[Political Activity Law]

ZOMBIE CAMPAIGNS.   WTSP.  “Luxury hotels, vacations, iPads and even cell phone bills.”

SUPERBOWL ADS.   POL.  “The Iowa caucuses are still two years away, but voters there will see the first campaign ads of the 2020 presidential election during Sunday’s Super Bowl.”

AL:  REPORTING INVESTIGATION.   MA.  “The Alabama Attorney General’s Office appears to have launched an investigation touching on state legislators’ campaign finance reporting, but the overall scope and direction of the probe is unclear.”

MS:  REFORM COMING.   CL.  “State officials have submitted campaign finance reports that were due Wednesday covering 2017, the last reports before reforms the Legislature passed last year take effect.”

NY:  DEBLASIO AND BRIBERY.   WSJ.  “A lawyer representing former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano says federal prosecutors discriminated against his client by charging him with bribery, but not charging New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, despite a businessman pleading guilty to bribing both men.”

TX:  REPORTING FOR DUMMIES.   TT.  “While early voting for the March primaries won’t start for nearly a month, a lot of important deadlines in the races have already come and gone.”

TX:  RULING UPHELD.   SM.  “The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court’s ruling from 2016 that struck down two provisions of Austin’s campaign finance rules and left two others in place. Most notably, the decision held that Austin could not justify a blackout period that prohibited candidates from fundraising until a certain period of time before an election.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.  

DONATING DONATIONS.   CNBC.  “Some Republicans in Congress are announcing plans to donate campaign contributions linked to Steve Wynn as the casino mogul faces claims of sexual misconduct.”

AZ:  USE OF FUNDS FOR LEGAL BILLS.   PNT.  “Whether legal expenses are considered to be a personal use is determined on a case-by-case basis.”

CA:  CLOSING FUND.   SFE.  “Mayoral candidates London Breed, Jane Kim and Angela Alioto have either closed or promised to close campaign finance accounts from their previous Democratic Party board races.”

NM:  LOBBYIST SPENDING.   NMID.  “What do ski passes, meals and newspaper ads all have in common? Lobbyists or their employers have purchased them in recent weeks as part of their ongoing efforts to build relationships with or bring lawmakers around to their perspectives on issues.”

TX:  SPOTLIGHT ON GROUP.  TT.  “The nonprofit corporation, known as the Committee to Inform Voters on Issues and Candidates (CIVIC), has provided at least $822,000 in donations to the TAB Political Action Committee since 2003, according to a Tribune analysis of filings at the Texas Ethics Commission.”

TX: MONEY RACE.   ST.  “The latest contributions, released by the O’Rourke campaign, bring his total fundraising haul for 2017 up to $6.4 million.”

WV:  TRIAL BEGINS.   WVG.  “Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys on Monday began untangling the red tape of campaign finance law and establishing whether a Morgantown coal operator knowingly violated it during the first day of trial for James L. Laurita Jr.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.   I’ll send around the next set of links early next week.

OPENING FOR REFORM.  HILL.  “What does it mean then to be in a post-television era? The assumption that Buckley made in drawing an analogy between money, gasoline, and political speech is less viable now than it was in 1976.”

KS:  DATABASE TAKEN DOWN.   GT.  “Kansas state government has made the last four Social Security digits of thousands of Kansas state workers available to the public for more than a decade.”

NC:  SUPER PAC REPORT.   WRAL.  “Eyes went wide and lawyers cringed Thursday afternoon when Lt. Gov. Dan Forest’s campaign took credit for a $1 million donation to a super-PAC that supported him in the last election.”

NC:  TICKET PAYMENTS.   NO.  “After the Democratic governor won election in 2016, his campaign continued spending big bucks throughout 2017 – including more than $9,000 on tickets to events at UNC-Chapel Hill.”

TX:  HARVEY RELIEF.   EN.  “As top office-holders madly raise funds before the March 6 primary, some are donating campaign dollars to a philanthropic cause — Hurricane Harvey relief.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.