[Political Activity Law]

NO REPORTING REMINDER. I assume the FEC won’t be issuing a reporting reminder for the Year End Report due January 31, unless the agency re-opens before then. Here‘s last year’s. The agency’s website, in fact, hasn’t been updated since the shutdown started last year and still lists Chair Weintraub as Vice Chair.

REFORM PROSPECTS. CLS. “This week marks the ninth anniversary of the landmark Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which critics say prompted a flood of anonymous ‘dark money’ into political campaigns. But some see hope in a new package of reforms.”

CA:   FINE REDUCED. TI. “The California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) approved a $6,000 fine for the Friends of Livermore Committee 2016 (FOLC 2016) for three election violations.”

CO: COMPLAINT FILED. PT. “Charles Heatherly, the former policy director for the Colorado State Senate Republicans has filed a campaign finance complaint against Colorado Rising and ProgressNow Colorado, claiming the two organizations conspired to act as a conduit to fund proponents of Proposition 112 in the 2018 election on behalf of the Sergey Brin Foundation.”

IL: RETURNING MONEY. CT. “Mayoral candidate Susana Mendoza returning money linked to wire-wearing Ald. Danny Solis.”

OR: REFORM PUSH. PM. “Governor Kate Brown is pushing for campaign finance reform, and a there’s a new campaign finance committee in the state senate.”

OR: FAST TRACK. OPB. “In an exceedingly rare move, the Oregon Supreme Court this week agreed to fast-track a case that proponents hope will let the state limit campaign contributions. The move means the matter will skip over the Oregon Court of Appeals, where cases can languish for years and will be heard by Oregon Supreme Court justices later this year.”

TX: REPORTING ERRORS. MHP. “The Texas Ethics Commission said they have found credible evidence that state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, did not disclose assets in a business he owned.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

YEAR END REPORT REMINDER SENT. HOUSE/SEN. “The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 requires active lobbying registrants and individual lobbyists to file a semi-annual report of certain contributions along with certification that the filer understands the gift and travel rules of both the House and the Senate. Registrants and each of their lobbyists who were active for all or part of the semi-annual reporting period must file separate reports detailing their contributions, including FECA, honorary, Presidential Inaugural Committee, Presidential Library and certain payments for event costs. The Year-End contribution report is due January 30, 2019, covering July 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018.”

DARK LEFT. RC. “For the first time since the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which struck down campaign spending limitations for corporations and unions, liberal “dark money” groups outspent conservative groups, according to a new report from Issue One that analyzed data from the Center for Responsive Politics.”

SCAM WATCH. KUT. “An Austin man named Kyle Prall is currently in federal court, facing over a dozen charges that range from mail and wire fraud to money laundering. Officials allege he stole over $500,000 by soliciting campaign donations; he created web sites and literature supposedly promoting Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, among others, and then pocketed the proceeds. The allegation may sound outrageous, but the case is not the first of its kind, by any means.”

HARRI$ HAUL. MW. “Just a day after she announced her candidacy for president, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris has already pulled in $1.5 million in campaign donations.”

HARRIS V. BOOKER. WE. “Unlike Booker though, Harris will say no to dark money. Multiple outlets report that she plans on rejecting assistance from super PACs as well as corporate dollars.”

HI: SUPER PAC CRACK. CB. “Hawaii’s 2018 election is still bugging some lawmakers, who say they plan to push bills this session that would aim to get a grip on super PACs, open up public financing of campaigns and sidestep political parties by allowing the top two vote-getters in a primary race to move on to the general election, no matter what party they’re from.”

MI: CLEARED OF VIOLATIONS. MT. “The Secretary of State can force nonprofits that violate the law to reveal their funding source and expenditures and turn over an investigation to the Michigan State Police.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

FARA.US LAUNCH. Caplin & Drysdale has launched a website focused exclusively on the Foreign Agents Registration Act.  Their new site is a centralized FARA resource feauring legislative history, descriptions of key enforcement cases, summaries of advisory opinions, and more.

ELECTION LAW NEWS. Wiley Rein’s January 2019 edition of Election Law News is available here.

END THE SHUTDOWN AND SECURE THE BORDER ACT. PDF (1300 pages). The package includes over $71 million for the Federal Election Commission and the following:

SEC. 735. (a) None of the funds made available in this or any other Act may be used to recommend or require any entity submitting an offer for a Federal contract to disclose any of the following information as a condition of submitting the offer: (1) Any payment consisting of a contribution, expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication that is made by the entity, its officers or directors, or any of its affiliates or subsidiaries to a candidate for election for Federal office or to a political committee, or that is otherwise made with respect to any election for Federal office. (2) Any disbursement of funds (other than a payment described in paragraph (1)) made by the entity, its officers or directors, or any of its affiliates or subsidiaries to any person with the intent or the reasonable expectation that the person will use the funds to make a payment described in paragraph (1).  (b) In this section, each of the terms ‘‘contribution’’, ‘‘expenditure’’, ‘‘independent expenditure’’, ‘‘electioneering communication’’, ‘‘candidate’’, ‘‘election’’, and ‘‘Federal office’’ has the meaning given such term in the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101 et seq.).

REFORM SOUGHT. WFB. “With Monday marking the ninth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, first-term Rep. Gil Cisneros (D., Calif.) called on Congress to support campaign finance reform, despite his campaign benefitting from Democratic super PACs, special interest groups, and tens of thousands of dollars from the financial services industry.”

CORPORATE PAC MOVE. NW. “California Senator Kamala Harris declared that she ‘will not take a dime’ from corporate political action committees in her 2020 run for the White House.”

IN: FORMS FOUND. NWT. “A few of the 2018 candidates not found on Porter County government’s campaign finance reporting page did indeed file their annual reports by last week’s deadline.”

NJ: FORCED DISCLOSURE. NJTV. “For two and a half years, Sen. Troy Singleton has been pushing a bill to make independent expenditure committees disclose their major donors the way candidates do.”

OH: PROPOSING REFORMS. CLE. “Councilman-at-Large Tristan Rader is set to introduce two related ordinances at tonight’s (Jan. 22) City Council meeting regarding the creation of a Lakewood Ethics Commission and instituting campaign finance regulations for city leaders.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.