Category: Social Media

  • Good morning, here are Monday’s political law links, 6-3-13

    DANIELCZYK SENTENCED. Story here. “A northern Virginia businessman was sentenced Friday to more than two years in prison for illegally funneling nearly $200,000 to Hillary Clinton’s political campaigns in 2006 and 2008.” The Department of Justice’s press release is here.

    TWITTER FUNDRAISING. C&E. “Social media is a fantastic tool for engaging and building a relationship with your supporters. Its importance is in a constant state of evolution but I have yet to see any social fundraising initiative dependent on traditional social media make a significant fundraising impact on a campaign.”

    ABSENTEE BALLOT SCHEME ALLEGED. Miami Herald. “Congressman Joe Garcia’s chief of staff abruptly resigned Friday after being implicated in a sophisticated scheme to manipulate last year’s primary elections by submitting hundreds of fraudulent absentee-ballot requests.”

    VOTER FRAUD EMERGES. Heritage. “On Monday, John C. Moretina pleaded guilty to a federal felony count of voter fraud in the August 2010 Democratic primary in Missouri’s 40th legislative district. Moretina falsely claimed he was living in the 40th district just so he could vote in the primary. This is a Democratic district where the winner of the primary, John J. Rizzo, was highly likely to become the district representative in the state house and, in fact, was elected. But Rizzo beat his Democratic opponent, Will Royster, by only one vote: 664 to 663.”

    CHAMBER OVERVIEW. The Times. “Over the last 16 years, Mr. Donohue has used his considerable talent for fund-raising to build the once-struggling chamber into a free-enterprise research outfit, Supreme Court advocacy group and lobbying powerhouse.”

    CA: STUDENT SUPPORT. Here. “A group of college students at San Francisco State University found their classroom transformed into a campaign headquarters recently when their professor asked them to design a political campaign ad, with the option of designing it for his potential mayoral run.”

    CT: CFR ROLL BACK. Story here. “State parties will be able to funnel unlimited sums into campaigns of candidates that accept public financing under a Democratic bill that the House approved early Saturday morning.”

    SC: FORD RESIGNS. Story here. “State Sen. Robert Ford now faces a state criminal investigation, following a Senate ethics probe that led to his resignation Friday.”

    UK: THE MERCER AFFAIR. Guardian. “Two decades have passed since the original cash-for-questions affair and one thing that some MPs have still not absorbed is this: if someone claiming to represent a dodgy cause or an unsavoury regime invites an honourable member to trouser lots of dosh and then asks them to lobby on their behalf in Parliament, then there is a fairly high probability that this gift horse is an undercover reporter conducting a sting operation.”

    HAVE A GREAT DAY.

  • Good morning, here are today’s political law links, 4/3

    MEMBER SOCIAL MEDIA USE. Roll Call. “Although they are the smallest caucus on Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans are the most prolific social media users in Congress, according to a study by the Congressional Research Service.”

    BLT ON GAO. Here. “Most lobbyists abided by key reporting requirements between midyear 2011 and midyear 2012, with compliance generally consistent with the past, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office review released Monday.”

    ETHICS COMPLAINT FILED. Story here. ”The state Republican party has filed an ethics complaint against US Representative Edward Markey, the leader in the race for the Democratic nomination in the US Senate special election, alleging he improperly used video recorded at a House committee hearing and in a government building, in two campaign ads.”

    ROBOCALL CONTEST. Story here. “The Federal Trade Commission gets about 200,000 calls monthly from consumers complaining about robocalls, those illegal prerecorded messages hawking everything from timeshares in the Bahamas to free money.”

    MD: REFORM UPDATE. Story here. “The Senate gave its preliminary approval Tuesday to a comprehensive campaign finance reform bill after refusing to strip out a provision letting counties set up their own public-financing systems.”

    MI: BOARD APPOINTMENT. Story here. “Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has appointed Thomas C. Phillips of the law firm Miller Canfield to the State Board of Ethics for the State of Michigan.”

    NYC: CHARGES IN BALLOT DEAL. The Times. “A top New York State lawmaker was arrested early Tuesday for what federal prosecutors said was his central role in a brazen series of bribery and corruption schemes, including an attempt to buy a spot on the ballot in this year’s race for New York City mayor.”

    NC: LOBBYIST CASE UPDATE. Story here. ” A Wake County judge should reconsider throwing out a $30,000 fine against a former high-profile lobbyist who worked to change the state’s ‘Buy America’ law so that imported iron could be used on highway projects, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.”

    TX: PANEL REFORMS. Story here. “Calls to give the Texas Ethics Commission some enforcement teeth went mostly unheeded on Monday as a state Senate committee recommended minor administrative tweaks in the agency but no sweeping reforms that were earlier debated.”

    HAVE A GREAT DAY.

  • Political law links, 2/12/13

    BLOOMBERG PAC UP IN SPECIAL. Story here. “A Mike Bloomberg-funded super PAC is about to surpass $1 million in ads in a House special primary election in Illinois, lambasting former Democratic Rep. Debbie Halvorson over her high marks from the National Rifle Association.”

    WYDEN ON REFORMS. HuffPo. “The senior senator from Oregon will not be sitting on the sidelines in this battle. Recently he announced a bipartisan plan to tackle campaign finance disclosure with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).”

    IOWA CUOMO ADS. Story here. “New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s critics who want him to stop fracking in his state are hitting him where it could hurt — Iowa.”

    FL: REFORMS MOVING. Story here. “A House plan to eliminate controversial political slush funds and raise campaign contribution limits to $10,000 passed its first committee stop on a bipartisan vote Monday.”

    FL:  PLEA.  Story here.  “Averting a prolonged and heated political drama, Jim Greer, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, walked into an Orlando courtroom on Monday and pleaded guilty to grand theft and money laundering charges.”

    GA: BILLS MOVING. Story here. “That process right now is focused on House Bill 142, which as proposed by House Speaker David Ralston would ban lobbyists from giving gifts to state lawmakers.”

    IL: CHICAGO REFORMS. Story here. “Chicago aldermen on Monday endorsed Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed changes to city ethics rules, but only after the mayor watered down his proposal three times to satisfy City Council members who said they were wary of false complaints.”

    NY: BOARD LEAK. Story here. “New York’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics blames the recent embarrassing transmission of a closed session on a technical glitch.”

    SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK. Next week is Social Media Week and the schedule includes a number of events mixing social media with political advocacy.

    HAVE A GOOD DAY.