COOL TO REFORM. Concord Monitor. “Campaign finance reform advocates calling themselves the New Hampshire Rebellion were first snubbed then outright booted from the Republican summit in Nashua this weekend.”
CFR AN ISSUE? WP. “Turning disgust with billionaire super PAC benefactors into a platform that moves voters has been an elusive goal for activists seeking to curb the massive sums sloshing through campaigns.”
NEW FRONTIER. WBUR. “Last May the Federal Elections Commission ruled that a super PAC could accept Bitcoins as donations, with a ‘voluntary’ limit of $100 (the same limits placed on cash contributions to individual candidates in federal elections). But the campaigns must rely on the donors themselves to offer identifying information and affirm, for example, that they are not foreign nationals, whose contributions in any amount would be illegal.”
AR: LAW VEXES. Ark. Online. “Act 1280, passed by the Arkansas Legislature this year and signed into law by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, gives a grace period to any lawmaker or other state elected official who unintentionally accepts a prohibited gift from a lobbyist and returns it within 30 days of learning that it is barred by law.”
FL: TRAVEL ISSUE. TBO. “Without any debate, members of the state ethics commission on Friday agreed that former U.S. Rep. David Rivera should pay $57,821.96 for improperly accepting state money for travel when he served as a state representative.”
KS: FACING SENTENCING. WT. “A former Kansas legislator is due to be sentenced for defrauding a bank to help fund his political activities in a federal case that highlights the state’s lax state campaign finance laws.
NJ: CANDIDATES RAISING. Press of AC. “If you’re running in the 2nd Legislative District, which represents most of Atlantic County and has Democrat and Republican incumbents, you’ll need a lot of money. In 2013, the Democrats, who won an Assembly race and a Senate race, spent more than $2.2 million. The Republicans, who won the other Assembly seat, spent just less than $1 million.”
NY: SPLIT ON LLCS. BN. “The ‘LLC loophole’ easily escaped another threat this week. As a result, huge campaign donations may continue to flow freely from limited liability companies to New York politicians.”
VA: ETHICS BILL PASSES. RTD. “State lawmakers returned to Richmond on Friday and put the finishing touches on a new ethics reform package that includes an aggregate $100 annual cap on gifts.”
HAVE A GOOD DAY.