The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board issued a reminder for campaign disclosure report due dates.

Reports for the period of January 1 through May 14 are due no later than 4:30 pm on May 19.

Although the board is working remotely during the disaster proclamation, because reports are filed electronically, filing deadlines have not changed.

The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board named Mike Marshall to serve as its new Executive Director.

Marshall will replace Megan Tooker, who announced her resignation in November as the current Executive Director and Legal Counsel for the Board. Tooker is pursuing other career opportunities.

Marshall is currently the Chief of the Bureau of Professional Licensure at the Department of Public Health. He had previously been the Secretary of the Iowa Senate for eighteen years.

Tooker, who has served with the Board since 2010, will be leaving by the end of 2019.

The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board issued an advisory opinion clarifying the disclosure rules a trust must follow when making a political contribution.

If a trust raises or spends more than $750 for campaign activities, it will have to register with the ethics board as a political committee.

As a political committee, the trust will have to file periodic reports with the board and will also have to identify the name of the trust, the trustee, and the trustor.

The committee that receives the contribution will also to have to disclose the trust, trustee, and trustor on its disclosure report.

The opinion also restricts prohibited contributors, such as corporations, insurance companies, or banks, from giving money or anything of value to a trust that makes campaign contributions.

The advisory opinion was in response to a 2002 advisory opinion which incorrectly allowed trusts to anonymously give money to political committees for the past 10 years.