[Political Activity Law]

REP. HUNTER UPDATE. NPR. “Embattled California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter is set to resign from Congress on Jan. 13 after pleading guilty last month to misusing campaign funds.”

RESULTS OF REVIEW. CVB. “Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., said she is confident that she will be cleared of any wrongdoing after congressional investigators recommended further review into accusations that she violated campaign finance laws.”

FIX URGED. DC. “A bipartisan group of campaign finance lawyers sent a letter to President Donald Trump and congressional leaders of both parties Monday urging the nomination and confirmation of a new slate of commissioners to the Federal Election Commission.”

MA: DRAWING FIRE. BG. “A Middleborough selectman has agreed to pay $2,000 to the state to resolve a slew of campaign finance violations, including inaccurately reporting donations received from a director of a marijuana business seeking approval to open in the town.”

MA: GROUP INVESTIGATED. PA. “The group that is accusing the mayor of violating campaign finance law was investigated for finance campaign reform last month itself.”

MY: FIGHT CONTINUES. VJ. “Governor Bullock responded to the decision by Judge Lovell that dismissed a case brought by an out-of-state dark money group challenging his executive order on dark money.”

WA: ALLEGED CONCEALMENT. ST. “A Grant County lawyer and a Moses Lake business owner violated campaign finance law by concealing that they were responsible for political fliers mailed to voters during the 2014 campaign for Grant County prosecutor, a judge has ruled.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

QUORUM REQUEST. WP. “A bipartisan group of campaign finance lawyers on Monday urged the White House and congressional leaders to ‘work together and immediately’ to restore a voting quorum on the Federal Election Commission, which cannot monitor compliance with election laws even as presidential primaries begin in a month.”

PAYMENTS IN THE NEWS. BN. “Former Rep. Chris Collins closed out his political career in late December by repaying himself $146,393.71 in leftover campaign funds – without reimbursing his donors for the $15,400 they gave to his campaign committee early last year when he said he was innocent of insider trading charges.”

ZOMBIES LIVE. FP. “The Federal Election Commission sent dozens of letters late last week to the campaigns of former members of Congress who are still spending from campaign accounts despite retiring from office years ago.”

FUNDS PLAN. BSUN. “In Washington, the campaign accounts of deceased and former lawmakers can legally stay active for years.”

OH: SCRUTINY. CLE. “The mayor of a Cleveland suburb is facing state scrutiny over his misuse of tens of thousands of dollars of campaign funds, cleveland.com’s Andrew Tobias writes.”

WA: SUPER PAC CAP. TS. “The Super PAC donation limits would put Seattle at the forefront of campaign finance reform. According to legal experts, the only other place in the country that has set limits on Super PAC donation limits is St. Petersburg, Florida. That city’s law, passed in 2017, has not been challenged in court but Seattle would likely be sued if it passes its own Super PAC regulations.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

LAST WEEK AT THE FEC. The agency’s latest weekly digest is here.

CRUZ WIN. DDC. The court granted the Cruz Plaintiffs’ motion to convene a three-judge court and denied the FEC’s motion to dismiss. The case involves a challenge to a restriction on the amount of post-election contributions a campaign committee can use to repay a candidate’s pre-election loans.

AZ: ACCOUNTING SOUGHT. AT. “The Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission wants to know what happened to the voter-approved money it gave the Secretary of State’s Office for its See the Money campaign finance website.”

FL: SUPER PAC TARGETS. POL. “A Democratic super PAC focused on flipping state legislatures is set to pour at least $10 million into four states it wants to turn blue ahead of political redistricting in 2021.”

NC: COMPLAINT AGAINST CHAIR. NCPW. “Citizen watchdog Bob Hall filed a complaint today at the State Board of Elections claiming the senior chair of the NC House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Linda Johnson (R-Cabarrus), has not disclosed receiving more than $20,000 of contributions that political action committees (PACs) report sending to her campaign since 2016.”

NC: OPEN COMMENT. PW. “Public comment begins today for North Carolinians to weigh in on proposed rules and amendments to rules pertaining to campaign finance requirements, according to the State Board of Elections.”

PA: NEW CHALLENGE. PPG. “Pittsburgh’s decade-long effort to limit the influence of money in city politics now faces both a court challenge and complaints from some candidates that it threatens to stifle democracy.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.