Political law links

AMENDMENT WON’T WORK. Politickernj.com. “Legislators need to look beyond the old, broken ideas of placing limits and restrictions on raising and spending money.”

GUILTY PLEA. Newsday. “Diana Durand, a Houston woman who came under scrutiny last year in the federal investigation of Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm, pleaded guilty Wednesday to making illegal campaign contributions to Grimm and another congressman.”

FL: ETHICS AMENDMENT MOVES. Tallahassee.com. “Tallahassee city commissioners agreed unanimously to place on fall ballots a proposed charter amendment that would create a new ethics officer and board, place a lower cap on campaign contributions and allow for limited public financing of campaigns.”

MA: NEW LAW OVERVIEW. Lexology. “On August 1, 2014, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed House Bill No. 4366 amending the state’s campaign finance laws. The amendments, among other things, increase the contribution limit for individual contributors to candidates and establish disclosure requirements for certain entities that make independent expenditures.”

VA: EVENT RULES. WP. “One explanation for the increase in the number of events and overall lower amount of money spent could be that the gatherings were less posh. Lobbyists might have expanded the legal practice of spreading entertainment costs across multiple clients.”

WI: COMPANY SPENDING FOCUS. JSonline.com. “The recent disclosure that Gogebic Taconite donated $700,000 to a Wisconsin political group is the latest example of how the mining company and its supporters used money, influence and the allure of jobs to persuade lawmakers to relax state environmental regulations.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Political law links

TAX STATUS AND POLITICAL ACTIVITY UPDATE. Holland & Knight. “Earlier this year, while Washington was fixated on former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee Lois Lerner and her missing emails, her former employer quietly denied the application for exemption of an organization seeking exemption under Section 501(c)(4) for engaging in too much political activity.”

CU TENSION. HLS Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation. “Citizens United thus undercuts conservative corporate theory’s reliance upon regulation as an answer to corporate externality risk, and strengthens the argument of its rival theory that corporate managers must consider the best interests of employees, consumers, communities, the environment, and society—and not just stockholders—when making business decisions.”

MS: CHALLENGE TO BE HEARD. IJ.org. The “5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans will hear arguments in a challenge to Mississippi’s campaign finance requirements that place substantial burdens on average citizens who want to speak about ballot issues.”

VA: NO VERDICT YET. WP. “Jurors opened deliberations in the federal corruption trial of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen on Tuesday, spending five-and-a-half hours discussing the case without settling on a verdict.”

TX: WHITEMIRE DRAWS PERRY-LIKE COMPLAINT. Chron.com. “A conservative group has filed a criminal complaint against state Sen. John Whitmire, accusing him of coercion in an exchange of text messages with University of Houston President Renu Khator that was published in the Houston Chronicle.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Political law links

AIDE PLEA.  Bizjournals.com.  “A longtime former aide to U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Philadelphia) pleaded guilty Wednesday for his role in attempting to conceal two campaign finance-related fraud schemes initiated by a local elected official.”

WALLETS OPEN. WP. ”Together, 310 donors gave a combined $11.6 million more by this summer than would have been allowed before the ruling. Their contributions favored Republican candidates and committees over Democratic ones by 2 to 1.”

BRIEF IN PAY TO PLAY LAWSUIT.  WT.  “A campaign-finance watchdog group filed a brief in federal court Friday to beat back an attempt by New York and Tennessee Republicans to stymie pay-to-play restrictions.”

ONGOING.  WP.  “The federal probe that resulted in a guilty plea this week by a former Iowa state senator who was secretly paid to endorse two Republican presidential candidates in the 2012 campaign is ongoing — and could implicate the political operatives who were involved in routing payments to him, according to people familiar with the case.”

CU HELPS. WP. “The advantage isn’t large, but it is statistically significant: The researchers found the ruling, in Citizens United v. FEC, was associated with a six percentage-point increase in the likelihood that a Republican candidate would win a state legislative race.”

CAMPAIGN MANAGER RESIGNS.  Politico.  “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager, Jesse Benton, announced his resignation late Friday, citing potential distractions over renewed attention to a scandal from the Iowa 2012 caucuses.”

SUPER PAC WORKAROUND.  Bloomberg.  “Figuring out how to work the system allows candidates to avoid wasting hard-won dollars when money from better-financed national groups is available.”

SUPER PAC ADS CHANGE.  Galveston Daily News.  “A conservative super PAC was forced Wednesday to edit a negative ad against Sen. Jeanne Shaheen after the New Hampshire Democrat’s attorneys flagged inaccuracies in the spot with the broadcaster.”

BUS COST HIT.  The Hill.  “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is using recent reports about the costs of his opponent’s campaign bus in a new television advertisement.”

LOBBYIST REMINISCES.  The Onion.  “Citing his habit of haranguing younger colleagues about the way things used to be, sources confirmed Wednesday that 74-year-old veteran ExxonMobil lobbyist Hank Foraker is constantly droning on about how much cheaper legislation was back in his day.”

CA:  MORE REPORTING SOUGHT.  LAT.  “California lawmakers approved a measure Saturday that would require the state to develop a new Internet-based campaign filing and public display system and that candidates file electronic disclosures of their campaign finances every calendar quarter, instead of the current semi-annual filing schedule.”

CO:  CAMPAIGN FINANCE AD.  CO Independent.  “It’s not just incumbent John Hickenlooper and Republican Bob Beauprez, Harry Hempy is running for governor too.”

NJ: INVESTIGATION SOUGHT.  NJ.com.  “A Democratic freeholder in Bergen County has asked New Jersey’s top law enforcement officer to investigate whether a national conservative advocacy group broke campaign finance laws in order to give donations above the legal limit to the 2010 campaign of county’s Republican executive, Kathleen Donovan.”

VA:  MCDONNELL TRIAL UPDATE.  RTD.  “The political corruption charges against the 71st governor of Virginia and his wife rest with a 12-member jury that will receive final instructions from U.S. District Court Judge James R. Spencer on Tuesday and begin its deliberations.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.