[Political Activity Law]

FACING ETHICS COMPLAINT.   AT.  “Two Republican members of the Federal Communications Commission face accusations that they violated government ethics rules during appearances at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).”

CA:  FREE TICKETS.   FB.  “Each ticket is valued at $167, bringing the total value of Disney’s donation in Fresno to more than $103,000. But before the city can accept the tickets, the donation has to be officially accepted by the Fresno City Council on Thursday. The council must approve acceptance of any donation with a collective value of more than $25,000.”

NY:  ETHICS AND CUOMO.  NYP.  “For four-plus years, Gov. Cuomo has drawn a clear distinction between himself and Mayor de Blasio. Except when it comes to ethics, apparently.”

PA:  PRAISE FOR LAW.   AN.  “Sponsored and championed by Rep. Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster County, with bipartisan from former Rep. Brandon Neuman, D-Westmoreland County, [the law] doubles the fine for violating the lobbying disclosure law to $4,000 (from $2,000), increases the penalty for filing disclosures late, and specifies a strict timeline for filing the information.”

GER:  TRANSPARENCY STATUS.   DW.  “Germany has not taken enough steps to provide transparency in political party financing, the Council of Europe said in a report on Monday.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

STILL SPENDING.   PE.   “While federal law forbids the use of campaign dollars for personal expenses, in many cases, the zombie spending goes to charity or to active political candidates and causes.”

CA:  DEVELOPER CHARGED.   LAT.  “The developer of a controversial $72-million apartment project was charged Friday with making illegal campaign contributions to local politicians while seeking a change to the zoning of his property in L.A.’s Harbor Gateway neighborhood.”

IL:  CONTRIBUTIONS RETURNED.   DH.  “Republican attorney general candidate Gary Grasso has returned nearly $30,000 in campaign contributions that exceeded state limits for donors or improperly came from foreign entities.”

NE:  UNUSED FUNDS LAW.  JS.  “Unspent campaign funds could be returned to donors, donated to charity, or transferred to a political party, under original provisions of the state’s Political Accountability and Disclosure Act.”

NY:  EXECUTIVE ORDER IN THE NEWS.   NYT.  “The executive order explicitly forbids appointees from soliciting donations for the governor. Yet multiple appointees have done so, like Mr. Weiss and Mr. Manning last fall, raising a considerable additional amount for Mr. Cuomo.”

NC:  TESTING STATE LAWS.    WRAL.  “FLIP NC is one of dozens of progressive entities that have sprouted up since President Donald Trump’s election. Like many of these groups, FLIP NC is associated with Indivisible, a movement tied together primarily by the Indivisible Guide, a field manual for liberal activism published by former congressional staffers shortly after the 2016 election.”

TX:  FUNDS CLARIFICATION.   TRN.  “Ian Steusloff, TEC general counsel, said personal use ‘primarily furthers individual or family purposes not connected with campaign or officeholders’ duties or activities.'”

TX:  COMPLAINT REVIEW.   TT.  “A criminal complaint against Empower Texans, a conservative group that mailed out an attack ad resembling an official government notice that targeted GOP state Rep. Charlie Geren, is ‘under review’ by the Travis County District Attorney’s office, The Texas Tribune has learned.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

RUSSIANS AND FREE SPEECH.   NW.  “Fears about national security can foster public actions that otherwise would be rejected. This might be one of those moments when something must be done and the ‘something’ that is selected does real harm to freedom of speech.”

AL:  ETHICS REVISIONS.   AL.  “Despite media sources caterwauling to the contrary, there are good, honest reasons for some current legislative attempts to tweak Alabama’s ethics laws.”

AR:  CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWSUIT.   AT.  “The city of Little Rock’s lawsuit aiming at using a city ordinance to limit fund-raising by two men challenging Mayor Mark Stodola gets legal responses from the challengers today.”

CA:  FPPC PAY.   LAT.  “The state’s ethics watchdog panel was divided Thursday in approving a proposal to retroactively provide extra pay to its members for work done on official state business.”

IL:  SECRECY CRITICISM.   INN.  “Homer sharply criticized the secrecy created around the Legislative Ethics Commission. The eight-member bipartisan panel of lawmakers gives the legislative inspector general permission to investigate allegations she believes are ‘founded.'”

MO:  INDICTMENT IN SCHEME.   DOJ.  “Timothy A. Garrison, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a former executive of a Springfield charity, who was also an Arkansas lobbyist has been indicted by a federal grand jury for his role in a nearly $1 million bribery conspiracy involving a Springfield, Mo., health care organization.”

PA:  BILL SIGNED.   CBS.  “The bill signed into law, introduced by Lancaster County House Republican Bryan Cutler, increases the penalties for missing quarterly filing deadlines, and also will soon require all lobbying disclosure reports to be filed electronically, to speed processing of those reports.”

TX:  SCHOOL DISTRICT VIOLATION.   BB.  “As concerns over potential electioneering and other election code violations hover over the upcoming state March primary, the Texas Ethics Commission recently found ‘credible evidence’ that the superintendent of a border school district violated the state election code by authorizing the spending of public funds to produce a newsletter that contained political advertising.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.