Campaign Finance

“Watchdogs call for new campaign regulator to replace ‘woefully inept’ FEC” by Megan R. Wilson in The Hill.

“Campaign Finance Poll Finds Most Support Donation Limits” by Emily Swanson in the Huffington Post.

Arizona: “2 Arizona bills target campaign finances” by Mary Jo Pitzl in the Arizona Republic.

Montana: “Campaign finance reforms bills pass Montana House vote” by Marnee Banks in KBZK News.

New York: “Conference to tackle lobbying and campaign finance” by Ilene Fleischmann in the UB Reporter.

Lobbying

Alaska: “Alaska: Who’s lobbying Alaska’s lawmakers? And for how much?” by Laurel Andrews in the Alaska Dispatch.

Florida: “Lobbying a lucrative cap for a legislator’s career” by Aaron Deslatte in the Orlando Sentinel.

Georgia: “Lobbying Restrictions Vote Scheduled” by The Associated Press in Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Ethics

Utah: “Ethics bill emerges in wake of probes of Utah Lt. Gov Bell, Swallow” by Robert Gehrke in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Today the United States Supreme Court decided to grant a review to a case challenging the aggregate limits on federal campaign contributions. The case, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, seeks to allow Shaun McCutcheon to make political contributions to several federal candidates exceeding the two-year aggregate limit currently set at $48,600 as provided in 2 U.S.C §441a(a)(3)(A).

Photo of Supreme Court building by UpstateNYer in Wikipedia.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has published the 2013-2014 election cycle contribution limits indexed for inflation. As required by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, the FEC must adjust certain contribution limits every two years.

The individual and non-multicandidate PAC contribution limit to federal candidates has increased from $2,500 to $2,600 for both primary and general elections, allowing for a total of $5,200 for a federal candidate. The overall biennial limit for individuals has increased to $123,200, with a maximum of $48,600 for all candidates and $74,600 for all PACs and parties. Among the other adjustments is the increased contribution limit of $32,400 per year to national parties from individuals and non-multicandidate PACs.

Lobbying

“K Street Files: Defense, Tax Aides Join McBee” by Kate Ackley in Roll Call.

“Lobbying World” in The Hill.

California: “Former assemblyman registers as a lobbyist” by Laurel Rosenhall in the Sacramento Bee.

Georgia: “Georgia speaker unveils sweeping ethics legislation” by Chris Joyner in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Missouri: “Lawmaker: Legislators should never become lobbyists” by Bob Watson in the News Tribune.

Campaign Finance

“FEC Increases Contribution Limits for 2014” by Kyle Trygstad in Roll Call.

Montana: “Montana legislators, groups at odds on campaign donation limits” by Mike Dennison in the Missoulian.

New York: “On Campaign Finance Reform, Senate Republicans Stand in Gov. Cuomo’s Way” opinion piece by John Petro in the Huffington Post.

Ethics

“Ethics Office Opened 32 Cases During 112th Congress” by Amanda Becker in Roll Call.

Hawaii: “Honolulu Ethics Commission Wants to Double Its Resources to Fight Public Corruption” in the Hawaii Reporter.

Illinois: “Former state ethics commissioner hit with $2,500 ethics violation” by Rafael Guerrero in the Chicago Tribune.

Maine: “Bill would bar state officials from quitting to immediately work for industries they regulated” by Naomi Schalit and John Christie in the Bangor Daily News.

New York: “NY ethics board talks conflicts in secret session” by The Associated Press in the Albany Times Union.

New York: “Ex-aide to City Controller John Liu snared in campaign finance fraud probe is granted immunity to testify in former treasurer’s trial” by Robert Gearty in the New York Daily News.

South Carolina: “SC Supreme Court to hear Nikki Haley ethics case” by Andrew Shain in The State.

Elections

Michigan: “Snyder nixes plan to split Michigan electoral votes” by Alexander Burns in Politico.

Ohio: “State Sen. Turner proposes election reform package” by Joe Hallett in the Columbus Dispatch.

Ohio: “Secretary of State Jon Husted and other Republicans say Electoral College changes not in store for Ohio” by Henry J. Gomez in the Plain Dealer.

Open Government

Mississippi: “Mississippi gets low grades for transparency on state, local websites” by Donna Harris in the Sun Herald.

South Dakota: “Legislature: Public records plan falls short” by David Montgomery in the Argus Leader.

Lobbying

“Newly unemployed lawmakers buzzing about million-dollar lobbying jobs” by Kevin Bogardus in The Hill.

California: “Interactive graphic: Hidden lobbying expenses” by Sharon Okada in the Sacramento Bee.

California: “California’s lobby laws keep many influence-peddling details secret” by Laurel Rosenhall in the Sacramento Bee.

Nevada:  “Lobbyists sit through ethics training in Carson City” by David McGrath in the Las Vegas Sun.

“Two Buerkle staffers land jobs with Washington, D.C., lobbying firms” by Mark Weiner in the Post-Standard.

Campaign Finance

“Money in Politics This Week” by Syed Zaidi in the Brennan Center for Justice Blog.

“FEC Appointments Are Deciding the Future of Campaign Finance” by Alex Gauthier in the Independent Voter Network.

Mississippi:  “Judge sets trial date for campaign finance case” by The Associated Press in the Mississippi Business Journal.

Wisconsin:  “Mike McCabe featured speaker, topic is Campaign Finance Jan. 26 public meeting” in the Bay View Compass.

Ethics

“Harry Reid Disavows Report Linking Him to Bribery Case” by Neils Lesniewski in Roll Call.

Texas:  “Some State Legislators Blur Line Between Public and Private Interests” by Emily Ramshaw in The New York Times.

State Legislatures

“More than Half of State Legislatures Convened this Week” by Angela Andrews in NCSL’s The Thicket blog.

Washington: “Key players to watch in the Washington Legislature, which convenes Monday” in the Seattle Times.

The Presidential Inauguration

“Critics Decry Looser Rules For Inauguration Fundraising” by NPR in Oregon Public Broadcasting.

“Fund-Raising Is Lagging, So Far, for Inaugural Plans” by Nicholas Confessore in The New York Times.

“An inauguration first: Apps” by Steve Freiss in Politico.

The Federal Election Commission issued an Advisory Opinion on December 6, 2012, concluding a federal candidate’s campaign committee may make a contribution to an independent expenditure-only committee from funds raised for the federal candidate’s terminated political campaign.

Friends of Mike H, the principal campaign committee of former candidate Mike Haridopolos, requested an opinion to determine whether it could give $10,000 or more of its excess funds raised for Mr. Haridopolos’s 2012 U.S. Senate primary election campaign in Florida, from which he withdrew, to an independent expenditure-only committee called Freedom PAC. Currently, Mr. Haridopolos does not hold federal office and is not seeking any elected federal office.

Because Friends of Mike H. is not using its funds for personal use or for any unlawful use, the Commission found Mr. Haridopolos’s political committee may make its requested contributions to Freedom PAC. The Commission also noted that “amount limitations are generally unconstitutional as applied to contributions that will be used to finance independent activity.”

A Federal District Court has held Congress may constitutionally bar federal contractors from contributing to candidates, parties, and their committees.

Finding in favor of the Federal Election Committee (FEC), the United States District Court for The District of Columbia granted a summary judgment on Friday, November 2.

In Wagner v. FEC, the Court rejected challenges to the constitutionality of section 441c of Title 2 of the U.S. Code, which prohibits any vendors with contracts with the federal government from making political contributions to federal candidates or political parties.

The case, initially brought by the ACLU, asked the Court to declare the law unconstitutional as applied to individuals who have personal services contracts with federal agencies. Because federal workers who are not contractors may make federal political contributions, while contractors performing the same work may not, the suit argued section 441c violates both the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution and the First Amendment.

The Court found no First Amendment or Equal-Protection violations, noting “the dissimilar roles of contractors and employees, moreover, justify the distinct regulatory schemes that the Government has fashioned.”

Today the FEC posted an article answering some questions about political contributions made and received by text messaging.

The article can be found here.

A federal appellate court has reversed a district court’s electioneering reporting decision, sending the issue back to the FEC.

The significance of today’s decision, pending further possible rule changes or court decisions, is that political contributors giving to an organization making an electioneering communication will not have to be disclosed to the FEC unless the donor specifically earmarks his or her contributions to fund electioneering communications.

This was the rule from 2007 until this spring when a district court ruled that all contributors giving over $1,000, regardless of whether they gave for the specific purpose of electioneering communications, had to be disclosed to the FEC.

In the initial lawsuit, Van Hollen v. FEC, the plaintiff,  U.S. Representative Van Hollen, claimed the FEC regulation 11 C.F.R. §104.20(c)(9), which requires disclosure only of those making contributions over $1,000 to an entity for the purpose of furthering electioneering communications, contradicts the statute requiring disclosure of all donors making contributions over $1,000.

In the spring, a U.S. district court agreed and declared 11 C.F.R. §104.20(c)(9) invalid and vacated the regulation. The court reinstated the FEC’s prior regulation, which was promulgated on December 17, 2002 and was in effect until December 25, 2007. The FEC had formally reiterated the district court’s requirement on July 27, 2012, retroactively applying the disclosure of donors to March 30, 2012.

Today, in Center for Individual Freedom v. Van Hollen, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed Van Hollen v. FEC, vacated the district court’s prior judgment, and remanded the case to the district court. Presently, under the jurisdiction of the district court, the FEC must pursue rulemaking to address the issues brought by the lawsuit or defend 11 C.F.R. §104.20(c)(9) in court against the parties bringing the action.

This is a signature issue for Representative Van Hollen who will probably continue to vigorously litigate this issue.

The FEC has not publicly declared its next course of action.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued an advisory opinion offering limited guidance on what type of solicitations for political contributions are permissible and what type of advertisements qualify as expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate.

In Advisory Opinion 2012-27, the FEC found two of four proposed donation requests permissible. The Commission also concluded three of seven proposed advertisements did not expressly advocate the election or defeat of a clearly identified federal candidate.

The remaining advertising and donation requests were not decided by the FEC because it lacked the required four affirmative votes for agreement.

“FEC says it will enforce nonprofit disclosure rules” by Dan Eggen in The Washington Post.

“FEC Releases Disclosure Rules” by Elahe Izadi in the National Journal’s Influence Alley.

“Outside groups may have to disclose donors” by Robin Bravender and Dave Levinthal in Politico.

Here is the Federal Election Commission’s news release.

Campaign Finance

“FEC: Campaigns can raise money via text message” by Dave Levinthal in Politico.

“FEC sues ex-Sen. Craig over use of campaign cash” by The Associated Press on CBSNews.com.

“NJ considers changes to election finance rules” by The Associated Press in the Bergen Record.

Government Ethics

Georgia: “Squirrely Ethics in Georgia, Former Exec Says” by Iulia Filip in the Courthouse News Service.

New Mexico: “New Mexico agency compiled email list for governor’s PAC” by Steve Terrell in the Santa Fe New Mexican.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) unanimously approved five legislative recommendations to be submitted to the U.S. Congress.

One proposed change would require all Senate candidates and their committees to use electronic filing.

The FEC also recommends the Commission have permanent authority to assess administrative fines, Congress expand the prohibitions on fraudulent misrepresentation of campaign authority, and the personal use restrictions to all political committees be extended. Additionally, the FEC is advocating Congress amend the law to allow the FEC to create Senior Executive Service positions under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 in line with other comparable federal agencies.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) approved several advisory opinions on a variety of issues.

In AO 2012-12, the FEC allowed a corporation to solicit contributions from its non-corporate franchisees and licensees’ executive and administrative personnel. The FEC found the personnel were part of Dunkin Brands, Inc. restricted class because of the degree of control it maintained on the franchisees and licensees.

In another opinion, the FEC concluded an association of physician-owned hospitals are not federal contractors although they provided services to patients in government-sponsored healthcare programs such as Medicaid. Therefore, the association is not prohibited from making contributions to independent expenditure-only political committees.

Additionally, the FEC found a New Hampshire campaign finance statute requiring disclaimers for telephone surveys was preempted by federal statutes and FEC regulations because the calls in question were only related to federal candidates.

The FEC also let stand the $46,200 aggregate limit for contributions to federal candidates over a request to contribute amounts over this limit.

The FEC press release concerning these and other decisions can be found here.