Tues. political law links

SUPER PAC SPENDS.  Roll Call.  “A Republican Super PAC has spent over $500,000 opposing a New York tea party candidate in the June 24th Republican primary.”

SUPER KOCH. Politico. “During a closed-door gathering of major donors in Southern California on Monday, the political operation spearheaded by the Koch brothers unveiled a significant new weapon in its rapidly expanding arsenal — a super PAC called Freedom Partners Action Fund.”

COINVOX AND CONTRIBUTIONS.  TechCrunch.  “The service is fairly simple: you sign up for a limited number of accounts and then announce you’re accepting bitcoin via CoinVox. The service simply takes the BTC and forwards the cash to the particular PAC.”

MONEY MATTERS. DMR. “Recent election results should demonstrate that no matter how much money is raised and spent, it is still up to the voters to educate themselves on the candidates and the issues and exercise their power to counter the big money at the ballot box.”

MD:  COMPLAINT TO BE FILED.  SOMD.com.  “The gubernatorial campaign for Attorney General Douglas Gansler plans to file a campaign finance violation complaint against both the Brown-Ulman campaign and a political action committee that has spent money attacking Gansler.”

MA: PLEDGE SPAR. Boston Globe. “Just two hours before the debate, Coakley challenged Grossman and the third candidate in the race, former Obama administration health care official Donald Berwick, to sign a People’s Pledge designed to limit third-party spending.”

NY:  LLC LOOPHOLE.  NY Real Estate News.  “Governor Andrew Cuomo has become the biggest beneficiary of a loophole in New York State’s campaign finance regulations that allows businesses and individuals to donate large amounts of money to politicians. The lion’s share of the donations appears to be coming from real estate developers.”

OH:  PAY TO PLAY ON THE RADAR.  Daily Record.  “Two Democratic state lawmakers have proposed limits on campaign contributions from law firms seeking special contracts from the attorney general’s office.”

OR:  NONPARTISAN DONATIONS.  Oregonlive.com. “The campaign seeking to qualify a nonpartisan primaries initiative continues to pick up large donations as it seeks to meet a July 3 signature gathering deadline.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Mon. 6-16-14 political law links

AND THE MOST LOBBIED AGENCY IS…  NPR.  “Since 1998, more than $41 billion has been spent by companies, unions and other organizations to lobby federal agencies and the U.S. Congress. In 2013, more than 9,900 lobbyists spent $3.23 billion trying to influence law writers and policy makers. But which agencies do they target most?”

KAUFMAN ON LOBBING REFORM.  Delawareonline.com.  “It is long past time to revisit the Lobbying Disclosure Act, and a bill recently introduced by Sens. Michael Bennett (D-Colorado) and Jon Tester (D-Montana) does just that. It would close the lobbyist loophole and institute a lifetime ban on lobbying by former members of Congress. It deserves support.”

THE POINT OF SUPER PAC SPENDING.  Watertown Daily Times.  “$857,120.64 can buy a lot of things.  It could buy you a waterfront home in the Adirondacks or on the St. Lawrence River, close the gap in the Edwards-Knox Central School District budget, land you some coveted Beatles memorabilia or get you a small yacht.”

CA:  GET REAL ON LOCAL REFORM.  Santa Cruz Sentinel.  “Cities large and small, including San Francisco, New York, Ventura and Boulder have already enacted meaningful election reform. Guided by these successes, Councilman Micah Posner and a group of concerned citizens had proposed that Santa Cruz make mandatory its existing per-donor limits.”

IL:  LARGE DONATION.  HuffPo.  “With a $2.5 million contribution to Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner, Chicago-based hedge fund executive Ken Griffin has written the largest check to a political campaign in recent history.”

KY:  ALTRIA IN THE LEAD.  Courier-Journal.  “Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris USA and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco, was the top spender among lobbyists in the 2014 Kentucky General Assembly, spending $156,200 — far more than any other company or group.”

OH:  CAMPAIGN FINANCE TAKEAWAYS.  Cincinnati.com.  “A young lawyer from Blue Ash has more campaign cash than nearly every other Democratic Statehouse candidate, a new Republican state Senate candidate has a hefty financial advantage but must win over a heavily Democratic electorate, and Republicans continued their fundraising dominance for statewide campaigns.”

WA:  MOVING ON MEALS.  Bellingham Herald.  “The Legislative Ethics Board will take comment next week on four proposals intended to crack down on free meals from lobbyists to Washington state legislators.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Friday the 13th political law links

GOOD MORNING AND BEFORE WE TURN TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING.  Welcome to another edition of your daily dose of political law.  Every weekday I collect and prepare a set of links to stories, reports, press releases, and other online resources geared to the political law practitioner.   The links, to media and interest groups across the political spectrum, are sent by email to those who’ve signed up (click on the link in the sidebar to subscribe) or you can stop by www.PoliticalActivityLaw.com at any time to see the latest links, search the archives, or check my list of political law news and research resources.  Are you on Twitter?  You can also access links to all my posts there (follow me and I’ll follow back). I’m happy to connect on LinkedIn, too.

To be blunt, my links aren’t for everybody.  If you’ve found this site, you’re in a select tribe of people focused on local, state, and federal political law, rules regulating political activity, money in politics, and laws governing lobbying and gifts to officeholders and government executives.  My site’s been running since 2008 and I’m pleased to see the huge growth in interest in political law since then.  My number of subscribers and followers has grown with this increased focus on political law.  What does the future hold?  That’s another feature of this area of interest; change is constant.  I look forward to sharing the latest news about this ever-changing landscape.

I’m truly grateful for your interest.  Thanks again for reading and have a great weekend.

LEARNING FROM NORWAY.  PolicyMic.  “But the simple version is that European republics (with the bizarre exception of Finland, whose campaign finance laws are nearly identical to ours) have found two major ways to control their campaigns: limiting contributions and limiting spending.”

MONSTER UNDER THE BED.  Breitbart.  “Today’s effort to amend the Constitution will almost definitely fail. But tomorrow’s may not. If you value the right to speak your mind and to try to convince others to change theirs—which is the very heart of a free society—now would be a good time to start making yourself heard.”

CT:  VIEW ON DGA CASE.  Courant.  “The DGA wants to spend a lot of money in support of the governor’s re-election campaign while having the governor fundraise for it. State law frowns on this, for good reason. The DGA’s lawsuit challenged that law.”

MD:  DANCING AROUND ETHICS.  Balt. Sun.  “The Baltimore County school board ethics panel has ruled that Superintendent Dallas Dance violated rules when he took a consulting job with a professional development company that does business with the school system.”

PA:  QUESTIONS ON DONATION.  Morning Call.  “State law forbids casino owners and key managers from donating to statewide candidates, executive-level employees and political groups like the RGA.”

RI:  ETHICS OK.  Providence Journal.  “The Rhode Island Senate Thursday approved a bill that would put to the voters a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would restore Ethics Commission jurisdiction over state lawmakers.”

TX:  PHONE CALL QUESTIONS.  KVIA.  “The complaint, being reviewed by the Texas Ethics Commission, revolves around automated phone calls voters received in January, when Escobar was running for County Judge.”

WA:  VIEW ON LOBBYING REFORM.  Columbian.  “One idea would have lawmakers file a public report when lobbyists treat them to meals or drinks costing as little as $5. Another idea would limit free meals to three or five per year. And another would deduct the cost of any bought-for meals from the legislator’s per diem — which is increasing to $120 next year.”

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.