Judge Thomas Johnston of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia has struck down key provisions of campaign finance law pertaining to electioneering communications.

In a suit filed by West Virginians for Life and the Center for Individual Freedom, the court held that while the state of West Virginia could regulate advertisements that “can have no other reasonable meaning than to urge the election or defeat of one or more clearly identified candidates,” the state could not require financial disclosures from third party groups creating advertisements that are merely “susceptible” to the interpretation that they are an appeal for or against a specific candidate.

Further, the court struck down the extension of electioneering communication regulations to print media while upholding the applicability of such regulations to broadcast media.

The special legislative session called on Tuesday by Governor Mark Dayton adjourned at 3:43 a.m. Wednesday morning.

The Legislature passed 12 budget bills that were signed by Governor Dayton in order to reopen state government.

True to the recent trend that can be observed in both local governments and the federal government, the city of Burleson, Texas has released a new Facebook app named the Citizen Request Tracker soon to be spread  to other communities nationwide that makes it easier for citizens to report problems and request services from its local government.

This app can help alert the local authorities about such issues such as pot holes, graffiti, barking dogs and malfunctioning streetlights.

Read more about the Citizen Request Tracker Facebook App in “New App Connects Social Media Users with Municipal Services” by Brian Heaton posted on GovTech.com.

We now provide information on lobbying, political contributions, and procurement lobbying for Miami, Florida; Pembroke Pines, Florida; and Vancouver, Washington on our website.

The image of North America by Bosonic dressing on Wikipedia.

The Cuyahoga County Executive and Inspector General, in collaboration with the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio have announced plans to offer additional vendor ethics training courses.

The first vendor ethics course was offered for construction vendors only. Training sessions will soon be scheduled for health and human services providers, professional services providers, and miscellaneous service providers.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has called a special legislative session to begin today at 3 p.m. for a vote on a budget agreement that would end the state’s government shutdown.

Governor Dayton stated that some state agencies could re-open as early as Wednesday if the budget agreement is finalized.

Photo of the Minnesota State Capitol dome by Mulad on Wikipedia.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert has called a special session of the State Legislature for July 20. It is expected to last only one day.

“The items on the call are generally minor housekeeping items, some of which are time-sensitive,” the Governor is quoted as saying in his press release.

Photo of Governor Gary Herbert courtesy of Gw.hajduk on Wikipedia.

New ethics regulations have been introduced by the Laurel, Maryland City Council, including provisions related to lobbyists.

Observing Maryland’s state ethics regulations for municipalities, the introduced ordinance requires lobbyists to file reports twice a year for each entity they represent. Lobbyists failing to file timely reports could be assessed a late fee of $10 per day up to a maximum of $250. Further enforcement of violations by lobbyists could include additional fines up to $5,000 per offense and suspension of lobbyist registration.

The bill also includes financial reporting requirements for public officials, hiring practices regulations, and rules regarding conflicts of interest.

Map of Maryland by Arkyan on Wikipedia.

Mobile Gov is an interagency group that has the mission to discover information and make the case for mobile in your agency, discuss with the public the challenges to mobile gov, and design this mobile future.

An article titled “Government Apps Should Be Task-Oriented and Mission Driven, Mobile Gov Director Says” by Joseph Marks posted on NextGov.com indicates that Mobile Gov is charged with culling best practices for agencies as they begin developing mobile apps, and they hope to leverage the government’s website experience to make the mobile transition more orderly.

The article also discusses smartphone apps that have already been created which include apps such as IRS2go and MyTSA. A really cool one that I downloaded onto my Android phone is called the NASA App which collects, customizes and delivers an extensive selection of dynamically updated information, images and videos from various online NASA sources.

A full list of all 68 official U.S. Government smartphone apps can be found here. To read the full article which includes much more information on government smartphone apps and Mobile Gov, click here.

The city attorney for Boynton Beach, Jim Cherof, has proposed ceasing enforcement of the city’s lobbying ordinance and turning over enforcement to the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics. The lobbying ordinance, in effect since 2007, has come under fire recently due to a perceived vagueness in the law.

This past May, the city levied the first fines ever under the ordinance and has also taken steps to open an investigation against former city commissioner David Katz, all concerning failure to register as a lobbyist. Each fine is being appealed and Katz maintains he was never required to register under the law because he was performing consulting work and not lobbying.

It seems that following Obama’s Twitter Town Hall, politicians across the nation are following suit and making the effort to use social media to connect to their followers more than ever. Hopeful Republican presidential nominee Newt Gingrich, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont are three examples of such politicians.

Being one of the first politicians to utilize the new Google+, Newt Gingrich hosted his first Hangout, posting the 13 minute long video of him having a conversation with up to 10 regular Americans at a time onto YouTube. TechPresident published an article written by Nick Judd providing the video and more information here.

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U.S. District Court Judge Robert Bryan has issued a preliminary injunction barring the state from enforcing campaign contribution limits with respect to an effort to recall the Pierce County assessor. Washington restricts contributions to recall campaigns to $800 or less, though political parties and their official committees may contribute more.

In his decision Judge Bryan stated “the public interest in upholding free speech and association rights outweighs the interest in continued enforcement of these campaign finance provisions.”

Enforcement of the recall campaign contribution limits is enjoined pending a trial over whether the limits are constitutional.

An advisory opinion request seeking to lift the requirement of the 24- and 48-hour reporting of independent expenditures for bulk e-mailing during the 2012 presidential primaries has been filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Western Representation PAC (WRPAC), which has 140,000 e-mail addresses, and estimates it will have 500,000 by the end of the year, intends to send the entire list an indeterminate number of e-mail messages during the more than 24 president primaries in 2012. The frequency of messages would range “from as few as four a month to as many as thirty, depending on the unpredictable political developments of the day and the fluctuating urgencies of the primary season.”

Because WRPAC will be paying a fixed monthly price for the e-mail service, and because the number of e-mails is unpredictable, WRPAC is asking the FEC to grant an exemption from the 24- and 48-hour reporting requirement, stressing the difficulty in determining what share of the fixed monthly price would apply in order to determine whether a reporting requirement would be triggered across the various different primary dates. WRPAC’s request includes several scenarios to illustrate the burdens on WRPAC’s planned independent expenditures, arguing “that they rise to the level of an infringement on WRPAC’s First Amendment rights.”

You can find the press release here.

 
National:

State Legislative Bills Raise Conservative Group’s Profile

Federal:

Key Senator Urges Federal Investigation of Murdoch Media Company

The Influence Industry: Coming soon to a screen near you – a lobbying campaign

From the States and Municipalities:

Alabama

Legislature’s Ethics Chairs Say Referral Fees Are ‘Unquestionably Illegal’

Arizona

Arizona Lawmaker Says Pointing Gun at Reporter Wasn’t Deliberate

California

Gays Gaining Ground in State Political District Boundary Talks

Connecticut

Agency Head: Malloy’s undermining watchdogs’ fiscal autonomy

Idaho

Watchdog Group Says Idaho Should Have Stricter Lobbyist Reporting

Indiana

City Ponders Campaign-Gift Curbs

Minnesota

Full Eighth Circuit to Hear Minnesota Disclosure Law Case

Montana

High Court Sets Oral Arguments in Campaign Lawsuit

South Carolina

Campaign Reports, Fines Dog Son of Late S.C. Gov. Campbell

Tennessee

Haslam’s Office Cuts Off Hundreds from Clip Service

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.