Fri. political law links, 2-7-14

ETHICS COMMITTEE NEWS.  Roll Call.  “The House Ethics Committee may launch a formal investigation into freshman Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., according to an official statement from the panel on Thursday afternoon.”

ETHICS COMMITTEE NEWS II.  Politico.  “GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers faces a possible House Ethics Committee investigation over allegations by a former staffer that she improperly mixed campaign and official funds to help win a 2012 House leadership race.”

UNLOADING ON THE IRS.  The Hill.  “Leading GOP lawmakers are urging the IRS to withdraw new proposed rules governing tax-exempt groups, casting the regulations as a political power play meant to silence conservatives.”

LIST USE ISSUES.  The Hill.  “Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) has cut ties with the conservative website NewsMax after they used an email list he’d rented out to them to blast out an article titled ‘5 Signs You’ll Get Alzheimer’s Disease.'”

CA:  FPPC ISSUES YEAR END ENFORCEMENT REPORT.  FPPC (PDF).

FL:  ONE YEAR SENTENCE FOR LOBBYIST.  Miami Herald.  “Lobbyist Jorge Forte was many things to Sweetwater Mayor Manuel Maroño: close friend, business partner, political ally — and bagman.”

IN: REPRIMAND IN ETHICS CASE.  IndyStar.com.  “The Indiana Supreme Court has publicly reprimanded Scott Storms, the former top lawyer at the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, for negotiating a job for himself with Duke Energy Corp. while considering a sensitive matter worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the utility.”

MA:  EXPEL HENRIQUEZ.  Boston Globe.  “Following a marathon hearing that stretched from early afternoon to night, the House Committee on Ethics called on Henriquez’s colleagues to force the Dorchester Democrat from the chamber.”

MT:  COMPLAINT DISMISSED.  Billings Gazette.  “State Political Practices Commissioner Jon Motl issued another order Thursday related to his ongoing investigation of alleged illegal campaign spending by secretive ‘dark money’ groups – but this time, he dismissed a charge.”

VT:  CHANGES FOR CFR?  Story here.  “There was a drafting error — the effective dates were incorrect — and so House Government Operations must address the problem with Act 90 in H.640, a technical corrections bill that will be up for action in the coming days. The bill, however, has not yet been voted out of committee.”

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.

Thurs. 2-6-14 political law links

RUNNING FOR OFFICE (IN 4 STATES).  Roll Call.  “There have been a fair share of congressional carpetbaggers in history, but Allan Levene may be the first to assemble an entire set of matched luggage. And he’s using it to run this year for no fewer than four open House seats in four different states.”

SUPER PAC DONATIONS.  USAT.  “Labor unions and deep-pocketed donors promoting liberal causes are flexing their political muscle and have overtaken conservative billionaires in the race to fund super PACs, a USA TODAY analysis of new campaign-finance reports shows.”

COMMENTS ON IRS PROPOSALS.  Philly.com.  “As a pair of Republican-controlled House panels hold hearings this week on the Internal Revenue Service, including the agency’s efforts to regulate political spending by non-profit groups, newly available documents show a broad range of right-leaning organizations weighing in to oppose the agency’s proposed rules.”

LITTLE SHOPS OF DOLLARS. Roll Call.  “Some of the shops’ owners credit their size (each employs fewer than 10 registered lobbyists) as an advantage over the biggest firms with their often similarly big overhead.”

RETIREES’ ACCOUNTS.  Roll Call.  “Seventeen members of the House of Representatives, who have announced their retirement at the end of this Congress, are holding a total of over $10 million in campaign and leadership PAC accounts as of the end of the year.”

IRS CHIEF TESTIFIES.  The Hill.  “The new IRS commissioner, under intense questioning from GOP lawmakers, vowed Wednesday to quickly get congressional investigators the documents they need to finish off their inquiry into the agency’s treatment of Tea Party groups.”

CFR AND CAMPAIGNS.  Times Union.  “In a new web ad, the National Republican Campaign Committee is attacking Democratic NY-19 challenger Sean Eldridge as a hypocrite for pouring more than $700,000 of his own money so far into his campaign to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson.”

KOCH REMAINS OF THE DAY.  Mother Jones.  “But last week, following the Kochs’ first donor gathering of 2014, one attendee left behind a sensitive document at the Renaissance Esmeralda resort outside of Palm Springs, California, where the Kochs and their comrades had spent three days focused on winning the 2014 midterm elections and more.”

INDEPENDENT MONEY ONLINE? Epolitics.com. “My suspicion is that many of these groups will be run by The Usual Suspects, i.e., consultants who’ve been kicking around politics for a while and are used to doing things the old-fashioned media-buyer way. In that case, they’re likely throw money at poorly targeted TV campaigns rather than spend time and resources building up a robust field operation or investing in data-modeling and voter targeting.”

CA:  BAIL QUESTIONS.  KPBS.  “The three men accused of illegally steering foreign money into San Diego elections were charged with the same crime. But their terms of release are very different.”

NM: LOBBYING RULES CHANGE. WP. “Legislators in New Mexico who leave office would be required to wait two years before lobbying their former colleagues under a proposed measure that advanced through a key state House committee on Tuesday.”

OH:  ACCUSATIONS AND PAY TO PLAY.  Columbus Dispatch.  “Pepper, a former Hamilton County commissioner, accused DeWine of engineering a massive and possibly illegal pay-to-play operation in which law firms that gave political contributions received lucrative state contracts.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.

Good morning, here are political law links for Wed.

GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE PROPOSAL.  The Hill.  “Groups like Sierra Club, Communications Workers of America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee are endorsing legislation from Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) that would offer tax credits to campaign donors as well as matching funds to candidates who forgo traditional PAC contributions.”

MAHER GETTING REAL? NJ Herald. “Maher, in an interview with the New York Times, said he would pick a district where his involvement might make a difference.”

LARGEST PAC #’S.  Roll Call.  “The political action committee of Honeywell International had receipts of $4.1 million in 2013, ranking it first in receipts among all federal corporate PACs.”

TEA FIZZ.  The Hill.  “Many Tea Party candidates are fizzling with their fundraising — an early sign they might struggle to upend the entrenched incumbents they’re challenging in this year’s primary elections.”

ANDREWS RESIGNING.  The Hill.  “Andrews, who was dealing with a congressional ethics probe, announced his decision at a press conference Tuesday morning at his district office in Haddon Heights, N.J.”

VIEW ON MEDIA.  WSJ.  “The point is that government officials cannot be trusted to regulate journalists fairly and without bias.”

FB HIRES.  Politico.  “Facebook is poaching from telecom giant Verizon to fill the vacancy left by Louisa Terrell, who was the company’s top Democratic lobbyist for the Senate.”

SITE QUESTIONS.  Tampa Bay Times.  “Ray Bellamy said he wanted to make a political contribution to Alex Sink a Google search landed him at ‘http://contribute.sinkforcongress2014.com.'”

RGA RECEIPTS. WP. “Two Native American tribes battling over a proposed casino in Kenosha, Wis., are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars aimed at influencing public opinion — and the Republican Governors Association is coming up aces.”

LA:  TESTIMONY IN TRIAL.  FOX8.  “Prosecutors in former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s federal corruption trial presented the jury with testimony and email evidence that Nagin pressured a national retail giant to do business with his family.”

CAN:  FAIR ELECTIONS ACT.  National Post.  “The Harper government is set to introduce a new ‘Fair Elections Act’ that will increase the amount Canadians are allowed to contribute to political parties; will rein in the power of the Chief Electoral Officer when it comes to launching investigations into violations of electoral law; and will end the practice of “vouching” for voters who don’t have proof of identification at the ballot box, according to sources who have seen the draft bill.”

 

HAVE A GREAT DAY.