[Political Activity Law]

NO REASON TO FEAR.  WE.  “Today, the United States has more campaign finance disclosure laws on the books than at any time in our history. So many, it seems, that even the most ‘shadowy’ groups are often disclosing their donors. When the best examples of ‘shadowy’ groups we can come up with are Planned Parenthood and the Republican Governors Association, perhaps it’s time to put the ‘dark money’ narrative to bed.”

WHAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DID.  WT.  “Elections officials were overwhelmingly opposed to the change. But that didn’t matter, according to Christy McCormick, a commissioner on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the agency charged with being the national clearinghouse and resource for states and local election officials on the best practices and standards in administering elections.”

SPOTLIGHT ON ETHICS.  Hill.  “The top government ethics watchdog was just another obscure Washington bureaucrat until six weeks ago, when he entered into an explosive public fight over President-elect Donald Trump‘s business conflicts.”

LOBBYING MISUNDERSTOOD.  LAT.  “We’re not super-villains. If we have any effect on government policy, it’s only because public officials are swayed by our arguments. The consequence of blaming lobbyists for Washington’s shortfalls is that it limits people with expertise from helping solve government problems — and it lets elected leaders off the hook when they don’t.”

DEBT RETIRED.  WP.  “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign announced Friday that he has fully paid off the debt he accrued during his short-lived presidential run, thanks largely to revenue generated by renting out his donor list in the closing weeks of the year.”

DC:  LOOKING TO STRENGTHEN.  WT. “Several bills, including one introduced at the behest of D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, target campaign contributions from businesses that contract with the District.”

NH:  DOUGHNUTS AND LAW.  UL. “This loophole allows candidates to circumvent the state’s contribution limits by accepting donations from multiple limited liability companies owned by the same individuals.”

NM:  REFORM SOUP.  NMID.  “Because New Mexico’s current campaign finance law doesn’t require disclosure of spending on specific races, it’s hard to know how much Advance New Mexico Now spent to defeat Sanchez or Democratic super PACs spent to take out GOP incumbent House members.”

SD:  ETHICS AIM.  TE.  “South Dakota Democrats lost big in November, but Roxanne Weber celebrated a surprise victory when her favorite ballot measure narrowly passed. Now, she’s questioning her vote’s value as Republican lawmakers discuss dismantling the government ethics initiative just months later.”

CAN:  VACATION ETHICS.  NYT.  “Canada’s federal conflict-of-interest and ethics office confirmed on Monday that it is investigating the propriety of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family’s spending part of the Christmas holidays as guests of the Aga Khan, the billionaire philanthropist and spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims, on a private island in the Bahamas.”

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HAVE A GREAT DAY.

RESOLVING ETHICS ISSUES.  NPR.  “President-elect Donald Trump and his lawyer at a Wednesday press conference described the steps the real estate mogul would take separate from his business empire while in office.”

TILLERSON AND LOBBYING REPORTS.  DC.  “But Tillerson didn’t say Exxon never lobbied on sanctions, and those lobbying disclosure forms don’t say what position the company took on specific issues.”

RUDE AWAKENING FOR AREA RESIDENT.  EBT.  “‘“This is the first time in my life I’ve ever mailed out fliers to anybody asking people to take a position on a ballot measure,’ Colman said. ‘My thought was, “This is a free country. If I want to do that, I’m a free citizen. I can do that.”‘

CA:  REGULATORS READ THE PAPER.  LAT.  “A state agency that enforces campaign finance laws has launched an investigation in response to a Times report on political donations connected to the developer of a Harbor Gateway apartment project.”

IL:  NEWEST LOBBYIST.   CST.  “Former state Rep. Ron Sandack — who abruptly resigned last year amid an extortion scam involving “inappropriate online conversations” — is Springfield’s newest lobbyist.”

MS:  NEW RULES.  WT.  “The Mississippi House voted 102-13 Wednesday to pass a bill that would set rules about how candidates statewide can spend campaign contributions. The measure seeks to ban spending on personal use and prohibit candidates from taking large sums of money when they close campaign committees.”

MO:  NO GIFTS PLEASE.  WT.  “Missouri’s new Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley says he won’t accept gifts from lobbyists.”

MO:  BILL TO FLOOR.  STL.  “Despite some criticism and proposed changes, a bill aimed at stopping lobbyists from handing out free meals, baseball tickets and other gifts to legislators that is a priority of Gov. Eric Greitens and House Speaker Todd Richardson continued its push toward passage Tuesday, clearing a House committee with just three dissenting votes.”

MT:  REFORM ROLL BACK.  Missoulian.  “A Kalispell legislator proposed Wednesday that the state should roll back some campaign finance reporting requirements, two years after the Montana Legislature narrowly passed a disclosure law hailed by open government advocates as one of the nation’s strongest.”

MT:  TRAILER ISSUE.  MN.  “While on loan to the association that summer, FWP’s trailer and the furbearer displays inside appeared at three separate events alongside material opposing a trapping ban ballot initiative carried by York’s organization. York argued that the trailer’s presence gave the impression FWP stood against the initiative, which ultimately failed to gain enough signatures to make the ballot.”

PA:  LEHIGH COUNTY REFORM.  MC.  “By a 9-0 vote, commissioners made a series of amendments to the 2015 law. It already barred vendors on most no-bid contracts from donating more than $250 to elected county officials or political hopefuls. Donors who violated the law could see their contracts revoked and be charged a fine.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

NEW GIFT GUIDANCE.  Venable.  “With a new administration coming into office, there will be many changes in Washington. One less noticed change comes from the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and will affect how you interact with new executive branch appointees and those career employees who stay on from the prior administration.”

SUPER PAC LAUNCH.  Hill.  “American Bridge, the super-PAC founded by Democratic operative David Brock, is launching a multi-pronged effort Wednesday that criticizes President-elect Donald Trump for his potential business conflicts of interest.”

SUPER PAC LINK.  EEN.  “Pruitt would be among the first Cabinet-level appointees to enter office with such a super PAC. The political action committees, which can accept unlimited donations from corporations, unions and individuals, are a relatively new phenomenon. They’ve been evolving since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling paved the way for their creation.”

L.L. BEAN IN THE NEWS.  PH.  “The group on Friday responded by taking steps recommended by the FEC to change its registration to a super PAC that can raise unlimited funds.”

WHAT’S GOING ON AT THE FEC?  The agenda for tomorrow’s meeting is here.

SWAMP DIAGNOSIS.  NYP.  “For Trump voters, extensive regulation, massive bureaucracy and ‘the swamp’ go hand in hand. Trump’s election was not a call to try what we’ve been trying, only harder. It was a call to try something new. Democrats may not like Trump’s way of shaking up DC, but hey — elections have consequences.”

POTRAIT BILLS.  WFB.  “Former Senate minority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) used campaign funds to pay a former staffer $7,000 to paint a portrait that is displayed in the U.S. Capitol.”

CAMPAIGN BILLS.  NBC.  “At least three-dozen municipal governments and law enforcement agencies say presidential campaigns have ignored hundreds of thousands of dollars in outstanding bills stemming from police security for campaign events — from Vallejo, California, to the University of Pittsburgh.”

NOMINEE PASSION.  ES.  “In addition to Betsy DeVos’ decades-long push for vouchers to underwrite tuition at private schools, another less publicized passion has been her opposition to restrictions on campaign contributions and her role in the 2010 Citizens United ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which opened up a floodgate of contributions to campaigns at all levels of the electoral system.”

AK:  GROUP APPEALS.  ADN.  “A group of Republicans trying to loosen campaign contribution limits in Alaska — following key decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years — is appealing a ruling by a federal judge in November that upheld the state’s strict limits.”

CA:  PUBLIC FINANCING APPROVAL.  MSS.  “Like other supposed reforms, public campaign financing collides with an overriding reality that the decisions officeholders make have immense consequences and those affected by them naturally seek to influence those decisions. Campaign contributions are one way to affect policy decisions, and if they are shunted aside, affected interests will find other ways – some even less seemly.”

CA:  BAN SOUGHT.  LADN.  “In an election season in which city politicians have increasingly come under attack for a perceived closeness with deep-pocketed developers, five council members on Tuesday sought to dispel that image by proposing a ban on political contributions from donors seeking approval for their real estate projects.”

DC:  NEW YEAR, NEW REFORM.  WP.  “The D.C. Council returned to work Tuesday, setting out a good-government agenda that will force a quick decision on campaign finance reform in a city that has been plagued by pay-to-play politics.”

VA:  NEVER-ENDING REFORM.  NP.  “The campaign funds proposal would ban candidates and elected officials from using such monies for personal use.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.