Campaign Finance

Connecticut: “Watchdogs worried clean elections fund could run dry in next race for governor” by Keith M. Phaneuf in CTMirror.org.

District of Columbia: “Campaign finance inquiry takes close look at money-order donations in District” by Mike DeBonis and Nikita Stewart in The Washington Post.

Michigan: “Michigan group delays corporate disclosure measure” by The Associated Press on Michigan Live.

Missouri: “Kansas City lawmaker faces $30,585 in ethics fees” by Chris Blank in The Kansas City Star.

North Carolina: “Dome: Board of Elections will discuss campaign finance law” by John Frank and Tim Funk in The News & Observer.

Wisconsin: “GAB fined 110 people for campaign finance and ethics violations in last 3 years” by Kate Golden in The Wisconsin State Journal.

Campaigns and Elections

“Rogue political robocalls on the rise in Ohio” by Sabrina Eaton in The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Redistricting

Florida: “New Senate district map ticks off both parties” by Mary Ellen Klas and Darla Cameron in The Miami Herald.

New York: “Incumbents at risk in final N.Y. map” by Alex Isenstadt in Politico.

Ethics

“Federal prosecutor under fire for anonymously commenting on news website” by Andrew Lapin in Government Executive.

State Integrity Investigation has just published a study on government  transparency and accountability in the states. The partners in the project are The Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity, and Public Radio International.

The bad news is that most states suffer from a lack of transparency and other ethical issues. The State Integrity Investigation website describes the following:

“Open records laws with hundreds of exemptions. Crucial budgeting decisions made behind closed doors by a handful of power brokers. ‘Citizen’ lawmakers voting on bills that would benefit them directly. Scores of legislators turning into lobbyists seemingly overnight. Disclosure laws without much disclosure. Ethics panels that haven’t met in years.”

For a summary of the report, take a look at: “Grading the nation: How accountable is your state?” by Caitlin Ginley on The Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News.

Also, be sure to read: “Study: State governments at high risk for corruption” by The Associated Press on Fox News.

Here are some of the news stories about the report from various states:

Alabama:  “Alabama gets C- in report on most corruptible states” on WAFF.com.

Arizona:  “Arizona gets D+ on corruption risk report card” by Maureen West in the Tucson Sentinel.

Arkansas: “Arkansas gets ‘D’ grade in public integrity” by Max Brantley in the Arkansas Times.

Florida: “When it comes to lobbying, Florida’s Sunshine law is dark” by Toluse Olorunnipa in the Miami Herald.

Florida: “Integrity index gives Florida politics a C-” by Kenny Malone in the Miami Herald.

Georgia: “Georgia last in public corruption laws” by Chris Joyner and Aaron Gould Sheinin in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Illinois:  “Illinois rates a C and ranks 10th in the U.S.” by Amanda Vinicky in the Quad-City Times.

Maine:  “Watchdogs fault state for lax ethical oversight” by Naomi Schalit, Lance Tapley, and John Christie in the Kennebec Journal.

Michigan:  “Michigan’s Corruptibility Rated An ‘F’ In New Report — And It Isn’t Just A Detroit Problem” by Matt Sledge in the Huffington Post.

New Jersey:  “New Jersey leads in national survey of sleaze-busting” by Dave Davies in NewsWorks.

New Jersey: “Report: N.J. has lowest corruption risk of any state” by Mary-Ann Spoto in the Star-Ledger.

Ohio: “Ohio rated as lax on ethics” by Paul Kostyu on Cincinnati.com.

Oregon:  “Report: Oregon’s ethics rules occasionally undermined by ‘loopholes’” by Ryan Kost in The Oregonian.

Pennsylvania:  “Pennsylvania has right-to-know law, but austerity hinders transparency” by Peter Durantine on NewsWorks.

Tennessee:  “Tennessee Near Top of Nation for Anti-corruption Measures” by Nina Cardona on Nashville Public Radio.

Virginia:  “Va. Gets F in Corruption-Risk Assessment” by The Associated Press on WHSV.com.

Washington:  “Washington Scores Well On Transparency, But Up To Citizens To Verify” by Amy Radil on KUOW.org.

Federal:

2012 GOP Primary Shaping Up to Be Cheapest Race in Years

Group Offers $25,000 Reward for Exposing Secret Corporate Giving

From the States and Municipalities:

Alabama

Alabama Public Corruption Trials Focus on Bribes vs. Donations

Colorado

Spending by Super PACs in Colorado Is the Dominion of Democrats

Illinois

Part of Campaign Finance Law Nixed

Illinois

State Rep. Derrick Smith, of Chicago, Is Charged with Accepting Bribe

Kentucky

Senate Changes Schedule, Allowing David Williams to Attend Kentucky Basketball Game

Minnesota

Business-Backed ALEC’s Relations with Conservative Lawmakers Riles Democrats

New Mexico

Arrests Mount in Sunland Park Scandal; New Details about Alleged Extortion Threat Emerge

Ohio

Jimmy Dimora Convicted of Racketeering, 32 Other Corruption-Related Charges

Ohio

Legislator Charged in FBI Bribery Sting

South Carolina

Ard Resigns, Is Indicted, Gets Probation

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.

The New York City Campaign Finance Board has voted to adopt its final rules for the disclosure of independent expenditures.

The rules require the reporting of independent expenditures by individuals, organizations, corporations, and other entities in New York City elections.

The adopted rules are available here.

State and Federal Communications was proud to be a Gold Sponsor at the Greater Akron Chamber’s 105th Annual Meeting. The event gave the Greater Akron Chamber the opportunity to highlight the many ways it is working to promote growth, innovation, and cooperation in our region.

Steve Marks, Co-CEO of Main Street Gourmet and founder of the Akron Marathon, was the recipient of the H. Peter Burg Award.

Elizabeth Bartz, President and CEO of State and Federal Communications, is a member of the Greater Akron Chamber’s Board of Directors.

This week instead of one site, we are highlighting a host of sites. Every presidential election brings with it the desire to predict an outcome. Here are the forecasts of a few pundits (and otherwise):

For the “tried and true”

If you like a voice of experience, take a look at James Zogby’s “Predicting the Presidential Election: 2012” in the Huffington Post. His article presents the finding of American University professor Allan Lichtman, who has correctly predicted the outcome of every election from 1984 through 2008. His vote is on Obama.

U.S. News and World Report’s Paul Bedard and Lauren Fox also talk about Lichtman in “Never-Wrong Pundit Picks Obama to Win in 2012.”

Forbes gives us “Yahoo’s Signal Predicts Presidential Election: Obama Over Romney” by Tomio Geron. Yahoo uses a system called The Signal, which claims to be correct 88% of the time, with a 3% margin of error.

Nate Silver’s Five Thirty Eight blog on The New York Times gives Republican primary projections and so does Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball in “Romney Set to Dominate Race Through April.”

For the social media aficionados

USA Today published “Can social media predict election outcomes?” by Scott Martin and Jon Swartz, who take a look at Facebook and Twitter conversations as election indicators.

The Meltwater Group gives us this word cloud showing us how much buzz the candidates are generating in social media from “We the People – Social Media Voices on Election 2012.”

PRMarketing.com posted “Predicting the 2012 President” by James Rognon, where he predicts Lady Gaga would win if we look solely at social media connections.

For the betting type of person

There is the “2012 United States Presidential Election Betting Odds” on politicalbettingodds.com.

Electoralmap.net’s 2012 Electoral Map Forecast says it uses “data from the Intrade prediction market, where individuals place wagers on the outcome of the 2012 Presidential election in each state.”

Who knows, perhaps someday a super-computer will come along with a super algorithm that can – with extreme accuracy – predict the outcome of an upcoming election and we could dispense with all of the campaign ad spending and debates, etc. Until that time, enjoy these sites as they cast their predictions.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Eric Nuzum, Vice President for Programming at National Public Radio, spoke today at The Akron Roundtable. In his presentation – “Dare to Listen” – Nuzum gave the audience a bit of his background from his days attending Kent State University and working at WKSU before heading to Washington D.C. to work for NPR. He also spoke about the importance and resilience of radio at a time of great changes in media.

As public and political discourse has often become polarizing, extreme, and perhaps even uncivil, Eric Nuzum stressed the need for each of us listen to each other and especially to listen to those who may have a different perspective than our own.

Thank you Eric and thank you Akron Roundtable for offering us such an energizing and uplifting talk!

The presentation will be broadcast tonight at 7:00 PM on 89.7 WKSU.

An advisory opinion request seeking to end the current aggregate limit on the contributions an individual may make to federal candidates has been made to the Federal Election Commission.

The request, made on behalf of Shaun McCutcheon, seeks to allow him to make political contributions to several federal candidates that would exceed the two-year aggregate limit currently set at $46,200 as provided in 2 U.S.C §441a(a)(3)(A).

The primary argument in the advisory opinion request argues the limit is unconstitutional because it violates a citizen’s right to speak and to associate with not just any candidate, but every candidate of his choosing.

If the FEC grants the request, Mr. McCutcheon plans to contribute amounts of $2,500 and $1,776 to 26 federal candidates

If you don’t file your campaign finance paperwork in Illinois, you will receive a fine from the State Board of Elections. Take a look at “Political committees owe Illinois $800,000 in fines” by Andrew Thomason in the McDonough Voice.

As the article notes, there is no criminal penalty involved, but candidates could find out they are not eligible to run for elected office if they don’t take care of the fines.

According to the article:

The Illinois State Board of Elections, or ISBE, has 553 outstanding fines totaling $808,235.15 against political committees for either filing campaign finance reports late or violating Illinois’ campaign finance laws. Fines date back to 2003 and range from $25 to $10,000.

Take a tour of our site and click on the “Free Live Online Demo” on the middle of the left column of the home page. You will open a page with three blue links, located in the middle of the page:

•Executive Source Guide on Lobbying Laws
•Executive Source Guide on Political Contributions
•Executive Source Guide on Procurement Lobbying

Click on any one – or all three – to view the state of Alaska compliance information we provide to clients. This comprehensive and vital compliance information is updated continuously.

We have this same online information for all 50 states, the federal government, and 226 municipal and regional governments.

If you would like to view everything we have for online clients, contact us at info@stateandfed.com or 330-761-9960 and ask about our two-week trial. There is no cost for the trial, and you are under no obligation to purchase.

We can think of no better way for you to see the value in our online resources than for you and your team to actually use them for two weeks in your compliance efforts.

Florida: “Lawmakers ready to tackle redistricting during special session” by Bill Kaczor (Associated Press) in Florida Today.

Florida: “Legislators return for special session to redraw rejected Senate map” by Mary Ellen Klas The Miami Herald.

Florida: “Senate Re-Redistricting Plan Is Flawed, Says State Dem Chair” by Brandon Larrabee in Sunshine Slate.

Kansas: “Kansas lawmakers face votes on redistricting plans” by The Associated Press in the Wichita Eagle.

Minnesota: “Redistricting maps give DFL advantage in legislative races, but …” by Eric Black on MinnPost.com.

New York: “An Update on New York Redistricting” by Thomas Kaplan in The New York Times.

New York: “Silver bristles at Cuomo slap at NY Legislature” by The Associated Press in The Wall Street Journal.

New York: “New York: Redistricting End Is Nigh” by Joshua Miller in Roll Call.

U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Aspen has removed limits on political contributions to groups that make independent expenditures on behalf of or against a candidate.

The decision in Personal Pac v. McGuffage specifically overturns the annual limits of $10,000 per individual, $20,000 per corporation or union, and $50,000 from a political action committee to an independent expenditure committee.

Noting the U.S. Supreme Court struck down such limits in the Citizens United case, Judge Aspen concluded that preventing actual and apparent corruption cannot justify restrictions on independent expenditures.

Howard Marlowe, president of the American League of Lobbyists, recently sent a letter to President Obama asking him to change his tone toward lobbyists and the lobbying profession. The organization is making a connection between the administration’s anti-lobbyist rhetoric and the rising number of unregistered lobbyists.

Whether they are calling themselves consultants or advisers, Marlowe points out that these people are lobbying and their activity thus goes on without any oversight:

“Those who are not registered are protected from discovery by the lack of an effective enforcement mechanism. Our primary concern with incentivizing deregistration is that the public loses knowledge of who these people are lobbying, who is paying for their advocacy work, how much they are being paid, and what issues are they being paid to work on.”

For full news coverage, please read “Lobbyists to Obama: Tone down the rhetoric!” by Byron Tau in Politico.

Photo of the White House by UpstateNYer on Wikipedia.

“Poll: Voters want super PACs to be illegal” by Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake in The Washington Post.

“Poll shows public wants to ban super PACs” by Callum Borchers in the Boston Globe.

“Super-PAC Ads Dominate Republican Race in Alabama, Mississippi” by Greg Giroux in Bloomberg.

“Spending by super PACs in Colorado is the dominion of Democrats” by Karen Crummy in the Denver Post.

“GOP campaign spending lowest since 1990s” by Dan Eggen in the Bangor Daily News.

“Rhode Island’s Top 25 Biggest Spending PACs” by Dan McGowan in GoLocal Prov.