Latest Developments:
- The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a new opinion in Thompson v. Hebdon. The previous decision of the court was vacated by the United States Supreme Court in 2019. (That Supreme Court case is here: Thompson v. Hebdon.) In the new opinion, the court “affirmed the district court’s bench trial judgment upholding Alaska’s political party-to-party candidate limit.” Yet it also “reversed the district court’s judgment as to the individual-to-candidate limit, the individual-to-group limit, and the nonresident aggregate limit,” thus abrogating those limits.
- The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decided Rio Grande Foundation v. Santa Fe, in which the court upheld the City of Santa Fe’s campaign finance disclosure requirements. According to the court, the city requires that “any person or entity that makes expenditures of $250 or more during a single Santa Fe election on public communications relating to a candidate or ballot measure must disclose certain information to the city clerk.” The Foundation argued that its speech was chilled, but the court found that the Foundation lacked standing because it failed to show injury.
- The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners enacted revisions to the city’s lobbyist ordinance. Ordinance 21-73 adds definitions for “expenditure,” “lobbying activity,” and “procurement matters,” revises county personnel covered by the ordinance, revises registration exceptions, including certain procurement matters, requires amendments within 15 days of the change in information, and requires annual reports, even if a lobbyist has no expenditures to report. The amended ordinance took effect July 30.
- The Governor of New Hampshire approved HB 263. According to the official Analysis, the bill “repeals voluntary expenditure limits, increases the expenditure and contribution reporting threshold for all political entities, and modifies the maximum contribution amount a person may contribute to candidate committees and political committees. This bill also increases the dollar threshold for reporting by political committees.”
- The Federal Election Commission adopted Advisory Opinion 2021-07, which permits a for-profit online platform to solicit and make contributions to federal candidates. The organization’s proposed services include “(1) enabling its clients to transfer funds to [the organization] and make contributions from those funds, and (2) providing a “convenient vehicle” through which individuals authorized by [the organization’s] clients may solicit those clients for contributions.”
- Aurora, Colorado opened its Lobbyist Registration Portal. The city’s Ordinance 2021-08 took effect August 1 and quarterly activity reports are required; the first report is due October 15. The city’s website notes that “The City Clerk will accept complaints regarding compliance starting Jan. 16, 2022. The City Clerk’s Office will focus on education and compliance in the regulation of lobbyists during the year the ordinance takes effect. Lobbyists will not be subject to revocation, suspension nor sanctions for any violations in 2021.”
In Case You Missed It:
- Campaign Contributions Followed by Increased Spending: KJZZ reports that Arizona lawmakers invested more in private prisons after receiving record-high campaign contributions from private prison interests. “(A) member of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee said he couldn’t say if the move would save Arizona money, only that lobbyists asked the committee for an increase in their contracts and they received it.”
- Procurement Consultant Sues for Payment: A Cleveland lobbyist, who helped arrange a $21 million dollar contract for personal protective equipment with the state’s nonprofit economic development corporation at the outset of the pandemic, is suing for nonpayment of his commission. com reports that “the company [that supplied the PPE] says it doesn’t owe anything. Its lawyer says since state law bars anyone from getting paid a percentage of a state contract they lobbied on, the contract is illegal. The dispute comes down to what the definition of lobbying is.”
- Unreported Gift Prompts Push for Ethics Reform: The Los Angeles Times reveals that the “El Monte City Council has launched an effort to create an ethics commission” following the Times disclosure of unreported “financial assistance from a lobbyist to help pay for [a councilmember’s] breast augmentation surgery.” The councilmember and the lobbyist were formerly best friends but had a falling out when the councilmember “voted against allowing retail sales of cannabis in the city, a proposal that [the lobbyist] had championed.”
- Maine Investigates LLC that Operated as a PAC: The Portland Press-Herald reports that “The Maine ethics commission voted Friday to launch an investigation into” an LLC that donated $150,000 to Maine Democrats four days after formation. The LLC dissolved 14 months later with “no public evidence the company conducted any other business.” The commission’s executive director noted that “if the company’s only purpose was to donate funds to the party Maine law required it to register as a political action committee and disclose who donated money to it.” If it “was an actual company, the large donation to the party would not have raised any concerns because it would have been allowed under the law.”
- San Francisco Ethics Commission Fines Mayor: According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Ethics Commission has proposed a $22,792 fine for the Mayor’s various ethics violations. Among other things, she used her position to ask the former Governor to release her brother from prison after he had “served about two decades of a 44-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter and armed robbery,” and accepted a gift from “the former Public Works director who was charged by the FBI in 2019 for fraud.” Her brother remains in prison and the former Public Works Director is awaiting trial.