Latest Developments:
- COVID-19 Update: Government officials, agencies, and courts continue to respond to the COVID-19 emergency. Each week we will add the latest information. For more information about filing deadlines, contact our Political Reporting Unit. Among the more notable developments this week:
-
- The Nevada Legislature adjourned its special session that focused on COVID-19 on August 6. The Legislature passed several measures including AB 4, which revises election procedures due to the pandemic.
-
- The Governor of Tennessee called the Legislature to a special session due to COVID-19, beginning August 10 “to address liability protections and telehealth.”
-
- The Idaho Legislature will meet in special session beginning August 24. Idahonews.com notes that the “special session will be unprecedented in Idaho political history because there’s never been a special session in the midst of a pandemic.” The session is expected to include election and liability issues related to the COVID-19 crisis.
- The Governor of Minnesota announced four appointments to the six-member Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the vacancies and lack of a quorum on the board “threatened to paralyze the panel’s political watchdog work in the midst of an election year.” The article notes that “appointments require approval by a supermajority of lawmakers in both the state House and Senate, although they can begin their work immediately pending the Legislature’s return for its next regular session in January.”
- The Fresno County Board of Supervisors approved a campaign contribution limit ordinance. The ordinance sets a contribution limit of $30,000 per individual or any other entity, such as a PAC, per election cycle. The measure faces a final vote on August 18. According to GVwire.com, the Board vote was unanimous. In the absence of taking this action, board limits would default to the state limit of $4,700 per election cycle in 2021.
- The Federal Election Commission, in a Matter Under Review, reached an agreement with a federal contractor regarding a violation of the federal prohibition on contractor contributions. Bloomberg Government explains that the federal contractor “was fined $17,000 for violating the longstanding ban on campaign contributions from a government contractor when it gave to the Congressional Leadership Fund, an independent-expenditure-only political action committee…” The article notes that the “commission voted in secret to fine the company during a brief period earlier this summer when a quorum of commissioners was restored.” The contractor’s lawyer indicated that the contractor “didn’t even know campaign money from government contractors was illegal.”
Reminders:
Interested in issues of gender and elections? As part of a year-long celebration of the Nineteenth Amendment, the American Bar Association is sponsoring a series of programs for lawyers about the progeny of women’s suffrage. You can earn CLE credit and help the ABA formulate proposals to update election, campaign, and government ethics laws for the Twenty-First Century. Join the conversation about Gender Parity in the Electoral Process on Monday, August 24. Register here. (Free Members.)
In Case You Missed It:
- Another Energy Company Implicated: MSN picked up a Columbus Dispatch article that names a second energy company as a source of dark money in a growing Ohio scandal. Murray Energy Company is reportedly the “Company B” named in the indictment of the former Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives. “Dark Money Group 1,” referenced in the indictment, has been identified as Hardworking Ohioans, Inc. According to the article, Murray calls itself the “largest underground coal company in the U.S.”
- Contributor Settles: A convicted businessman has settled charges by the Federal Election Commission that he used straw donors to funnel campaign contributions to U.S. Senate candidates in Nevada and Utah. According to KSL.com, the FEC will drop pursuit of an $840,000 fine, as the businessman already “owes the federal government millions of dollars in connection with other cases and is limited in earning a living.”
- Ethics Resignation: The Chief Investment Officer of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) resigned following questions about his Form 700 conflict-of-interest disclosures. According to the Sacramento Bee, questions were raised about”investments in private equity firms and Chinese companies, two areas of investment in which his decisions have drawn scrutiny since his hiring in January 2019.”
- Pawn Contributions: According to the Detroit Free Press, “No Michigan lawmaker has sponsored more bills helpful to the pawn shop industry than state Sen. Peter Lucido. And no Michigan lawmaker has collected more campaign cash from pawn brokers – who are not ranked among Michigan’s major political donors – than Lucido.”