Political Activity Law/Political Law/Election Law

Day: July 16, 2008

  • Lobbyist Disclosure, Clark County, NV

    The Las Vegas Sun covers lobbying in Clark County, Nevada.

    On more than 170 occasions this year, lobbyists failed to file disclosure forms when they visited Clark County commissioners, leaving the public in the dark about what issues they were pushing and on whose behalf.

    The failures expose flaws in the disclosure policy — and confusion about that policy among commissioners and lobbyists alike. Although the county requires more than federal and state governments do, it doesn’t impose penalties for violations.

    As a result, lobbyists are regularly flouting the rules, failing to disclose their private meetings with commissioners, sometimes on controversial issues, such as new regulations for payday loan stores and Republic Services’ proposed rate increase on trash collection.

  • More Guidance?

    In order to accommodate the thousands of new filers who are required to participate in the LD203 disclosure process, we are developing additional guidance that we plan to release in the beginning of this week. This guidance will provide clarification and will assist new filers in the completion of the LD203 form.

    As of this writing, the House Office of the Clerk’s website contains the above message; the message is not dated and it’s not certain when the guidance will be available.

  • Fine for Dry Cleaning

    State Sen. Mike Jackson took his campaign contributors to the cleaners, almost literally.

    In a July 2 order, the Texas Ethics Commission penalized Jackson, R-La Porte, for spending $236.51 in campaign money to pay for dry cleaning in Austin.

    Jackson reported the expenditures voluntarily on his January 2006, July 2006 and July 2007 campaign finance reports.

    Texas campaign finance rules allow elected officials to spend campaign money on some living expenses, such as rent and utilities, while in Austin. Jackson said he mistakenly thought the dry cleaning was an allowable expense.

    “I will not do that anymore,” he said, adding that campaign finance rules can be confusing.

    The Galveston County Daily News has the article.