PAY TO PLAY AND MA’S. MSRB. “The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) is requesting comment on draft amendments to Rule G-37, the MSRB’s landmark pay-to-play rule for municipal securities dealers, that would extend the rule to municipal advisors. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act expanded the jurisdiction of the MSRB to include the regulation of municipal advisors and the protection of state and local governments that often rely on these professionals for advice.”
APP FOCUS ON POLITICAL GIVING. WP. “Matthew Colbert, a former campaign and Capitol Hill staffer, has built an app for smartphones that allows users to scan the barcode of products in the grocery store and immediately find out which political party the company and its employees support.”
CROWDPAC IN THE NEWS. Washington Examiner. A “service company offering users the opportunity to browse an array of candidates and donate on site, instead of going to a candidate’s individual website to donate, has had its request approved by the Federal Election Commission.”
TRIP RULES AND LANDRIEU. Politico. “Senate ethics rules would permit official funds to cover the entire cost of this trip if that’s the case. But if Landrieu sought any political support during the ‘meet-and-greet’ event, it would become campaign-related and she would have had to use campaign funds to pay at least a portion of the overall cost of the trip. Senate rules require that campaign funds must be used to help defray the costs of a trip in which a senator mixed political and campaign events.”
BUS QUESTIONS. Politico. “The difference between what the company is charging her campaign and the fair market value of the bus rental could be considered an illegal in-kind contribution, according to legal experts.”
CHALLENGE TO LIMITS. WSJ. “Their lawsuit, brought by the Center for Competitive Politics in federal district court in Washington, D.C., doesn’t challenge the $5,200 base limit but asks why a donation to a candidate could be fine in June but forbidden in July, though all of the money is going to support the candidate running for a single office.”
AZ: DID FREE ENTERPRISE CLUB BREAK LAW? East Valley Tribune. “The state’s elections director says an organization that has so far put nearly $1.7 million into this year’s primary election likely is violating campaign finance laws.”
FL: CRIST FUNDS. MyNews13.com. “Crist on Friday received more than $474,000 when he received his second check of public matching funds. He has now received slightly more than $1 million in state money to assist his campaign.”
NJ: PAY TO PLAY CHANGE PROPOSED. NJ.com. “Jeff Brindle, executive director of the state Election Law Enforcement Commission, is calling again for the Legislature to reform the state’s pay-to-play law in the wake of a loophole in the law illuminated by a Trenton blogger.”
RI: PELL REFUND. Providence Journal. “Clay Pell has pledged to not accept money from state lobbyists. So, after a donation from Governor Chafee’s ‘federal liaison’ made it into Pell’s campaign coffers, the Democratic candidate for governor is returning the money.”
HAVE A GOOD DAY.