The ethics board in Iowa issued an advisory opinion allowing political candidates in the state to use campaign funds to attend a presidential inauguration.

The board’s reasoning for its decision centered around the value to a candidate’s campaign of attending an inauguration event.

Under the opinion, a campaign committee can pay for the candidate’s travel and lodging, but cannot pay such expenses for anyone else.

The Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board is developing new auditing procedures for political committees receiving donations from entities. This action was likely prompted by the recent controversy over the funding of prominent PAC Iowans for Tax Relief, which was almost exclusively funded by trusts whose identities remained unknown until recently.

The ethics board also proposed legislation to be introduced when the legislature goes into session in January. The bill includes a $1,000 reporting threshold, and would allow campaigns to collect anonymous donations of up to $25. The bill would also require all campaign committees to file electronically by 2015.

Delegates from the Republican party have selected State Representative Julian Garrett to run in the special election for Iowa Senate District 13, which takes place November 19.

The special election will fill the seat vacated earlier this month by Kent Sorenson.

The Democrats will select their candidate Monday. Regardless of the outcome of this special election, the Democrats will retain control of the Iowa Senate.

A special election has been called for Iowa’s 13th Senatorial District, formerly held by Senator Kent Sorenson.

The election will be held on November 19, 2013.

Voters in Polk County will be heading to the polls this October to elect a new representative in the State House. State Rep. Kevin McCarthy announced he will resign his seat effective Thursday to accept a position in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.

Gov. Terry Branstad announced the special election to replace McCarthy will take place on October 22.

McCarthy, a Democrat, was first elected in November 2002 to lead House District 33 and during his time in office served four years as the House majority leader. Two Democrats have already thrown their hats into the ring to replace McCarthy; Joe Henry, an advocate for union workers, and Karl Schilling, a long-time member of Iowa Civil Rights Commission. More people are expected to enter the race before the parties hold their nominating conventions.

Hawaii and Iowa will be seeing some changes in their campaign finance laws as a result of passed bills and court decisions.

In Iowa, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the state’s law requiring groups making independent expenditures to disclose information about their spending, but struck down the part of the law requiring those same groups to file supplemental reports. Under the old law, if a group spent more than $750 on independent expenditures it would be required to file a report within 48 hours, and if the group spent more than $1,000 in expenditures it would be required to file a supplemental report on the 19th of January, May, July, and October. However, in Iowa Right to Life Committee, Inc. v. Tooker, the court held the supplemental reports to be “additional, redundant, and more burdensome.” Therefore, groups making independent expenditures are no longer required to file supplemental reports.

In Hawaii, Governor Neil Abercrombie signed two bills into law. Senate Bill 31 changes the way noncandidate committees, corporations, and other associations active in elections disclose their political spending. In the past, those groups were required to file supplemental reports on January 31 and July 31 only in years following an election. Under the new law, which took effect immediately upon Abercrombie’s signature, the January 31 supplemental report must be filed every year. The bill also requires those groups, when filing the reports, to make a distinction between contributions made and contributions received.

Abercrombie also signed House Bill 1147 into law. This bill, which takes effect November 5, 2014, requires noncandidate committees making only independent expenditures to include, in a prominent location, the names of the top three contributors making the highest aggregate contributions to the noncandidate committee for the purpose of the advertisement. This requirement only applies to advertisements which are broadcasted, televised, circulated, or published, and are of a duration so as not to create a hardship to the committee. The bill also requires a noncandidate committee making an independent expenditure in the last two weeks before an election exceeding $500 to file a late expenditure report.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Arizona State Legislature

Arkansas State Legislature

Georgia General Assembly

Iowa Legislature

Kansas Legislature

Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico

Washington State Legislature

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Alaska State Legislature

New Mexico Legislature

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Hawaii State Legislature

Governor Terry Branstad announced that a special election will take place on January 22, 2013 to fill the now-vacated district 52 house seat.

Representative Brian Quirk had won the seat in the November elections, but due to a new job he recently accepted, decided he could not fulfill his duties as a lawmaker.

A special election is set for December 11 in the race for the Iowa State Senate District 22 seat due to very unfortunate circumstances. State Senator Pat Ward passed away from breast cancer on October 15, making the special election necessary.

Both Ward and her opponent, democratic candidate Desmund Adams, will still appear on the November 6th ballot, but the state will not count any of the votes. The Republican Party will select a candidate at a special nominating convention to run against Adams. The republicans must select a candidate by November 13.

Adams has decided to suspend his campaign to allow the district to mourn the loss of Ward.

“This Week in Tech: House boots up ‘cyber week’” by Brendan Sasso and Andrew Feinberg in The Hill.

NCSL is hosting its “Social Media Policies for State Legislatures” webinar on April 27.

Nextgov gives us a sneak preview of their forthcoming new website!

Here is a link to The New York Times Election 2012 App for iPhone and Android. Their site gives this description:

“News, opinion, polls and live election night results. From The Times and other top sources around the Web. It’s the best campaign coverage anywhere, all in one app.”

District of Columbia: “Hackers Shut Down District of Columbia Government Website” by Nikita Stewart in The Washington Post.

Iowa: “Iowa lawmakers go on camera to deliver updates” by James Q. Lynch in the Quad-City Times.

DELAWARE: The 146th Delaware General Assembly concluded its first regular session June 30, 2011.

IOWA: The Iowa General Assembly adjourned sine die.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: The New Hampshire Legislature adjourned June 30, 2011.

OREGON: The 2011 regular session of the Legislature adjourned sine die on June 30, 2011. Governor John Kitzhaber has 30 days, excluding Saturdays and Sundays, to act upon any bill he receives within the last five days of the session, or the legislation becomes law without his signature.

RHODE ISLAND: The Legislature’s 2011 regular session recessed today. Any bills submitted to Governor Lincoln Chafee must be signed or vetoed by July 10. There is no pocket veto.

All lobbyists, for both the legislative and executive branches will file their reports with the legislative branch. Executive branch lobbyists will not have to register with the legislature as legislative branch lobbyists. They will, however, have to register for the online reporting system used by the legislative branch.

The legislative branch will be sending a letter with directions and passwords for the new system to all registered executive branch lobbyists and their clients. The online system will open to executive branch lobbyists on July 1st, 2011.

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.