Latest Developments:
- The Illinois State Board of Elections announced increased campaign contribution limits beginning January 1, 2023 (“2023 Contribution Limits”). Corporations may contribute up to $13,700 and individuals give up to $6,900 to a candidate per election cycle. Limits also increased for contributions to PACs and political parties.
- The North Carolina State Board of Elections issued a press release to announce that “Effective January 1, 2023, the contribution limit for North Carolina candidates and political committees increased by $800 per election, from $5,600 to $6,400.”
In Case You Missed It:
- Fine for Failure to Disclose Lobbying: Cleveland.com reports that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission fined EnergyFirst for failing to disclose lobbying expenditures. According to the article, the company “failed to disclose nearly $94 million in lobbying in support of legislation now at the center of a criminal public corruption scandal and agreed last week to pay a related $3.9 million fine.” The payment resulted from a consent decree under which the company stipulated that it had not provided lobbying information during an audit of the company and its affiliates by the agency. The agency discovered the omission after a previous deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice.
- Pandemic in the Rear View Mirror: The Hill finds that Washington “Lobbyists are celebrating their return to the Capitol as it reopens to the public, ending nearly three years of pandemic restrictions that severely limited physical access to lawmakers.” This week marked the first time that lobbyists could roam “the Capitol campus this week without an appointment or congressional escort.”
- Texas Speaker Limits Struck Down: MSN (from the Dallas Morning News) describes a federal court settlement (in Bruce v. Johnson) that “permanently barred the state from enforcing ethics laws that prohibit outside money from being spent in a speaker’s race.” According to the article, “Spending in a Texas speaker race by anyone other than an officially registered candidate for speaker was barred by the Legislature in 1973.” The new federal ruling follows a 2008 case, Free Market Foundation v. Reisman, which also enjoined the prohibition on independent expenditures in the speaker’s race.