HOLIDAY FRANKING ADVICE. Story here. “Members of Congress send millions of dollars worth of mail to constituents every year but there are official rules that govern what can and cannot be said in those mailings. Members are barred, for example, from saying anything that might be construed as advocating their re-election.”
LOBBYING XL. The Hill. “The 60-day clock for a federal decision on the Keystone XL pipeline started by the payroll tax deal will touch off a frenzied lobbying and PR battle as environmentalists and the oil industry seek to sway the decision.”
PERRY DISCLOSURE FORM FILED. The Post. “Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry is collecting a $92,000 annual pension on top of his salary as the governor of Texas, according to documents filed Friday.”
OPINION ON ENDING THE STALEMATE. Steven Pearlstein’s opinion on how to help end what he views as economic deadlock is here. “The next time anyone calls you for a campaign contribution or tries to bill you for next year’s association dues or solicits your vote on a corporate proxy statement, do yourself and all the rest of us a favor: Just say no.”
FIRST IN TEXTING. News here. “Approved by the California Fair Political Practices Commission in October, the new rules are now in effect. It is up to wireless carriers and the candidates to implement the systems necessary to accept text message contributions, according to the commission.”
SECOND IN TEXTING. Maryland’s proposed rules on texting political donations appear on page 68-69 of this PDF. Maryland calls these donations “electronic contributions.”
GOSS RECUSAL. Story here. “The chairman of the Office of Congressional Ethics, former CIA Director Porter Goss, has recused himself from his post probing the alleged misdeeds of House members because his son is running for Congress in Florida.”
COUNTRYWIDE LOAN VIPS. Politico. “Issa did not name the four members who received the loans in his letter to Ethics, but Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), the former chairman of Oversight and Government Reform, has acknowledged receiving two loans through the VIP program.”
REVISED LDA GUIDANCE. The latest revised LDA guidance is online here.
RNC DATA MOVE. ClickZ. “After years of prodding from party insiders, the RNC is finally storing its database with a third party.”
HOUSE ETHICS AND REP. WATERS. The House Ethics Committee issued a statement and it is online here. “The Committee on Ethics has voted unanimously to extend the contract of William R. Martin to continue his service as outside counsel to the Committee in the matter of Representative Maxine Waters.”
EXPERT AND PARTNER. Roll Call. “It was the fourth time since 2007 that Pelosi had invited San Francisco investment banker William Hambrecht to be part of an economic policy forum on the Hill and the third time she appeared at a podium with him to speak to reporters. At none of those events did the then-Speaker reveal her financial ties to Hambrecht, and House rules did not require her to do so.”
CU AT THE FEC. Politico. “The panel also voted 5-1 on Thursday to begin to formally scrap rules to prohibit corporations and labor from spending general treasury funds on political ads, after those rules were made obsolete by the Citizens United decision.”
EXPLORING PUBLIC FINANCING IN IL. Story here. “Grants and tax credits are among a list of five ways cash-strapped Illinois could adopt public financing of candidate campaigns, according to a campaign finance reform task force report.”
SUPER PACS IN PARADISE. Story here. “Political committees in Hawaii that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of campaign money could be required to name the candidates their expenditures are targeting or supporting in the upcoming elections.”
LIU DONORS IN THE NEWS. The Times. “The federal inquiry into the campaign finances of New York City’s comptroller, John C. Liu, a possible mayoral candidate in 2013, appears to be widening, with people knowledgeable about the matter saying Thursday that there has been an increased focus on seeking information from his supporters in the Chinese-American business community.”
206(4)-5 TRACKING. An interesting press release for a product designed to assist in pay to play compliance came to my attention and is online here. “The solution facilitates employee contribution disclosure, monitoring and verification process for political contributions and fulfills SEC rule 206(4)-5 for money managers, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other regulations for public companies, and MSRB rules for broker dealers.”
FOCUS ON FL LAW. Story here. “The year-long Miami-Dade state attorney’s office investigation into Congressman David Rivera’s personal and campaign finances has stalled over questions about more than $100,000 in undisclosed campaign donations that appear to fall under a little-known loophole in Florida’s campaign-finance laws.”
TEETH FOR DC ETHICS? The Post. “The D.C. Council is set to take a final vote Tuesday on a comprehensive ethics bill, and the question is whether it will live up to the promise of meaningful reform.”
SUSPENDED PENALTY IN WA. Story here. “A Democratic political consulting firm was hit with $250,000 in fines and $40,000 in legal fees for a scheme to conceal the source of political hit pieces in the 2010 elections, under a settlement announced Friday by Attorney General Rob McKenna.” The AG’s release is here.
HAVE A GREAT DAY.