Jennifer Hensley, who has held the position of Commissioner of Political Practices since her nomination in January of 2011, was refused confirmation by the Senate.  The Senate Judiciary Committee held a brief confirmation hearing on Hensley’s nomination, but never voted on her nomination before adjournment of the legislative session.

Governor Schweitzer asked the top four Republican and Democratic legislative leaders to send him a list of nominees for the position by May 11.  The Governor may choose a nominee from the list or make an independent appointment to serve out the remainder of Hensley’s six-year term.

Baseball season is here and every year, members of the U.S. Congress (Republican and Democrat) face off in a venue other than the Capitol – on the field. The U.S. House Office of the Clerk website has a fun series of pages for the event: The U.S. Congressional Baseball Game. This year, on June 17, the 50th game will be sponsored by CQ/Roll Call.

In 1909 the first game was put together by U.S. Rep. John Tener (R-Penn.), who had been a professional baseball player from 1885 until 1890. The games have been very popular and over the years the proceeds have gone to various charities.

They have been held in different places: American League Park,Griffith Stadium, D.C. Stadium, RFK Stadium, Memorial Stadium, Four Mile Run Park, and Prince George’s County Stadium. Since 2006 they have been held at Nationals Park.

The games were put on hiatus a few years during the Great Depression and World War II. They are said to have gotten in the way of getting legislation passed in Congress a few times!

The Office of the Clerk site can give you a history of the rosters, and a great stats page showing where the games were played, who won, and the final score.

Attendance in the 1926 game was 4,000 as the Republicans held a parade with a live elephant and the Democrats paraded a donkey. (Democrats won that year.) The first game to be covered by radio broadcast was in 1928, and lately the games have been covered on Twitter and Facebook.

The Congressional Baseball games have not been immune to the problems of ethics. This Fox News article reports how Rep. John Ensign had to sit out of the 2009 game because of his admitting to having an affair. Apparently his skills on the field were missed!

Here is a Roll Call video from the 2010 game. Pure fun: 2010 Congressional Baseball Game Music Video.

Let me know if you are going!

Q: I am a registered lobbyist.  Can a company executive and/or expert accompany me to meetings with public officials without needing to register?

A:  In most instances, individuals are not “insulated” from registration by engaging in lobbying activities in the presence of a registered lobbyist.  California is an example of an exception to this rule.  In California, an individual does not engage in direct communication when he meets or speaks with a qualifying official in the company of a registered lobbyist retained by the individual’s employer, or by a bona fide trade association or membership organization of which the individual’s employer is a member.

The answer will to depend on the jurisdiction’s registration thresholds. Often times, executives and experts will not have to register because their involvement will not meet the compensation, time, or expenditure threshold in the given jurisdiction.  For example, in Connecticut, the expert would have to receive $2,000 in compensation in a calendar year before having to register.  A one-time meeting with public officials would probably not exceed this threshold.  Likewise, in Massachusetts, there is a statutory presumption that an individual is not a lobbyist if he spends 25 hours or less and receives less than $2,500 for lobbying efforts during any semi-annual reporting period.

The context and content of the conversation are also important in determining whether registration is required.  If the executive and/or expert are merely providing testimony at a public hearing, most often this will not be considered lobbying and he will not be required to register.  In some cases, as in Arizona, there are exceptions for individuals providing technical information to public officials.

It is always important to remember the “title” of the person is not relevant in determining whether he or she needs to register as a lobbyist in any given jurisdiction.

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.

Governor Jack Dalrymple has signed Senate Bill 2073 into law.

The legislation, effective August 1, 2011, requires corporations making independent expenditures relating to ballot measures to file a report including the company’s name, the measure supported or opposed, and the monetary amount of the expenditure made.

This report, known as a “direct expenditure statement,” is due within 48 hours of making such an expenditure.

Photo of Governor Dalrymple courtesy of the North Dakota Office of the Governor website.

The office of the Secretary of State has released an amended version of the Rules Concerning Campaign and Political Finance, 8 CCR 1505-6.

The amended version has added guidelines concerning requests for a waiver or reduction of campaign finance penalties.

Requests must state the reason for the delinquency, as well as provide an explanation including all relevant factors relating to the delinquency and any mitigating circumstances.

Further, for waiver requests applying to more than one penalty, the guidelines will be applied separately to each penalty in chronological order using the single request as the basis for each.

Photo of downtown Denver by David Shankbone on Wikipedia.

Bills legalizing direct corporate contributions and increasing contribution limits have moved one step closer to becoming law.

House Bill 1003 and concurrent Senate Bill 1915 have been approved by state and local government committees in both chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly.

The bills would allow direct corporate contributions to candidates and would increase contribution limits by nearly 40 percent.

Photo of the Tennessee State Capitol by Ichabod on Wikipedia.

We would love to see you! Come visit us at booth #5 in the exhibit hall, right next to the voter registration. Or, chat with some of us in the OSBA conference classes Wednesday evening, Thursday, and Friday morning.

Here is a link to the event.

According to a Politico article by John Bresnahan: “Daniel Schwager, a lawyer on the Senate Ethics Committee, was approved by the House panel in a bipartisan vote Monday to take over the super-sensitive post, which had been vacant since January.”

You can read Roll Call’s coverage of the news by Emma Dumain here. Jordy Yager writes here in the Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ethics has a press release from May 2.

Photo of the U.S. Capitol Rotunda by UpstateNYer on Wikipedia.

Recently DiversityBusiness.com held its 11th Annual National Multicultural Business Conference at the Gaylord National outside of Washington, DC.  Their conference proclamation was “American business has arrived at the next step in its evolution – the era of global diversity.”

Diversity has included the following: 1] businesses owned by people of color; 2] by women; and 3] by the disabled.  But, in 2011 this organization wants you to know that it includes innovative ideas, varied products, greater quality, greater efficiency, and lower costs.  Additionally, it includes a multicultural platform in markets, products, services, and experience.

State and Federal Communications, Inc. and Elizabeth Z. Bartz, President and CEO has been chosen to receive a DiversityBusiness.com award for its success in business in Ohio.

The conference host presenting the awards was Joan Lunden.  Her keynote speech titled “10 ways to Reinvent Yourself” is featured in our May 2011 Compliance Now newsletter.

As part if its Weekly Historical Highlights, the website of the U.S. House of Representatives Office of the Clerk remembers the very first presidential inauguration at Federal Hall in New York City. On April 30, 1789, the inauguration ceremony for George Washington was held in Federal Hall, where Federal Congress first met before moving to Philadelphia. The Office of the Clerk site gives an account of the event and says Washington was very humbled by the occasion.

The original building was located on Wall Street. It was built in 1700 and originally served as the New York City Hall. From 1785-1789, it served as the capitol where Congress met. According to the U.S. Senate website: “When Congress convened for the first time on March 4, 1789, the old building had been converted into a splendid capitol, optimistically renamed Federal Hall.”

The National Park Service (NPS.gov) gives us a great picture of the landmark events that Federal Hall has witnessed: “After the American Revolution, the Continental Congress met at City Hall and, in 1787, adopted the Northwest Ordinance, establishing procedures for creating new states.When the Constitution was ratified in 1788, New York remained the national capital. Pierre L’Enfant [who designed the city plan for the District of Columbia] was commissioned to remodel the City Hall for the new federal government. The First Congress met in the now Federal Hall and wrote the Bill of Rights.”

The NPS goes on to say that when the nation’s capital was moved to Philadelphia, the building went back to being New York’s city hall. In 1812 the building was torn down and a new one was opened in 1842, functioning first as the Customs House, then as a Treasury, and finally as a national memorial to Federal Hall.

If you are in New York City, there is tour information for Federal Hall here and here. You might wish to follow the New Amsterdam trail that starts at Castle Clinton and ends with Federal Hall.

Have a great weekend!

This law, taking effect on July 1, 2011, requires lobbyist registration and reporting only with the legislative branch.

Lobbyists will indicate on this registration whether they will also engage in lobbying executive officials.

Employer reports will still be due each July 31^st.

Photo of Governor Branstad courtesy of the official website for the Office of the Governor.

House File 126 has passed both houses of the Iowa Legislature and now awaits approval from Governor Terry Branstad.

This bill would change the state’s law to require lobbyists to register and report with the legislative branch only; currently there is separate registration and reporting for the legislative and executive branches.

Lobbyists would indicate on the registrations whether they will lobby executive officials in addition to lawmakers. Lobbyists would have a combined annual report due each July 31st and registration would open in December for the following calendar year.

The U.S. House of Representatives has debuted a beta version of its new website.

The Hill reports the U.S. State Department has shut down its website America.gov and will put its communications work into social media.

ExecutiveGov.com reports that Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) is seeking more information from White House Chief Information Officer about which open government websites are at risk of being cut.

House Bill 139, a bill aimed at limiting pay-to-play activities in the state, began moving through committees last week.

The bill seeks to limit vendors who have a state contract of greater than $25,000 from contributing in excess of $500 per election to a candidate or candidate committee for a public servant if the public servant would have authority over the contract with the vendor.

House Bill 139 is similar to a bill introduced during the prior legislative session; however, that bill was left out of a series of ethics reforms eventually approved by the legislature.

Photo of the North Carolina State Legislative Building by Jayron32 on Wikipedia.