Good morning, Wed. political law links

IPO AND ETHICS.  Here.  “As Wall Street prepares for Twitter to make its initial public offering Thursday, the House Ethics Committee would like to take this “opportunity” to remind members they can’t get in on the stock rush before the general public.”

HACK ATTACK.  Here.  “The Federal Election Commission is trying to deal with attempts by others to hack its website and has moved certain data servers offline.”

STATE MONEY.  The Post.  “Despite a widespread perception that political contributions buy legislative influence, political science has largely failed to find evidence to support this conclusion.”

AZ: FILING IN CASE. Here. “Arizona’s GOP legislative leaders are asking the state Supreme Court to allow higher campaign-donation limits to be reinstated, citing confusion among candidates and donors.”

MN:  UNANSWERED QUESTIONS.  Link.  “Minnesota campaign finance regulators are wrestling with how to maintain proper separation between candidates and political groups independently spending money on key races.”

MT:  LATE FINE.  Here.  “Former Public Service Commissioner John Vincent has agreed to pay a $100 fine for filing a 2012 campaign finance report late.”

VA: BLAME. Politico. “Even before Cuccinelli delivered his concession speech, the candidate’s close allies were beginning to blame outside groups for not helping out more.”

AUSTRALIA:  LAW CHALLENGED.  Here.  “The New South Wales union movement has begun a High Court challenge to the NSW Government’s electoral donation laws.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.

Tuesday’s political law links

NONPROFITS PLAY. The Post. “From coast to coast, election contests are increasingly being influenced by well-funded nonprofit organizations that disclose little about their donors or how they operate.”

SUPER PAC NEWS.  Here.  “Four days after his dismal Denver presidential debate performance, Barack Obama secretly attended a fundraiser for a super PAC in violation of a campaign pledge to avoid such events, according to the authors of a new book, Double Down: Game Change 2012.”

BRIFFAULT: FOCUS ON SMALL DONORS. Jurist. “Even if the court rediscovers judicial modesty, decides to check its tendency to second-guess Congress, and instead reaffirms Buckley’s validation of both contribution limits and aggregate caps, such a decision will have at best a modest effect in constraining the role of great private wealth in our elections. That goal is more likely to be achieved by mechanisms that dilute the role of great private wealth by increasing the share of campaign money coming from small donors. As a number of states and cities have demonstrated, small-donor matching systems, in which small contributions are matched by public funds, often at a greater than one-to-one ratio, are one way to do this.”

GOOD ADVICE? Roll Call. “And just how do you meet those elusive ‘lobbyists’ everyone talks about but no one claims to be?”

CA: KOCH UPDATE. WFB. “Former Chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission (CFPPC) Ann Ravel admitted this weekend that the Koch brothers were not involved with campaign finance violations that resulted in a record fine levied by the agency.”

CT: SENTENCING THURS. Here. “A Middlebury man who owned two roll-your-own tobacco shops in Waterbury is facing sentencing for his role in a campaign financing plot surrounding former state House Speaker Chris Donovan’s failed congressional campaign.”

DC: AMENDMENTS PROPOSED. City Paper. The amendments attempt to deal with pay to play issues.

TX: ETHICS EXPENSES. Link. “So far, about 80 percent of the city workforce — roughly 10,000 employees — have gone through ethics training put on by Navigant Consulting.”

GERMANY: DAS REVOLVING DOOR. Here. “Berlin prosecutors are investigating ex-German state minister Eckart von Klaeden over a potential conflict of interest after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s former ally joined Daimler as a lobbyist.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.

Today’s political law links

CA:  INVESTIGATION REVEALED.  LAT.  “Although Russo handed over $25 million, only about $15 million ended up back in California. And when the money surfaced, it sparked an investigation by state authorities, who last month levied $16 million in penalties against the Arizona group and three others.”

CO:  AMDT. 41 ISSUE.  Here.  “The complaint, filed by a conservative group, alleges the governor violated Amendment 41, the state’s ban on gifts to public officials, by allowing the Democratic Governor’s Association to pick up $1,200 in costs for the governor to register for a DGA conference and stay at a hotel in Aspen.”

FL:  NEW LIMITS.  Here.  “That relationship between special interests and Florida’s political establishment is set to grow even stronger now that donors can write much larger campaign checks.”

FL:  HIGHER LIMIT IMPACT.  Here.  “The maximum contribution to political campaigns in Florida rises from $500 to $1,000 for legislative races and $3,000 for statewide races Friday, but the increase in the limits isn’t expected to produce a huge surge in the total amount of donations because candidates can still set up campaign committees with unlimited donations.”

FL:  ARREST.  Here.  “On Friday, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office arrested Bateman, charging him with breaking state election law with some of his post-election expenditures.”

MA:  COAKLEY NEWS.  Here.  “State law prohibits the use of federal campaign funds to support a state race.”

MA:  MAYOR’S RACE CASH.  Here.  “Outside cash has been pouring into the mayoral race in the last few days, about three times as much of it for Mr. Walsh, 46, a state representative and union leader backed by organized labor, as for Mr. Connolly, 40, a city councilman who is receiving money from education groups.”

NJ:  CHRISTIE AND 12.  Here.  “Ethics troubles complicated New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s chances of becoming Mitt Romney’s running mate last year, The New York Times reports is in an upcoming chronicle of the 2012 presidential campaign.”

SC:  CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE NEWS.  Here.  “There is good reason for S.C. politicians to feel an affinity for Boeing, Michelin and BMW.”

TX:   INSTANT FRIENDS.  Here.  “Public office in Texas comes with a salary, office and instant friends, called lobbyists.”

VA:  ETHICS ISSUES.  The Post.  “Richmond political culture clings to a quaint notion that its elected representatives are gentlemen and ladies who are above the petty venality that afflicts lesser states.”

VA:  MY PHOTOS.  A few of my photos from Gov. Scott Walker’s visit to Virginia are on my flickr page here.

VA:  FLYING POLITICIANS.  Here.  “In a state as congested and wide as Virginia — sprawling from the Atlantic to west of Detroit — an airplane can be a candidate’s ticket to the governor’s mansion.”

WA:  COMCAST GIVES.  Here.  “While Comcast denies there is any connection between McGinn’s broadband policies and their donations, the company has given thousands of dollars to PACs that have, in turn, given heavily to anti-McGinn groups.”

INDIA:  FOREIGN BAN.  Here.  “The law forbids a ‘foreign company’ to make any donation to political parties even if it has an Indian subsidiary. Yet, the home ministry and the two leading parties, Congress and BJP, have all filed affidavits claiming that a political donation is allowed if the majority shareholding in the foreign company registered abroad is of an Indian.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.