Good morning, here are today’s political law links, 4/11/13

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

CO:  LOBBYIST VOWS FIGHT.  Story here.  “An ethics panel of three lawmakers is looking into a complaint against a pro-gun lobbyist stemming from a verbal argument at the capitol first reported by 9NEWS during the height of the floor debate over gun legislation.”

NYC:  LIU JURY.  The Times.  “Prospective jurors in the trial of a former campaign treasurer for John C. Liu, the New York City comptroller and a Democratic candidate for mayor, will be questioned about their impressions of Mr. Liu and whether that would affect their ability to be fair and impartial, a court document shows.”

VA:  WEDDING ISSUE.  The Post.  “Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has said his daughter and her husband paid for their own wedding. So a $15,000 check from a major campaign donor to pay for the food at the affair was a gift to the bride and groom and not to him and therefore did not have to be publicly disclosed under the law, the governor says.”

UK:  LOBBYING PERCEPTION.  Story here.  “More than 100 lobbying professionals or senior managers at interest groups and businesses still hold parliamentary passes given to them by members of the House of Lords, despite repeated pledges by coalition ministers to clean up the public perception of lobbying.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.   I had a chance to visit the cherry blossoms yesterday and a few of my shots are viewable in a slideshow here.

Today’s political law links, 4/10

PROSECUTORS’ SUSPENSIONS REVERSED. The Times. “An administrative judge has overturned the suspensions of two federal prosecutors whom the Justice Department had tried to discipline for failing to turn over evidence that might have helped the defense in the botched corruption trial against Senator Ted Stevens.”

NPR ON HEARING. Here.

HEARING AND PROBES. Politico. “Obama administration officials on Tuesday acknowledged the difficulties of enforcing campaign finance laws in a post-Citizens United world, but remained tight-lipped over whether the influx of anonymous spending had triggered any federal probes.”

PETITION ON NONPROFITS. Roll Call. “The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed a rulemaking petition with the Internal Revenue Service seeking to amend the rules that permit 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups with a ‘primary purpose’ of promoting social welfare to engage in electoral activities.”

LDA REPORT EXPECTATIONS. Roll Call. “We anticipate the 2013 first quarter lobbying expenditures to be above $750 million. Lobbying reports are due by 4/22 and many are already being filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate.”

AZ: LIMITS INCREASE POSSIBLE. News here. “Arizona Republican lawmakers are poised to wildly increase the state’s campaign finance limits.”

FL: ETHICS AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE: IT’S COMPLICATED. News here. “Obviously, more to come.”

MD: “LLC LOOPHOLE” UPDATE. Story here. “The major news from the bill is the clo­sure of the ‘LLC loop­hole,’ whereby the own­ers of many lim­ited lia­bil­ity com­pa­nies (mostly these are devel­op­ers) could give the max­i­mum amount to each can­di­date through each com­pany. So instead of being lim­ited to $4,000, they could give $4,000 times as many com­pa­nies as they owned.”

NJ: THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG. Here. “A Democratic group seeking to raise unlimited amounts of money to support or defeat New Jersey candidates for the Legislature this year is suing in federal court to overturn contribution limits ordered last month by a state agency.”

NC: PERDUE CASE UPDATE. News here. “A Wake County grand jury is asking the district attorney to determine if a supporter of former Gov. Bev Perdue violated state campaign finance laws.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.

Today’s political law links, 4/9/13

SMITH TO TESTIFY. CCP. “Smith will be testifying on the second panel, which also includes Lawrence M. Noble, President, Americans for Campaign Reform and Gregory L. Colvin, Principal, Adler & Colvin. Before Smith testifies, there will be another panel of witnesses including Mythili Raman, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, United States Department of Justice and Patricia Haynes; Deputy Chief, Criminal Investigation, Internal Revenue Service.”

RAMAN TO TESTIFY. Main Justice. “Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman will testify tomorrow about the department’s enforcement of campaign finance laws involving contributions to tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, known as 501(c)(4)s.”

SAME SEX MARRIAGE AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE. WT. “Even with the Supreme Court set to rule on the Defense of Marriage Act in the near future, conflict between federal and state definitions of marriage is causing problems in relation to other laws, most recently in the campaign finance arena.”

DE: WAITING FOR ANSWERS. Story here. “It’s been nearly two years since the Attorney General’s office launched a statewide probe into violations of campaign finance laws after the Chris Tigani case.”

FL: BLIND TRUSTS EYED. Story here. “Under SB 2, which passed the Senate on the first day of the legislative session, any public official who wants to avoid disclosing embarrassing financial information on their financial disclosure forms could create a blind trust to hold their assets.”

FL: INCREASED LIMITS UNLIKELY. Story here. “Efforts to raise campaign contribution limit could be dead for this year after Gov. Rick Scott’s office said today he is unlikely to approve any increase.”

NJ: CONTRACTOR GIVING DOWN. Story here. “Under pay-to-play laws, all businesses that have received $50,000 or more in total public contracts must report their contracts and contributions to ELEC each spring. Those with state contracts in excess of $17,500 are prohibited from contributing more than $300 to gubernatorial candidates, state political parties, legislative leadership committees, county political parties, and municipal political party committees.”

PA: BIPARTISAN REFORMS. News here. “In the wake of a recent grand jury report that depicted a widespread culture of corruption in operations at the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a bipartisan group of state senators announced this morning they will introduce legislation aimed at increasing transparency and accountability in state government.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.