Good morning, here are political law links for June 5, 2012

WI:  “DECISION DAY.”  Here.  “Voters head to the polls this morning to vote in the state’s recall races. Read more about the candidates, the races and the issues – and find important information about where and how to vote.”

TOTAL RECALL. Visit the Recall Elections Blog for this and other interesting Wisconsin recall news.

MANDATORY ETHICS TRAINING?  Story here.  “An association of Washington lobbyists is asking Congress to give teeth to a provision from a 2007 reform law that would make ethics training mandatory for lobbyists.”

INTERESTING NAME CHANGE FOR CANDIDATE. Story here. “Florida is letting a congressional candidate put the name of his web address on the ballot. Why? Because Eddie Gonzalez went before a Miami-Dade judge this past January and had his name legally changed to ‘VoteforEddie.com.'”

SUNLIGHT AND #FREETHOMAS. Here. “In upcoming days, the House is likely to pass legislative language that pays lip service to releasing THOMAS data while putting the idea in a deep freeze. This would be a disaster. But it’s not too late. Tell your representative that you want Congress to publish legislative data now.”

VENUE AND THE EDWARDS TRIAL.  Story here.  “The judge who oversaw former Sen. John Edwards’s trial issued an order Monday raising questions about whether the testimony and evidence on some of the campaign-finance related charges showed enough of a connection to central North Carolina for the case to be heard in federal court there.”

DC ETHICS BOARD NEWS.  Story here.  “D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray will announce Tuesday that he is nominating former city attorney general Robert J. Spagnoletti to chair the city’s government ethics board, a choice expected to lend considerable credibility to the newly created panel.”

ETHICS SNOWBALL IN GA. Story here. “At the insistence of the grassroots, leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties have agreed to put advisory questions on the primary ballot in July, asking voters whether they support the proposed gift limit. And everybody is pretty darn sure how those votes are going to come out.”

PHILADELPHIA LOBBYING REPORTS. Story here. “For the first time ever, special interests who lobby city officials have filed reports disclosing how much they spend trying to influence city policy.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.

Good morning, here are today’s political law links (6/4/12)

NAB V. FCC. Here is the NAB’s petition challenging the FCC’s recent moves on disclosure of political advertising.

MCCOTTER ENDS CAMPAIGN. Story here. “U.S. Rep. Thad McCotter, plagued by a criminal probe into his nominating petitions, on Saturday said he is ending his write-in campaign for re-election and will focus on serving out the final days of his 10-year congressional career.”

REP. RANGEL ATTACKS PROCESS. The Times. “Now he says that the case against him pursued by the House Ethics Committee was biased and that he was denied due process, and he has demanded an investigation.”

WHAT THE JURORS SAID. Story here. “Foster and fellow jurors Cindy Aquaro and David Recchion, the foreman, also said the credibility of the government’s star witness, Andrew Young, a former aide to Edwards, had been a concern for jurors, who deliberated for nine days.” The Times has more.

MORE ON EDWARDS CASE. Main Justice. “Some political strategists and lawyers work practically full time to understand campaign finance laws — or, the cynical might say, to work around them. Indeed, it is almost impossible to describe the laws without using shorthand. But the Edwards verdict (or non-verdict) offers a reminder.”

THE MADIGAN WAY. Story here. “Under Illinois state ethics law, lawmakers are not banned from having a financial relationship with people whose interests come before the General Assembly.”

WI RECALL. The Times. “Under Wisconsin law — one that many officials in the state say they had overlooked because it was so little used — a governor, though not his opponent, is exempt from the standard contribution limit of $10,000 per individual donor until the time a recall is formally announced by the state, which in this case came at the end of March.”

RGA IN WI.  Politico.  “As part of an effort to counter the traditional Democratic ground-game advantage, the Republican Governors Association is spending $1.5 million on get-out-the-vote efforts in Wisconsin ahead of Tuesday’s recall contest.”

MT GOV. ON CHALLENGE.  Here.  “There’s very little money in Montana politics. Legislators are basically volunteers: they are ranchers, teachers, carpenters and all else, who put their professions on hold to serve a 90-day session, every odd year, for $80 a day. ”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Good morning, here are Friday’s political law links (June 1, 2012)

AND THE VERDICT IS…  N&O.  “The jury in the John Edwards trial on Thursday found the former presidential candidate not guilty on one of six counts in his campaign finance trial and announced it could not agree on the five remaining counts.”

ANOTHER TRIAL?  LA Times.  “Several legal experts said a retrial seemed unlikely.”

DON’T RETRY.  The Post.  “The Federal Election Commission (FEC), auditing the Edwards campaign after the revelation of nearly $1 million in payments from heiress Rachel ‘Bunny’ Mellon and the late trial lawyer Fred Baron, did not determine that the payments should have been reported on Mr. Edwards’s campaign filings.”

PLENTY THERE.  Althouse.  “It seems that there’s plenty there for a retrial.”

EDWARDS AND THE FUTURE OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE.  CSM.  “More broadly, though, the prosecution’s loss – combined with the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which allowed freer flow of campaign funds in the political system – appears to set a high bar for what constitutes illegal behavior in the realm of campaign funding.”

ADVISORY OPINION COVERAGE.  Tulsa World.  “The Federal Election Commission cannot agree on whether television ads for Republican 2nd Congressional District candidate Markwayne Mullin’s plumbing company violate campaign laws, his advisers said Wednesday.”

MULLIN MULLING.  More here.

LATEST PRESIDENTIAL DISCLOSURE TODAY.  Story here.  “The financial statement, which last year ran to 28 pages, is expected to show that Romney sold ‘nearly all’ his holdings in individual stocks since last year.”

MATCHING FUNDS NEWS.  Here.  “The Federal Election Commission has approved Gary Johnson’s request for primary season matching funds.”

DRUGMAKERS AND HEALTHCARE LAW.  Story here.  “Drugmakers led by Pfizer [(PFE)] Inc. agreed to run a ‘very significant public campaign’ bankrolling political support for the 2010 health-care law, including TV ads, while the Obama administration promised to block provisions opposed by drugmakers, documents released by Republicans show.”

CT ARREST.  Story here.  “Federal authorities have charged the finance director for state House Speaker Christopher Donovan’s congressional campaign with trying to hide campaign contributions following an FBI undercover investigation of alleged influence-buying at the state Capitol.”

FL VOTER LAW IN COURT.  Story here.  “A federal judge on Thursday blocked key provisions of a ­Florida law regulating groups that organize voter-registration drives, escalating a debate over newly restrictive voter-access laws that have become a major issue in the presidential campaign.”

IL SUPER PAC UPDATE.  Story here.  “State limits on campaign donations to candidates would be lifted if wealthy super political action committees pour money into legislative or statewide political races under a measure the Senate put on the governor’s desk today.”

REZKO ON PAY TO PLAY.  Story here.  “Tony Rezko, the consummate political fixer who helped launch the careers of Barack Obama and Rod Blagojevich, is finally talking.”

RECORD KY LOBBYING.  Story here.  “Business interests and advocacy groups spent $8.8 million lobbying the Kentucky legislature in 2012, a new record.”

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.