Here are Friday’s political law links, 5/10

ENDING PUBLIC FUNDING: WHAT TO DO WITH THE MONEY IN THE FUND?
Heritage. “H.R. 1724, the Kids First Research Act of 2013, sponsored by Representative Gregg Harper (R–MS), would end the Presidential Election Campaign Fund (PECF). That’s the good news. But then the bill would authorize spending existing PECF funds on a new 10-year pediatric research initiative via the National Institutes of Health (NIH).” There’s over $200 million in the fund.

OPINION APPROVED. FEC. “The Commission concluded that because the 1787 National Committee, Inc. (1787) has not yet placed any candidates for federal office on any ballot, 1787 does not yet come within the definition of a ‘political party’ under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended, (the Act) and Commission regulations. Accordingly, 1787 is not yet the ‘national committee’ of a political party within the meaning of the Act and Commission regulations. During the openmeeting discussion, the Commission heard from the Chairman of the 1787 National Committee, Inc.”

AL: BILL TO REMOVE CAP. Story here. “A bill before the Alabama House of Representatives today seeks to repeal the state’s $500 limit on corporate campaign contributions to candidates.”

NY: FINE FOR RUN. Story here. “Team De Blasio got socked with a $10,000 penalty for ‘commingling’ funds raised for his ’09 campaign and his current bid for the mayoralty…”

NYC: LIU IMPACT. Here. “City Comptroller John Liu continues to run for mayor as if confident he can overcome the embarrassment of a campaign finance scandal that could send one of his top former aides and a contributor to prison for decades.”

TN: LOBBYIST REGISTRATION ISSUE. Here. “Tom Ingram, veteran consultant to Gov. Bill Haslam, faces a potential civil penalty for failing for three years to register as required by law as a lobbyist for a company that wants to mine coal on state-owned land near Crossville, Tenn.”

TX: PERRY GETS BILL. Story here. “The Texas Senate has passed and sent to Gov. Rick Perry a bill requiring lobbyists who also work as campaign consultants to disclose that information.”

UT: BAR COMPLAINT IN ETHICS MATTER. Story here. “The former director of the Utah Division of Consumer Protection has filed a complaint with the Utah State Bar, alleging embattled Attorney General John Swallow violated ethical standards when he had conversations with a business owner facing a $400,000 fine for breaking telemarketing laws.”

VA: ETHICS REFORM VIEW. The Daily Progress. “Given the unfolding and deepening problems now facing Virginia, ethics reform should be a high priority for the next General Assembly.”

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.

Good morning, here are today’s political law links, 5/9/13

COMMISSIONERS ON ENFORCEMENT.  Politico.  “The cries for changing the Federal Election Commission from some editorial boards and campaign finance lobbyists overlook the obvious dangers of an unchecked federal agency regulating the political involvement of citizens.”

HOW CFR PLAYS IN EUGENE. Here. “Murkowski and Wyden deserve credit for putting forward a bipartisan proposal, but they face an uphill climb.”

LOBBYIST BAN ON GOVERNMENT BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS UPDATE. BLT. “Laying out their case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for the first time, lawyers for a half-dozen lobbyists contend the Obama administration’s prohibition on federal lobbyists from sitting on agency boards and commissions has ‘punished’ their clients.”

FORMER REP. JOINS FIRM. Story here. “Under ethics rules, Dicks, 72, is barred for one year from lobbying his former colleagues in the House of Representatives.”

SALANT ON REVOLVING DOOR. Here. “Since the November elections, at least 22 members of the last Congress took jobs with lobbying firms, running trade associations or handling government relations for organizations. That is an increase of 14 percent over 2012 in the number of former lawmakers now in the lobbying business, according to the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks ex-lawmakers’ employment. Since 1998, a total of 338 former members of Congress have worked as lobbyists or joined such firms for at least some of their time since leaving office.”

CA: RUBIO RULING. Story here. “Former State Senator Michael Rubio has been cleared of breaking any of the state’s political ethics laws following a months long investigation into a real estate deal.”

DE: LOBBYING REFORM MOVES. News here. “The state House has passed a bill prohibiting former members of the General Assembly from working as lobbyists for one year after leaving office.”

FL: WHO BENEFITS FROM CFR. Story here. “If former Gov. Charlie Crist has a handicap going into 2014, it’s money. Facing a millionaire incumbent governor with the backing of millions more from political committees, raising cash $500 at a time was shaping up to be quite the challenge.”

IA: VIEW ON ETHICS COMMISSION MOVE. Story here. “The investigation won’t be a simple process. It likely will be months before a report is returned to the committee, and the committee will decide whether to then schedule a hearing or dismiss the complaint.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.

Today’s political law links, 5/8/13

FEC AGENDA. The agenda for tomorrow’s Federal Election Commission meeting is online here.

BRIEF IN LIMITS CASE. The Hill. “The RNC said in its brief that the court should strike down aggregate limits because they infringe on donors’ First Amendment rights but don’t serve an appropriate and ‘narrowly tailored’ government interest.”

“HISTORIANS” IN THE SHADOWS.  Tim LaPira discusses shadow lobbying here.  “They can elude the law’s registration requirement by simply interpreting the strict statutory definition of ‘lobbyist’ as not applying to them.  That is, so long as they are not spending 20% of their time—think one full day in a normal work week—on behalf of any single client for an entire quarter, then they do not need to register or report their lobbying activities.”

GUILTY PLEA IN CONTRIBUTIONS CASE. Story here. “Former liquor executive Christopher J. Tigani pleaded guilty to three felonies today in Delaware Superior Court for his scheme in 2007 and 2008 to funnel money to political campaigns through his family’s beer distribution business.”

NY: CFR HEARING CIRCUS. Story here. “Protestors were literally coming in through the windows at today’s state Senate hearing on the New York City campaign finance system.”

NY: ENFORCEMENT ISSUES. Story here. “There were 103,805 violations of New York’s campaign finance laws that went unenforced by the state Board of Elections, according to a report released Tuesday by the New York Public Interest Research Group, an Albany-based good government group.”

SC: REFORMS ADVANCE. Story here. “A South Carolina Senate panel has advanced an ethics reform package that removes ethics investigations from legislators.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.