[Political Activity Law]

AOC HIT. TB. “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has been hit with a Federal Election Commission complaint, accusing her of funneling thousands from her campaign fund to her boyfriend through a political action committee.”

SUPER PAC MOVE. HILL. “Robby Mook, who ran Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, will take over the largest super PAC backing House Democratic candidates, the group said Tuesday.”

INVESTIGATION SOUGHT. REU. “A U.S. House panel investigating President Donald Trump wants to depose Trump’s long-time tax lawyer Sheri Dillon, as well as Stefan Passantino, former deputy White House Counsel in charge of compliance and ethics, according to letters sent to both of them on Wednesday and seen by Reuters.”

AR: ETHICS BILL MOVES. AO. “The Arkansas House of Representatives unanimously passed on Tuesday a pair of ethics bills proposed by legislative leaders in the wake of a federal corruption investigation that has ensnared several former lawmakers.”

MO: USE OF CAR ALLEGED. KCS. “An employee of the Missouri attorney general’s office occasionally drove Josh Hawley to campaign-related events in a state-owned car, an arrangement that raises new questions about Hawley’s use of taxpayer-funded resources in the run up to his successful bid for U.S. Senate.”

NY: ACTIVISTS PUSH. WIVB. “The group says they believe a small donor matching system for candidates in state elections would help make everyday New Yorkers’ voices heard.”

NY: AOC TARGET. NYP. “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is getting involved in the state’s campaign finance laws, calling for limiting the influence of big donors.”

TX: WHAT REPORTS SHOW. DN. “Despite a city-imposed limit on how much individuals and groups can donate per election cycle to mayoral and council candidates, oversight by Dallas officials is essentially nonexistent.”

TX: TEC PRAISE. DN. “Most every vote of the eight-member board is unanimous and consistently nonpartisan, as the Texas Legislature hoped the commission would be when lawmakers designed it.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

PARADOX. WP. “The 2020 Democrats are in an unusual place right now; to get to a mega-costly general election, they need to win over primary voters who have grown angrier and angrier about money in politics.”

ID: BILL FAILS. IBR. “Legislation intended to make more public who is donating to candidates and political causes in Idaho has been put on hold after a diverse array of nonprofit groups on Friday complained it would force them to reveal donors who wished to remain anonymous.”

MA: VIOLATION STATUS. SCT. “The former chief of staff under Mayor Jasiel Correia II was found to have violated campaign finance law associated with activity related to a fundraising event for Rep. Alan Silvia in October.”

NY: DEBATES AND REFORM. GG. “With Democrats in charge of the state Legislature, there’s broad optimism that New York may finally create a state-level public financing system for electoral campaigns modelled after the program in place in New York City, including mandatory debates for candidates for statewide offices who receive public campaign funds.”

PA: MEALS PAID FOR. PPG. “According to Neil Makhija, an attorney who teaches campaign law at the University of Pennsylvania, and who ran unsuccessfully for state House as a Democrat in Carbon County in 2016, Pennsylvania campaign law says little about the appropriate uses of campaign money, other than that it can be spent ‘for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election.'”

WV: BILL MOVES. WVPB. “The West Virginia Senate has cleared a bill that would make changes to the state’s campaign finance laws. While the measure increases the limits on donations to candidates and other political groups, opponents say the bill fails to provide transparency on so-called dark money in elections.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

STEIN PAYING. CPI. “Stein’s 2016 Green Party presidential campaign committee cut the Federal Election Commission a $41,735.31 check in late December — an effort to resolve the committee’s mounting legal troubles.”

MONEY PLEDGE. TT. “Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she will forgo the chase for campaign money from the biggest donors in her quest for her party’s nomination for president.”

CAMPAIGN SPENDING. TW. “The 2020 election is still more than a year and a half away, but President Trump’s re-election campaign has been raking in record-setting sums for months.”

BACKING BORDER. REU. “A political group backing President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election bid will run national television ads this week seeking to bolster support in Congress for his efforts to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border as lawmakers try to block him.”

MURPHY SAVED. TB. “Federal Election Commissioners couldn’t agree on whether to investigate allegations of illegal campaign activity in 2016 by then-U.S. Senate candidate Patrick Murphy, so the case is closed.”

CA: TURNING TO STATE. SBS. “Cities and counties across California are reaching out to the state’s political watchdog about possibly enforcing their campaign finance and ethics ordinances under a new law that took effect on Jan. 1.”

MI: LOBBYIST SPENDING. LJ. “Lobbyist spending in Michigan topped $40 million last year, a new record, state reports show.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.