[Political Activity Law]

ZUCK SUPER PAC.  MSH.  “Mark Zuckerberg insists he’s not running for president. But just like your finely tuned privacy settings, things in Facebook Land are never quite what they seem. Or so hopes the newly formed super PAC Disrupt for America, whose purpose is to convince the boy king of Silicon Valley not so much to abdicate his throne as to augment it.”

PAC QUESTIONS.   DC.  “Clarke may not be running for Senate, but a whole lot of small-dollar donors gave money that they were told would help him win. And unlike the handful of wealthy donors who usually fund super PACs, individual small-dollar donors wield virtually no influence over how the PAC spends their money.”

AIRBNB RAMP UP.   Hill.  “Airbnb is ramping up its lobbying efforts as its battle with the hotel lobby intensifies on Capitol Hill.”

LOBBYING 45.   WE.  “Earlier this month, Healy Baumgardner-Nardone, who served as a senior aide to President Trump’s campaign, filed a Foreign Agents Registration Act form with the Department of Justice on May 19, formally disclosing her efforts to lobby on behalf of the Malaysian government.”

AL:  REVERSAL SOUGHT.   AN.  “Hubbard’s attorneys filed the appeal Wednesday morning in the Alabama Court of Appeals, asking the court to reverse the June 2016 judgment where Hubbard was convicted of 12 felony ethics charges by a Lee County jury.”

FL:  FIGHT IN CASE.   JAX.  “State Rep. Kimberly Daniels, D-Jacksonville, is challenging allegations by the Florida Elections Commission that she violated state law in 2014 by using campaign funds for personal expenses.”

MO:  LOBBYIST REGISTRATION.  STL.   “Under state law, individuals and groups that lobby the Legislature and other elected officials must register with the Missouri Ethics Commission, which oversees lobbying activities and campaign finance laws, and publicly disclose expenditures.”

NJ:  FUNDS QUESTION.   NJ.  “Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce (R-26) filed a lawsuit Wednesday against one of her challengers in the upcoming primary, Morris County Freeholder William ‘Hank’ Lyon, alleging he’s flouted campaign finance laws by receiving nearly $100,000 from his father’s company to purchase advertising.”

NM:  HOPE FOR FUNDING.   KRWG.  “The Secretary of State’s online system isn’t set up to receive and post the advertising-only filings online and the agency has requested the software upgrades the past two years. The upgrades would allow filers to submit such reports online, rather than on paper forms.”

RI:  INDICTMENT IN CASE.  WPRI.  “A former Rhode Island state representative has been indicted for allegedly using campaign money for personal expenses.”

WI:  ETHICS ACCUSATIONS.   WN.  “A member of the Sauk County Board has filed a complaint against the board’s chair, Marty Krueger, saying he violated the county’s ethics code by making a false allegation.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.  Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

AZ:  PHOENIX LOBBYIST RULES.   AZC.  “Lobbyists paid to influence decisions at Phoenix City Hall likely will face harsher penalties if they don’t comply with the city’s regulations, an expansion that follows a report in The Arizona Republic that showed the city’s rules were useless.”

CT:  CAMPAIGN FINANCE IN MIX.   CM.  “There is little agreement among House and Senate leaders on how to tackle the many issues surrounding campaign finance reform, from banning ‘dark money’ – independent expenditures made by groups not required to disclose the names of their donors – to avoiding significant cost overruns in the state’s Citizens’ Election Program, which provides public financing for campaigns that meet certain requirements.”

ME:  JAIL POTENTIAL.  CM.  “Federal prosecutors will ask a judge to sentence former Maine developer Michael Liberty to six months – possibly to be served in home confinement – and a fine between $67,500 and $250,000 for illegal political donations.”

MO:  CHANGES AGAIN.   STL.  “Two weeks after a federal judge blew a major hole in Missouri’s new campaign finance law, another decision has been handed down that further chips away at limits on contributions even though Missouri voters approved limits last November.”

MO:  GOV. ON DISCLOSURE.   MT.  “Less than a month after Gov. Eric Greitens’ campaign admitted to the Missouri Ethics Commission that he failed to report a fundraising list, the governor seemed to question Missouri’s practice of disclosing donors to the commission.”

TX:  ETHICS UPDATE.   TT.  “It’s hard to get the players in an entrenched industry to self-regulate — especially if the business in question is politics.”

VA:  MONEY IRONY.   USN.  “A series of federal court decisions, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, loosened campaign finance laws and added more clout to political groups that aren’t directly associated with a candidate. Some of those groups disclose donors and others don’t. ”

WY:  GROUP SEEKS AMENDMENT.  JHN.  “Wyoming Promise, an offshoot of American Promise, is attempting to gather popular support across the state for legislation amending America’s political finance laws.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY. 

SUPREME COURT WON’T HEAR CASE.   LAT.  “New Justice Neil M. Gorsuch joined Clarence Thomas in dissent Monday when the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from a Republican Party lawyer seeking to strike down limits on big-money contributions to political parties.”

LIFETIME LOBBYIST BAN.   Hill.  “A bipartisan group of senators wants to ban lawmakers from ever becoming lobbyists after they leave Congress.”

DEMOCRAT SEEKS INVESTIGATION.   Hill.   “A Democratic Federal Election Commission member is urging the FEC to investigate whether Russian agents used Facebook to spread damaging stories about Hillary Clinton before the 2016 election, Politico reported.”

OGE ASK.  WP.  “White House officials are seeking to stop the federal government’s top ethics officer from getting details about waivers granted to lobbyists and other appointees working in the admin­istration, intensifying a power struggle between President Trump and the ethics agency.”

CA:  CONTRIBUTIONS ISSUE.   MN.  “The state’s political watchdog agency says the owner of a Milpitas-based general engineering contractor company will face a $20,000 fine for laundering campaign contributions in connection to prior campaigns of two former Milpitas City Council members.”

IL:  LARGEST CONTRIBUTION NOTED.    CT.  “Billionaire hedge fund founder Ken Griffin contributed $20 million Tuesday to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s re-election campaign, an early escalation in a big-money 2018 contest expected to shatter previous spending records.”

IL:  PUBLIC FINANCING MOVES.   CB.  “A proposal to begin a limited system of public financing of races for state office has quietly picked up some momentum in Springfield.”

OH:  PARTY COMPLIANCE.  JN.  “Tens of thousands of dollars invested by the Butler County Republican Party into helping Donald Trump win Butler County and Ohio in the presidential election were not properly reported to the Federal Elections Commission, according to a recent audit.”

VT:  ALLIANCE CLEARED.   BFP.  “A state investigation has cleared the Rebel Alliance group of campaign finance violations before the Town Meeting Day vote in which South Burlington’s school budget was defeated. The defeat was largely credited to the efforts of the alliance.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.