[Political Activity Law]

BUSINESS DONATED LITTLE.  PRN.  “Today the Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board (CED) released new data indicating that, during the 2016 federal election cycle, business corporations did not participate in campaign finance activities to the extent that many anticipated. Among the findings, business corporations made up six percent of Super PAC receipts. The data comes amid the changed campaign finance environment that resulted from Citizens United. The landmark Supreme Court decision allows Super PACs to raise unlimited sums of money from not only business corporations, but also unions.”

MCCAIN’S RETURN.   WP.  “He and McConnell have had an on-again-off-again relationship. Its rockiest patch came 15 to 20 years ago as they clashed over campaign finance legislation restricting large donations to political parties. McCain beat McConnell on the Senate floor, but McConnell won in court, leading the legal battle that gutted McCain’s eponymous bill.”

PAY TO PLAY TO STAY.   L360.  “The Sixth Circuit rejected the latest constitutional challenge. Those rules are here to stay — at least until the constitutional arguments reappear in an enforcement action.”

PAID TO QUIT.   PHILLY.   “Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that U.S. Rep. Bob Brady’s campaign secretly paid a 2012 primary rival $90,000 to abandon his race and that the city’s longtime Democratic power broker later tried to derail an FBI investigation into the payoff by coaching a witness.”

ETHICS CLASH.   NYT.  “David J. Apol, named by President Trump last week as the new head of the Office of Government Ethics, has repeatedly clashed with colleagues over his career at the agency as he sought to roll back or loosen ethics requirements on federal employees, including those in the White House, three former senior officials at the agency said.”

BUSINESS GOOD.   Politico.  “Most of Washington’s top lobbying firms saw their revenue rise in the second quarter, after fears among some corporations and lobbyists — and hopes among some Trump supporters — that the president’s election in 2016 would curb Washington’s influence industry.”

IL:  RESPECT ETHICS.   CST.  “Following what appears to be a Chicago standard, Mayor Emanuel, the one caught engaging in improper conversations despite being tasked with protecting taxpayer interests, decided that neither he nor his political insiders did anything wrong — instead, the law is wrong.”

KY:  SUPER PAC CHARGES.   MYCN.  “The director of a Democratic super PAC has been jailed on charges of theft by deception, forgery and possessing stolen vital statistic records after Lexington police discovered her depositing fraudulent checks and found another person’s birth certificate and Social Security card at her residence.”

NM:  REVISION RELEASED.   KRWG.  “New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver today released a revised draft campaign finance rule intended to provide much needed guidance regarding New Mexico’s Campaign Reporting Act.”

NY:  ALLY DIDN’T REGISTER.   NYT.  “A search of the public record websites of the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics and the New York City Clerk’s Lobbying Bureau found no record that Mr. Kwatra or his company had registered as a lobbyist for Mr. Singh or his restaurant, Water’s Edge, in Queens, or any of Mr. Singh’s companies.”

NY:  CONTRACTOR CONTRIBUTIONS.   RO.  “The law originally allowed such businesses to give the county executive no more than $1,000 a year, but lawmakers changed that after Neuhaus took office to allow up to $4,000 over a four-year term. The restriction applied only to companies that get their contracts without competitive bidding.”

VA:  MONEY RACE FOR GOVERNOR.   WP.  “The Republican and the Democrat running for Virginia governor each picked up seven-figure campaign contributions from national groups after their first debate.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

WELLS FARGO:  RENEWED SCRUTINY.   AB.  “Wells Fargo, already in the regulatory spotlight because of last year’s fake-accounts scandal, is drawing renewed scrutiny after a lawyer’s unauthorized release of sensitive client details for tens of thousands of accounts belonging to wealthy customers of its brokerage unit.”

FOREIGN NATIONAL PROTECTION LACKING.  BB.  “A new study reveals that 44 percent of members of Congress with active donation pages do not require industry-standard credit card security codes for online donations—a vulnerability that makes fraudulent foreign donations more likely.”

BIOTECH POLITICAL ACTIVITY UPDATE.   STAT.  “This year, a critical and risky one for drug companies, the industry as a whole is ratcheting up campaign donations and its presence on Capitol Hill, a new database compiled by Kaiser Health News shows.”

RENT PAID.   WIRED.  “Nearly $400,000 of that campaign money went to rent at Trump Tower, with $90,000 going to The Trump Corporation for “legal consulting,” nearly $60,000 to the Trump International Golf Club, $15,000 to the Trump International Hotel in DC, and about $1,700 to Trump-brand bottled water, among various payments.”

WERTHEIMER ON FOREIGN NATIONALS.   JS.  “Whether that information in the folder was something ‘of value’ to the campaign is a question that requires investigation.”

MA:  VIOLATION FOUND.   HN.  “The Office of Campaign and Political Finance has found that Mayor Jasiel Correia II’s political committee failed to comply with campaign finance laws and now must provide additional reporting information through 2018 or face legal action.”

NH:  REAL REFORM SOUGHT.   AC.   “The Real Reform Amendment, if adopted, would require federal candidates to raise their funds exclusively from their own constituents. Lobbyists could continue to visit senators and representatives and their staffs and offer opinions on bills under consideration. They could no longer be seen as a source of campaign contributions.”

NM:  SUIT TO USE FUNDS.  RC.  “Republican Rep. Steve Pearce is suing New Mexico’s Democratic Secretary of State to use his $1 million congressional campaign war chest for his gubernatorial bid.”

NY:  HANDLING DONORS.   NYP.  “Mayor de Blasio’s attempt to pressure a city agency to give favorable treatment to a major campaign donor was condemned by his Republican and Democratic challengers Monday — and even by Democratic insiders who routinely take the mayor’s side.”

NY:  ILLEGAL SCHEME ALLEGED.   WES.   “The former owner of a Rockland County bus company has been arrested and charged in connection with an illegal campaign contribution scheme.”

OH:  COMMISSION RULES.   BJ.  “Mayor John Cranley’s re-election campaign did not collect campaign contributions beyond what is allowed by state law or Cincinnati’s charter, the Cincinnati Elections Commission ruled on Monday.”

TX:  CLOSE LOOPHOLE.   CHRON.  “A law passed in the same era forbids legislators and statewide office holders from accepting any campaign cash during regular sessions of the Legislature. But as the Chronicle’s James Drew reports from our Capitol bureau, that rule doesn’t apply during special sessions.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

NEW OGE LEADER.   NYT.  “President Trump picked a new leader for the Office of Government Ethics on Friday, naming the agency’s general counsel, David J. Apol, as the acting director.”

NO VIOLATION.   FN.  “The Commission goes on to explain that foreigners are ‘allowed to attend campaign strategy meetings and events’. They are allowed to contribute ideas, information, and even advice. They are allowed to open their mouths and speak.”

NOT A CRIME.   ET.  “But if information itself qualifies as an in-kind campaign contribution, it is not just foreigners who will be affected — though we could care less about the rights of Russians. This theory would allow the government to interfere with legitimate and legal (no matter how roughhouse) electioneering by Americans.”

NON-EXISTENT OFFENSE.   LZ.  “Lost in the debate has been an examination of whether federal prosecutors have tried to make the argument in court.”

WHAT THE FEC SHOULDN’T DO.   Hill.  “The FEC — the only federal agency with civil jurisdiction to enforce campaign finance laws — has a duty to respond much more forcefully with Trump than it did in the McCaskill incident.”

LEGAL INVOLVEMENT.   ATL.  “The intense focus on the Russian government’s campaign to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump—and whether or not the Trump campaign illegally conspired with the Kremlin—has illuminated the fuzzy boundary between proper and improper interactions between foreigners and political operatives in the United States. But it’s also obscured the various completely legal and questionably legal ways that foreign governments and foreign nationals can seek to influence the course of American politics.”

IL:  FINES FOR LOBBYING.   CT.  “Former Chicago Ald. William Singer has been hit with the biggest of six fines leveled this week by the Chicago Board of Ethics against those who lobbied Mayor Rahm Emanuel through his personal email account but failed to register as city lobbyists.”

NM:  CONTROVERSIAL CHANGES.   NMP.   “On the surface, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver’s proposed changes to campaign finance reporting rules appear to be a wonky topic.”

NY:  CUOMO RAISING.   LPJ.  “With a political war chest brimming with nearly $26 million, Gov. Andrew Cuomo will have plenty of resources to amplify his message to New Yorkers should he seek a third four-year term in 2018.”

PA:  LOBBYING FINES DOUBLE.   LN.  “Lobbyists who influence state legislators but don’t disclose they’re doing so would face twice the financial penalties under a proposal from southern Lancaster County Rep. Bryan Cutler.”

TX:  SESSION RULES.   EN.  “But the law remains mute on accepting contributions during special sessions — a loophole the size of the Lone Star State itself — and for some legislators this year, in the short time between the close of regular business and the start of what promises to be a contentious and controversial 30-day gathering, the cash has been rolling in.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.