lobbyists wishing to lobby in any of Palm Beach County, Florida’s 38 cities will soon be subject to a countywide lobbyist registry, as approved by the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners at their most recent meeting.

Lobbyists will be required to pay $25 to register the names of their clients, while also being required to submit annual expense reports. There will also be limits on gifts from lobbyists.

A city may opt out of the countywide registry, but then must create its own registry.

Photo of Palm Beach by Michael Kagdis on Wikipedia.

Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller has announced that the enhanced online system for campaign finance filings is now up and running.

All parties filing contributions and expense reports as well as financial disclosure statements are now required to report electronically as was mandated by Assembly Bill 452.

Read the full story in “Evans regains top lobbying spot in Annapolis” by John Wagner in the Washington Post.

Here is a list of the top 135 lobbyists in compensation in Maryland by the State Ethics Commission.

We are ready with the State and Federal Communications, Inc. Resolutions for 2012 and I think you are going to like them…Think 30, 50, 100. Sort of like Herman Cain’s 9 9 9, but not really.

Resolution #1 is to include 30% additional information onto our website. I am challenging the research department to make sure we are including all of the necessary information you need for your 2012 government affairs work.

Resolution #2 is to make it 50% easier for client use. That means we need to make sure we have additional subcategories so you can easily find the information you need.

Resolution #3 is to make it 100% accurate.  We know we are your #1 resource for lobbying, political contributions, procurement lobbying, and Canadian compliance and we have to be accurate so the information you forward to your colleagues and supervisors is absolutely correct.

For these resolutions…you can count on us to keep them!

Happy New Year.

Elizabeth Z. Bartz
President and CEO

The Montana Supreme Court has held the state law prohibiting independent political expenditures by a corporation related to a candidate is constitutional.

Finding Citizens United v. FEC did not compel invalidating the state’s 1912 Corrupt Practices Act, the majority opinion of the Montana Supreme Court in Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of the State of Montana states, “The corporate power that can be exerted with unlimited political spending is still a vital interest to the people of Montana.”

The Court concludes the state, because of its history and the history of the Act, has a compelling interest to impose statutory restrictions, emphasizing the Citizens United decision allows restrictions to be upheld if the government demonstrates a sufficiently strong interest.

In making its argument, the decision asserts that a “material factual distinction between the present case and Citizens United is the extent of the regulatory burden imposed by the challenged law.” The Court found in contrast to the “complexity and ambiguity” of restrictions for federal PACs, PACs formed and maintained in the state are “easily implemented” by the filing of “simple and straight-forward forms or reports.”

The National Conference of State Legislatures just published two summaries:

In “NCSL News: New Laws Ring in the New Year,” they list the new laws in the states that take effect as of January 1. Don’t miss the “Elections” section for news about laws in California, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

NCSL also posted “Top 12 for 2012” by Meagan Dorsch, who lists what she expects to be top issues on the agendas in the state legislatures.

Roll Call sums up what redistricting issues remain unresolved in “Between the Lines: 5 Unknowns as 2012 Begins” by Shira Toeplitz.

Rod Blagojevich looks ahead to 2012 and sends his supporters a message on Twitter according to this Associated Press article.

Here is a techPresident article about how Google has launched a new elections portal that will allow everyone to follow the caucuses and primaries in a new way in 2012.

The City of Philadelphia Board of Ethics has provided interim paper registration forms and instructions for lobbyists, lobbying firms, and principals to be used until an online registration and reporting system is completed.  The registration forms allow filers to fill-in information before printing.

The board reminds filers that registration is not complete until a form is printed, signed, and mailed or delivered to the board of ethics with the registration fee.

Registration must occur within ten days after both the commencement of lobbying and the exceeding of thresholds.  However, no event occurring prior to January 3, 2012 is relevant to determining the thresholds, registration date, or expense reporting.