[Political Activity Law]

SUPREME COURT DENIES.    REU.  “The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by an Alabama black-voter outreach group with close ties to the state’s Democratic Party of a lower court’s ruling that upheld a state ban on cash transfers between political action committees.”

PACS SPEND.    BNA.  “Political action committees received and spent a record amount of money in the 2016 campaign cycle, according to Federal Election Commission data analyzed by Bloomberg BNA.”

INQUIRY SOUGHT.   RC.  “A conservative-leaning ethics foundation filed an inquiry Monday with the Office of Congressional Ethics, asking it to look into Rep. Hank Johnson’s use of official resources to help Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff’s campaign.”

CA:  LOOPHOLE LOOK.  FB.  “On Wednesday, the Democratic-controlled Assembly Elections Committee will get a chance to put their votes where their rhetoric is by approving Assembly Bill 1234 by Assemblyman Marc Levine. The bill would shine light on money that flows into one dim corner of California elections by restricting the size of donations from political parties to candidates. Don’t count on it passing.”

NJ:  PAY TO PLAY RE-THINK.   NJB.  “Jeff Brindle calls New Jersey’s pay-to-play law ‘convoluted and complicated’ and cites its ‘stunning inconsistency.'”

NJ:  FORMER EXEC PAYS.   NJ.  “Former Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan and two of her aides have agreed to pay a total of $2,500 to the state for breaking election finance rules, according to a settlement published by the state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission.”

NY:  CITY HYPOCRISY.  NYP.  “t looks like several City Council members will be opting out of the city’s public campaign-finance program for this year’s elections — although they still claim to champion the system.”

NC:  OVERRIDE.   NO.  “The state Senate voted Monday night to go ahead with a plan to reconfigure oversight of elections in North Carolina despite a gubernatorial veto.”

VA:  LOOKING AT LAWS.   NBC.  “A state advisory panel says Virginia political ethics laws might need to change.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

BID DEBT.  IS.  “Conservative presidential candidate Evan McMullin, who earned more than 20 percent of the vote in Utah, is staring at a $670,000 debt from his campaign that could hurt plans to run for another office, according to a report.”

FAMILY PAY.   FB.  “Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) is slated to pay her daughter another $108,000 for running a lucrative campaign operation that pulls in hundreds of thousands of dollars each election cycle, FEC filings show.”

TECH LOBBY.  RC.  “Tech giants like Facebook, Google and Microsoft focused some of their lobbying dollars in Washington over the past three months on combating President Donald Trump, as he eyed major changes to the U.S. tax code and imposed new restrictions on foreign immigrants.”

CA:  ETHICS ACTION.   PE.  “On Tuesday, April 18, the panel determined Councilman Jim Perry did not violate the code or the state’s open meetings law with his actions connected to the 2014 investigations of two council colleagues.”

FL:  ETHICS PUSH.  PBP.  “Florida’s ethics arbiters claimed their “independence” Friday in response to a legislative directive that put more restrictions on their operations, including out-of-state travel spending and hiring and firing of staff.”

IL:  PLEA IN CASE.   IP.  “A State Board of Elections hearing examiner hopes to issue a report May 15 about whether Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino violated an order to amend campaign expense reports detailing tens of thousands of dollars in payments to a bank and service station in his then legislative district.”

MI:  POSSIBLE INVESTIGATION.   NH.  “It might turn out to be much ado about nothing, but a complaint has been filed against Taylor Mayor Rick Sollars and his campaign for a possible violation of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act.”

MO:  LOBBYIST LANDLORDS.  SLPD.  “According to a Post-Dispatch review, four members of the Legislature and one former deputy attorney general have rented sleeping space from lobbyists this year, compared with eight last year.”

VA:  CASH CLASH.  WP.  “One candidate takes money from an international activist group that doesn’t disclose the names of the overwhelming majority of its donors. The other takes money from Virginia’s biggest utility, which is also the top lobbyist in the state.”

VA:  REPORTING QUIRK.   IN.  “It did seem a little odd – a $40,000-plus in-kind donation from Peter Fallon to his own campaign for Arlington County Board – but turns out, there’s a simple explanation.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

TODAY AT THE FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION.  The agenda for today’s meeting is here.

MCCASKILL VIEW.  NL.  “Sen. Claire McCaskill isn’t backing off from her opposition to dark money in politics, even after a nonprofit that isn’t required to disclose its donors spent $500,000 to support her.”

GUILTY PLEA FOR CONTRIBUTIONS.  DOJ.  “A New York City man pleaded guilty today to making illegal political contributions in the names of others to campaign committees for U.S. President and U.S. Senate in 2011, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.”

CA:  GROUP FINED.   VOC.  “The group Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform will be fined $2,500 by the state’s ethics watchdog for distributing 500 improperly labeled campaign signs during the June 2016 primary election against State Senate candidate Sukhee Kang.”

DC:  SLOPPY FINANCE.  WP.  “It is inexcusable that the audit of the 2015 campaign took so long and that voters who were asked to vote on Mr. Todd’s reelection last year were kept in the dark.”

FL:   CITY BOARD POWER.  Tall.  “he city’s independent ethics board doesn’t have the authority to investigate ‘misuse of position’ of its officials and employees, and has even less teeth than the state Commission on Ethics, an attorney for the board told members this week.”

IL:  REVIEW EXPANDED.   CT.  “The Chicago Board of Ethics on Wednesday found there is probable cause that eight more individuals and the companies they represented broke the city’s lobbying laws for actions revealed in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s personal emails — a substantial expansion of the number of potential lobbying violations now under review.”

NY:  OPTING OUT.   GG.  “This year, with few competitive races in the 2017 city election cycle, a number of sitting City Council members seem to be eschewing the program, with some having spent significant sums in the past three years and others having already raised more than they could legally spend if they participated.”

TX:  FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE APPROVED.   TT.  “Inching toward 21^st century transparency, the Texas House on Tuesday preliminarily approved — in a unanimous vote — to require that the personal financial statements of state politicians and bureaucrats be posted online.”

VT:  DELAY ON ETHICS.  WAMC.  “Vermont lawmakers have again pushed back a vote on a measure to create a statewide ethics commission.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.