APPLAUDING GORSUCH. CCP. “The Center for Competitive Politics (CCP), America’s largest nonprofit defending First Amendment political speech rights, applauds President Trump’s selection of Tenth Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch as a nominee for the Supreme Court.”
MORE ON LOBBYING EO FROM COVINGTON. Here. “While some in the media are claiming that the order is a significant weakening of a similar Obama-era Executive Order, the new Trump order is, in several subtle but key respects, much more restri ctive than the Obama order.”
PAY TO PLAY CHALLENGE UPDATE. L360. “Three state Republican parties told the Sixth Circuit on Thursday that the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s rules increasing pay-to-play restrictions on muni advisers aren’t shielded from review just because the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission failed to affirmatively act on them.”
MN: BOARD RULES. ST. “Jacob Frey’s bid to use the money he raised as a council member to run for mayor of Minneapolis survived Tuesday in front of the state’s Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, setting him up for a wide mayoral fundraising lead on the day that 2016 campaign finance reports are due in Hennepin County.”
MO: REPORTS TRICKLE. CL. “Mississippi politicians faced a 5 p.m. deadline Tuesday for filing campaign finance reports covering Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 of 2016.”
MT: COMMISSIONER APPLICANTS. BDC. “Only two people filed applications by Friday’s deadline to indicate their desire to replace the state’s commissioner of political practices, Jon Motl.”
NJ: PAY TO PLAY IMPACT. NW. “Two reasons for the precipitous drop, according to ELEC, are state pay-to-play laws passed in 2005 and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision in 2010, which produced a deluge of independent political groups called Super PACs.”
NJ: PAY TO PLAY AND CONTRACTS. NJ. “Irving’s 2016 fundraising efforts previously became a target of criticism when he accepted a $1,125 contribution from an education consultant, Joseph Fulmore, who soon afterward received a $20,000 contract from the school district.”
TX: ETHICS REFORM. DN. “A lawmaker convicted of certain crimes would lose his pension, and one convicted of a felony would have to vacate office once appeals are exhausted.”
HAVE A GOOD DAY.