Tues., 12-18-12 political law links

ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES.  Story here.  “Tradition trumped suspense Monday as members of the Electoral College cast the official, final votes in the 2012 presidential election, a constitutional formality on President Barack Obama’s march to a second term.”

NRSC ED PICK NEAR.  Roll Call.  “National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Jerry Moran of Kansas is involved in final deliberations concerning whom to hire as NRSC executive director.”

NEW ETHICS CHAIR.  Story here.  “Rep. K. Michael Conaway will chair the House Ethics Committee during the 113th Congress, Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, announced on Monday.”

SOCIAL MEDIA MOVE.  Story here.  “On Saturday, one day after the unthinkable shootings at a Newtown, Conn. elementary school, the NRA took a more drastic measure by deactivating its Facebook page after celebrating getting to 1.7 million fans on the social site earlier in the week.”

WAL-MART ALLEGATIONS.  The Times.  “The Times’s examination reveals that Wal-Mart de Mexico was not the reluctant victim of a corrupt culture that insisted on bribes as the cost of doing business. Nor did it pay bribes merely to speed up routine approvals. Rather, Wal-Mart de Mexico was an aggressive and creative corrupter, offering large payoffs to get what the law otherwise prohibited. It used bribes to subvert democratic governance — public votes, open debates, transparent procedures. It used bribes to circumvent regulatory safeguards that protect Mexican citizens from unsafe construction. It used bribes to outflank rivals.”

TOP 10 WINS.  The Hill.  “The influence industry scored several hard-fought victories in a year in which lawmakers were more focused on campaigning than legislating.”

HATCH ACT VOTE.  The Post.  “The House plans to vote Tuesday on two federal employment-related bills, one that would allow lesser discipline in cases involving banned political activities, and the other allowing for stiffer actions against high-ranking employees in misconduct and similar cases.”

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

WOMEN IN LOBBYING.  Story here.  “On the cusp of another possible major rewrite of the nation’s tax code, the coalition of about 150 today makes up the inner circle of what has become a thriving community of women who will influence the debate on and off Capitol Hill.”

DC:  CFR PUSH.  Story here.  “District lawmakers will vote on a wide array of campaign finance reform measures Tuesday as part of a new effort by Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells to push the issue before legislators at their last session of the year.”

NY:  CFR MOVING.  Story here.  “It may be a rare moment in the never-ending struggle to achieve campaign finance reform. A moment that some reformers thought might never come.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Today’s political law links, Monday, 12-17-12

UPDATED (C)(3) GUIDE FOR ELECTION-YEAR ACTIVITIES. Steven Sholk has updated his helpful guide and it’s online here.

SCHOCK PROBE. Story here. “The House Ethics Committee revealed today that it is investigating the conduct of House Republican Aaron Schock of Peoria.”

OWENS SCRUTINY. Politico. “ProPublica, in a story published by POLITICO, first reported the trip was planned and organized by lobbyists hired by the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan. According to House ethics rules, ‘Member and staff participation in officially-connected travel that is in any way planned, organized, requested, or arranged by a lobbyist is prohibited.'”

DAY 41. Story here. “Local 4 is inside the courtroom for the federal corruption trial of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Kilpatrick’s dad Bernard Kilpatrick and his childhood friend Bobby Ferguson. Each day we bring you information from inside federal court as it happens.”

INQUIRER VIEW. Here. “Judges, even when they’re retired, rarely comment on public issues. But after watching the 2012 elections play out with hundreds of millions of dollars spent to secretly finance political ads, the judges decided to speak out.”

CA: LIMIT INCREASE. Story here. “Section 83124 of Political Reform Act requires the Commission to adjust the amounts every other year based on inflation.” More from the LAT here.

DC: MONEY ORDER BAN. Story here. “A D.C. councilmember is introducing emergency legislation to ban money-order campaign contributions greater than $25.”

DC: REFORM NEEDED. The Post. “The District’s 2010 mayoral campaign was marred by the free flow of unreported campaign cash, the unrestrained use of straw donors and undisclosed campaign spending. Those violations land squarely in the bailiwick of the city’s elections board and campaign finance office. Do we ignore the whole scandal and let the violators get away?”

MN: LIMIT INCREASE. Story here. “Minnesota campaign regulators backed a plan Wednesday to let candidates accept more money from donors by raising limits in force since 1993.”

NH: BIPARTISAN FIRM. Story here. “The chiefs of staff for two former governors, one a Republican, the other a Democrat, have partnered to begin a new lobbying effort at the McLane law firm.”

NY: HEVESI RELEASED. NY Post. “A former New York state comptroller has been released from prison after serving 20 months for his leading role in an influence-peddling scandal at the state’s massive pension fund.”

NYC: FINE FOR VIOLATIONS. Story here. “A month after the city Campaign Finance Board threw the book at Dr. Kendall Stewart, slamming him with nearly $61,000 in fines for violating fundraising rules, they’re hammering Dr. Dexter McKenzie with $20,565 in penalties and ordered him to pay back more $62,810 in public funds.”

SC: ETHICS PANEL. Here. “All other things being equal, it’s much better for a legislative ethics committee to be divided between Republicans and Democrats than dominated by one party, as the S.C. House Ethics Committee always has been, regardless of which party was in control.”

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Good morning – here are political law links for Thurs.

OCE AND FEC PRESS CONF. Roll Call. “The news conference that 11 government watchdog groups held Wednesday on Capitol Hill to discuss agencies that police congressional ethics and campaign finance was an apt metaphor for the popularity, or lack thereof, of the two topics among lawmakers.”

LIEBERMAN FAREWELL.  The Times.  “The senior senator from Connecticut, who is retiring in January after four terms, spoke for some 20 minutes on the floor of a chamber where, at various points in his career, he was an outspoken leader on matters like cultural decency, bipartisanship and the war on terror.”

OCE SITUATION. The Hill. “Good-government groups on Wednesday pleaded with House leaders to quickly appoint new board members to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) for the next Congress.”

RULES ON LOUD COMMERCIALS IN EFFECT. FCC.

SCHWINN ON CFR. Here. “The First Amendment allows creative public finance systems, tighter contribution limits, and greater disclosure, and we already have sound policies and proposals in these areas. Now we need to get serious about them.”

MD: FREE TICKET CHANGES. Story here. “The city’s ethics board wants Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to enact stricter controls governing her acceptance and distribution of free tickets to 1st Mariner Arena.”

MN: BOARD ASK. Story here. “Minnesota’s Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board not only is contemplating asking the Legislature for more money but also looking at expanding its authority to put that money to use.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY. Have a great weekend. I’ll send around the latest set of links next week.