ALLEGATIONS INVOLVING DC MAYOR GRAY. In the Post. “District Mayor Vincent C. Gray on Sunday acknowledged ‘missteps’ and said he wants the city attorney general and the D.C. Council to investigate allegations that aides to his campaign paid mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown last summer to continue his attacks on then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in exchange for a city job.”
RORY REID AND 91 PACS IN THE NEWS. Jon Ralston at the Las Vegas Sun explains gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid’s receipt of PAC funds in this interesting story. “The campaign finance laws are a Swiss cheese amalgamation of statutes designed to allow all manner of nonsense.”
FEC CHAIRMAN JOINS OLD FIRM. In the Post.
THE SUITE LIFE OF POLITICIANS. The Post examines the use of luxury suites at the Verizon Center here. “Two luxury suites that would have been purchased by taxpaying corporations and individuals are in the clutches of city officials who don’t pay a cent.”
LOBBYING AND ALLEGEDLY UNDERMINING OPPONENTS. Dan Eggen reports. “This little-discussed aspect of the influence business came into view in recent weeks with the release of thousands of hacked corporate e-mails, which detail a pair of high-tech dirty-tricks campaigns aimed at supporters of WikiLeaks and foes of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.”
NEWT WEBSITE WOES. Stock photos (the site allegedly used “a stock photo for its website that first appeared on the website of the late Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, a liberal icon of the Democratic Party”) and failure to register similar domains (TechPresident explains). Meanwhile, the Times covers the filing of a form here.
CAMPAIGN LEGAL CENTER TTW WHITE PAPER. Is available here.
O12 STIRRING. The Post. “Start with money. Obama raised about $750 million in his 2008 campaign, an astounding amount. There has been talk, still speculative, that he might be the first $1 billion candidate in 2012.”
FORMER TREASURER PLEADS. News from New Jersey here.
GOVERNMENT LOBBYING EXCEEDS CORPORATE LOBBYING. News from Washington. “The state Public Disclosure Commission’s data on lobbyist spending show that government entities — cities, counties, ports, tribes and others — were the biggest spenders when compared with 40 other categories the PDC tracks. It is the first time in recent years that government lobbying eclipsed the general-business category — which is just a fraction of the total business lobby’s expenditures.”
WHAT’S A LOBBYIST? Georgia mulls. “All employees writing to or talking with a lawmaker about a bill affecting their profession are considered lobbyists under a new legal interpretation by the state ethics agency that takes effect Monday.”
LOBBYING RULES EVENT NEXT WEEK. I’ll be attending a panel discussion, “Washington’s Lobbying Reform” in Rayburn at 2 p.m. next Monday More information here. A “panel of lobbyists, experts, and journalists will discuss the current state of lobbying disclosure, evaluate the need for lobbying reform, and consider proposals for real-time lobbying disclosure.”
HAVE A GREAT DAY.