NOT GUILTY PLEA. KPBS. “Ernesto Encinas is one of three men accused of helping a ‘foreign national,’ identified as Mexican businessman Jose Susumo Azano Matsura, donate to San Diego politicians, according to a federal complaint unsealed in January.”
CORRUPTION AND DEATH. Reason. “And yet, the FEC insists the contribution limit is necessary to prevent the ‘corruption’ of a politically irrelevant group like the LP. This makes no sense. After all, how could a dead man corrupt a party?”
TIMES ON SUPER PACS. NYT. “Strictly speaking, these groups can have no contact with the candidate, but that prohibition is a joke.”
SELF-REPORTING. USAT. “Rep. Tom Petri says he is ‘distressed by the innuendo’ that there is a conflict between his personal financial interests and his official actions in Washington so he took the unusual step on Sunday of asking the House Ethics Committee to investigate him.”
SUPER PAC TWIST. Hungry Horse News. “Former state senator Ryan Zinke, a U.S. House candidate in Montana, is benefiting from a political action committee he created, leading at least one opponent and some experts to question the legality of the peculiar arrangement.”
FL: CELEBRITY LOBBYING IMPLICATIONS. Miami-Herald. “The Miami-Dade’s ethics commission is examining whether [international soccer star David] Beckham, his investors or their representatives broke any rules requiring lobbyists to register before making a pitch to public officials.”
KS: MORE DISCLOSURE? Wichita Eagle. “House Bill 2342, currently under discussion in the Kansas Senate, would ban leadership PACs and require all future non-candidate committees to be formed by party organizations and not legislators.”
MA: CAMPATELLI PAYS. Valley Patriot. “Suffolk Register of Probate Patricia Campatelli of Boston has paid $10,000 to the state’s general fund to resolve several campaign finance issues, according to a disposition agreement between the candidate and the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF).”
MD: MONEY MOVES. Baltimore Sun. “Democratic gubernatorial candidate Anthony G. Brown said Saturday that his campaign would forgo the use of a loophole that might have allowed his running mate to raise money during the General Assembly session — portraying the decision as a matter of principle.”
NYC: DE BLASIO AND LIMITS. TheNewYorkWorld.com. “Bill de Blasio’s campaign for mayor took in contributions exceeding legal limits from a member of his inaugural committee whose organization holds $168 million in contracts with the city.”
TX: RISE OF SUPER PACS. Austin-American Statesman. “In October, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals essentially overturned the state’s ban on super PACs.”
TX: DELETING DUPLICATES. Houston Chronicle. “The Texas Ethics Commission is working to fix a quirk with its website that causes it in many cases to spit out duplicate contributions when prompted for an advanced campaign finance report query.”
HAVE A GREAT DAY.