pol. law links

AD NOTES FUNDRAISER.  Politifact.  “In the ad, the announcer says: ‘According to news reports, she’s acknowledged allowing a convicted felon who is well known for his radical anti-American statements to actually hold a fundraiser for her.'”

SENATOR REIMBURSES. Politico. “Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu sent the federal government a check for more than $33,000 after wrongly charging taxpayers for political travel over a period of 12 years, her campaign announced Friday.”

FL:  ETHICS CASE UPDATE.  Miami Herald.  “Judge Watkins found that Rivera had accepted state reimbursement for travel already paid for by campaign accounts — thereby double-billing taxpayers — and that Rivera failed to properly disclose his income.”

NJ:  ETHICS COMPLAINT FILED.  NJ.com.  “New Jersey’s biggest labor union today plans to file a complaint with the State Ethics Commission against a key adviser to Gov. Chris Christie who is in charge of the agency that oversees pension investments.”

NY:  CASINO DONATIONS DOWN.  PressConnects.  “The Eastern Southern Tier’s three casino bidders are placing big bets on the merits of their proposals.”

TX:  BOOK UPDATE.  WP.  “Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott’s campaign has filed an ethics complaint against his Democratic opponent Wendy Davis over a stop on her book tour this week.”

VA:  THE JUROR.  WP.  “If the juror who mysteriously was excused midway through the public corruption trial of Robert F. McDonnell had been allowed to join the deliberations, the outcome likely would have been very different.”

WA:  LT. GOV. FINED.  Seattle Times.  “Lt. Gov. Brad Owen has reached a settlement with the Washington State Executive Ethics Board that fines him $15,000 for using state resources for his nonprofit organization Strategies For Youth.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

9.12 political law links

AMENDMENT FAILS. Politico. “The measure failed to clear a 60-vote threshold on Thursday afternoon, 54-42.”

CU SOON. The Hill. “The Federal Election Commission has struck an agreement to formally loosen its regulations governing campaign spending in response to a pair of major Supreme rulings, the agency’s leadership announced Thursday.”

NO INQUIRY. ABC. An arrested congresswoman won’t face investigation.

WILL ON AMENDMENT EXTERMISM. WP. “They tried to radically shrink First Amendment protection of political speech. They evidently think extremism in defense of the political class’s convenience is no vice.”

LOBBYIST CHARGE. Tampabay.com. “Rep. Steve Southerland is out with a hard-hitting new ad that levels a potent charge against Democratic rival Gwen Graham: Years ago, she was a Washington lobbyist.”

HI: SUPER PAC SPENDING. Civilbeat.com. “Newly released campaign spending data show the Pacific Resource Partnership did not report more than $360,000 in expenditures during the 2012 election.”

MD: BUS DIVERSION. MD Reporter. “Brown may have a serious campaign fundraising violation to explain to the state elections board.”

SC: SPEAKER SELF-SUSPENDS. LAT. “The speaker of South Carolina’s House of Representatives found himself in the awkward position of having to suspend himself from office Thursday, a day after he was indicted by a grand jury on campaign finance and misconduct charges.”

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND.

Political law links

HOLDEN TALK DISCLOSED. HuffPo. “Holden’s talk focused on the Democracy Alliance, a network of wealthy liberal donors who strategically steer money to a set of hand-picked progressive groups.”

NEGLECTING MOBILE. Politico. “A POLITICO analysis of mobile sites for about 40 competitive House and Senate races found that a majority were plagued with missed opportunities for campaigns trying to find volunteers, donors and voters.”

PLI EVENT STARTS. PLi. “To stay above reproach, be sure to attend this acclaimed program.”

WHY DEBATE CFR? NJ. “Republicans also get the chance to debate an issue they view as a political winner. Many Republicans, especially McConnell, savor talking about this issue. For them, citizens’ ability to spend money in politics is a vital First Amendment cause.”

SENTENCE IN ALLIEGRO CASE. Local10. “Ana Alliegro, the political operative and self-described Republican ‘bad girl,’ was sentenced to time served plus six months of house arrest Wednesday morning by U.S. District Judge Robert Scola.”

LESSIG LOSS. WFB. “A leading campaign finance reformer admitted defeat on Wednesday after spending more than $1.6 million on a Senate candidate who garnered less than a quarter of the primary vote.”

AZ: HORNE ALLEGATIONS. KNAU. “The executive director of the Clean Elections Commission concluded today there’s reason to believe that Tom Horne used more than $300,000 worth of state employee time and office rent in his bid to get reelected as attorney general.”

CA: DATA APP LAUNCH. OaklandNorth. “With open laptops and a few television monitors projecting icons of Oakland mayoral candidates, a team of self-proclaimed ‘volunteer civic hackers’ last week introduced to the city ethics commission a new app designed to make campaign-finance numbers more accessible to voters.”

SC: SPEAKER INDICTED. WSJ. “South Carolina House Speaker Bobby Harrell was indicted on a slate of campaign-finance violations Wednesday, including allegedly claiming reimbursement for private flights he didn’t take and using campaign donations to hire a secretary for his private insurance business.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.