[Political Activity Law]

DEREGULATION IN BILL.   WSJ.  “House Republicans are backing several provisions that could reshape campaign finance rules ahead of next year’s midterm elections as spending negotiations continue this fall.”

WHAT’S IN THE BILL.   FN.  “Corporations would be able to ask their employees to donate to unlimited numbers of trade associations’ political action groups instead of limiting employee solicitations to one group per year.”

CA:  TRIAL SET.   SFE.  “Superior Court Judge Tracie Brown dismissed all charges against former Human Rights Commissioner Nazly Mohajer, who was accused along with former commission staff member Zula Mae Jones and former school board member turned political consultant Keith Jackson of soliciting $20,000 in bribes from an undercover FBI agent during multiple meetings, which took place mostly in 2012.”

GA:  66 COUNT INDICTMENT.   GAP.  “Snellville Mayor Tom Witts has been charged with a myriad of financial crimes including using campaign money to take a cruise, buy plane tickets and pay for a subscription to a pornographic website, according to an indictment handed down by a grand jury on Thursday.”

IL:  CAMPAIGN SUV.   IT.  “Legislators, who are barred from spending campaign funds for personal use, typically lease rather than purchase vehicles. One expert on campaign finance says that the senator’s purchase of a 2017 Ford Expedition XLT for $61,146 last April raises both ethical and political questions.”

NJ:  RULING IN CASE.   OBS.  “The ruling on Friday by a three-judge panel of the Appellate Division is a win for the state’s campaign finance watchdog agency, the Election Law Enforcement Commission. The appeals court ruled that ELEC acted legally when it voted to authorize the complaint against DiVincenzo in 2013.”

NM:  FINAL VERSION ADOPTED.   KRWG.  “New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver has adopted the final version of a campaign finance rule intended to provide much needed guidance regarding New Mexico’s Campaign Reporting Act (CRA) and to bring the CRA into constitutional compliance following numerous court cases.”

NY:  LOOPHOLE IN LAW.  NYDN.  “A spokesman for the de Blasio campaign told The News that the firm was on host committees for campaign-sponsored events. The spokesman said that, under the city’s campaign-finance law, hosts are not considered intermediaries or fund-raisers if the campaign covers the costs of the event.”

VA:  LOBBYIST EVENTS.   VP.  “Virginia lawmakers continue to shrink away from meals, galas and other entertainment occasions paid for by lobbyists – they attended less than half such events in 2016-2017 as they did three years ago.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

AD BUY.  NBC.  “Facebook said on Wednesday it had found that an influence operation likely based in Russia spent $100,000 on thousands of ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-year-period through May. ”

KEY AD QUESTION.   WP.  “The question that arises in the context of the Russia investigation is twofold. The first is, how many other people saw the ads?”

PROSECUTOR’S CASE.   NPR.  “Justice Department prosecutor Peter Koski began his opening arguments in federal court in Newark with a seemingly innocuous story: ‘A few years ago, a man sent an email requesting a hotel room for a long weekend in Paris.'”

ACCESS NOTED.  NW.  “Although it is not illegal for the executives and lobbyists to pay membership fees and dues to a country club, the USA Today report does suggest that Trump and business and government insiders could be blurring ethical lines.”

NM:  HANGING OVER RACE.  BNA.  “New Mexico’s gubernatorial race could be transformed by a federal court’s decision on campaign money.”

NY:  VIOLATIONS ALLEGED.   OSS.  “Catherine Borgia, the Majority Leader of the Westchester County Board of Legislators has failed to file seven campaign finance disclosures since Oct. 2015, according to her opponent Republican Bob Outhouse.”

OR:  NEW COUNTY REFORMS.   PM.  “So what are elections officials telling candidates for county office about accepting big checks? To ask their own lawyer.”

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CAN:  REFORM IN THE AIR.   CBC.  “The looming municipal election in Calgary is prompting cries for change once again on aspects of the city’s municipal campaign finance rules — from a lack of spending or fundraising caps to donor lists that don’t need to be made public until after the election to third-party advertisers operating without much oversight.”

GUAT:  PRESIDENT INVESTIGATED.   REU.  “Guatemala’s top court opened the way on Monday for an investigation of President Jimmy Morales for alleged illegal campaign finances, but Congress will have the final say on removing his presidential immunity and could yet block the probe.”

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HAVE A GOOD DAY.

MENENDEZ TRIAL BEGINS.   POL.  “A federal courtroom in Newark, N.J., on Wednesday morning will feature a rare sight — a U.S. senator facing felony criminal charges.”

TRIAL PREVIEW.   CNN.  “It’s a case with allegations spanning seven years, multiple countries, and involving hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the center of it: a sitting US senator.”

HOFFMAN READY.   DC.  “LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman is wielding his considerable wealth to combat the Trump administration by donating what could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars to different liberal candidates and causes.”

EXPENSES UNDER MICROSCOPE.   SUT.   “After questions first arose in April 2016 about Hunter’s spending of campaign money for video games and his children’s private school tuition, the congressman commissioned an audit and ended up repaying more than $60,000 in expenses he identified as personal, mistaken or undocumented.”

MA:  OUT OF STATE TARGET.   SN.  “With tens of millions of dollars in campaign spending expected to flow into Massachusetts next year ahead of ballot questions ranging from a ‘millionaires tax’ to a $15 per-hour minimum wage, activists want to limit contributions from out-of-state donors.”

NM:  FIGHT BREWING.   TN.  “Proposed campaign finance rules that Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver hopes to get on the books before what’s likely to be an expensive election year could be headed for a courtroom showdown.”

OH:  ILLEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS ALLEGED.   WCPO.  “A group of local politicos have filed a lawsuit against the Cincinnati Elections Commission and Mayor John Cranley’s re-election campaign, alleging an incorrect reading of a charter amendment has allowed wealthy people to make ‘illegal’ campaign contributions to city political candidates.”

VA:  CANDIDATE’S FIRM IN THE NEWS.   RTD.  “Vogel, the managing partner, is a former chief counsel for the Republican National Committee and a former deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Energy under President George W. Bush.”

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CAN:  UPGRADE LOBBYIST REGISTRATION.   VS.  “B.C. has a public-lobbyist registry and rules about who can and can’t lobby. However, as the new provincial government has accurately noted, the system is in dire need of an upgrade. Like most provinces, the lobbyist registration systems we have in place need improvement if they’re going to be effective in providing a clear window into who is influencing our governments.”

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HAVE A GOOD DAY.