Latest Developments:
- The Supreme Court of Washington State upheld the City of Seattle’s taxpayer-funded “Democracy Voucher Program” in which each registered voter receives a voucher that can be given to a qualified candidate to redeem. Two taxpayers challenged the property tax-funded program as a violation of their First Amendment rights. However, in Elster and Pynchon v. City of Seattle, the unanimous court found that the “Democracy Voucher Program does not alter, abridge, restrict, censor, or burden speech” and does not “force association between taxpayers and any message conveyed by the program.”
- The Arizona Corporation Commission–which regulates corporations, pipelines, railroads, securities, and public utilities–amended its ethics code this week to prohibit candidates for the Commission from accepting contributions from persons with matters before the Commission. The ban also applies to sitting Commissioners who run for federal, state, or local office, and covers contributions from related or associated parties, owners, and affiliated PACs.
- The Governor of California approved AB 903, which, among other things, clarifies that government agencies cannot spend money on campaigns and claim a “media exemption” from regulation. The bill also clarifies that pre-election reports are due for all state primaries and general elections.
- The Washington State Public Disclosure Commission reminded interested parties that new disclosure provisions take effect on July 28. Existing law requires the top five contributors be disclosed; the new provisions require that for any committees listed in the top five, contributors to those feeder committees be disclosed until the contributors listed are all individuals or entities that are not committees.
Reminder:
The Practising Law Institute presents the annual Corporate Political Activities Conference on September 6-7, 2019 in Washington, D.C. The program comprehensively covers campaign finance, lobby disclosure and government ethics on the federal state and local level, with a break-out session on foreign political activities. A one-day version of the program will be presented later in San Francisco, CA on October 3. A one-hour briefing on the basics of federal campaign finance law will be presented beforehand on August 1. Nielsen Merksamer co-chairs these programs. To sign up, use the following links: One Hour Briefing on August 1 (Online, included in registration below); PLI Two-Day Conference in Washington D.C.; PLI One-Day Program in San Francisco (also webcast)
In Case You Missed It:
- Nielsen-Merksamer Expert on Federal Elections: New York’s The City reports that Mayor Bill de Blasio used his state PAC to pay expenses of his federal campaign for President. According to The City piece, the federal campaign reported that $80,000 in expenses were paid by the state PAC. The article quotes Nielsen Merksamer’s Mike Columbo (a former FEC attorney): “If the de Blasio campaign accepts an $80,000 in-kind contribution from a state PAC, they can expect ‘future correspondence from their FEC reports analyst and, perhaps, a call from the FEC’s Enforcement Division, to discuss federal contribution limits.’”
- “Sunlight on Dark Money” is the name of a measure placed on the November ballot in San Francisco. The San Francisco Examiner reports that the proposed ordinance would require disclosure of the top three donors paying for an advertisement and, if one of those is another committee, would require disclosure of the two top donors to that committee. The measure also bans developers from making campaign contributions while a “land use matter” is pending approval and for 12 months following final approval. In addition, it would require that disclosure reports be filed for independent expenditures that pay for a mass mailing.
- Going Dark: The Tampa Bay Times reports that Andrew Gillum has moved his campaign money from a political committee to nonprofit in an apparent effort to shield activity from public reports. Donations “will now go to the nonprofit, Forward Florida Action, instead of his political committee, Forward Florida.” A spokesman said the change was because the nonprofit could “spend money on voter registration efforts in ways his political committee could not.”
- Lobbyists Save Money in Ethics Reform: St Louis Public Radio reports that since voters adopted a $5 cap on spending by lobbyists on lawmakers in November, lobbyists’ spending has dropped by 94%, based on an analysis of data from the Missouri Ethics Commission. According to the article, “most of the spending is now on larger events that all lawmakers can attend. There is still a $5 limit per lawmaker for those events.”
- No Oration without Registration: The Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust ruled that the Mayor of South Miami was not wrong when he told a lobbyist that the lobbyist could not speak at a city council meeting without registering as a lobbyist. According to the Miami Herald, the lobbyist’s case was dismissed with prejudice after determining that the Mayor relied in good faith on advice from the City Attorney.
- Pay-to-Play Reimbursement Request: A Chicago developer renovating a Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) project asked the City of Chicago for reimbursement of an unusual expense, “Donation-Alderman $20,000.” The CHA’s Inspector General found the request to be a “red flag.” The Chicago Tribune reports that the developer later dropped the request and “acknowledged to the Tribune that the FBI asked questions about the $20,000 reimbursement request.”
- Other Shoe Drops in St. Louis: We previously reported on the St. Louis County Executive who resigned and pleaded guilty to accepting bribes while in office. The Associated Press informs us that a business man who was indicted following the County Executive’s conviction pleaded guilty to three bribery counts in federal court this week. Businessman James Rollo is first person who was not a county employee to plead guilty in the St. Louis pay-to-play scheme that traded campaign contributions for county contracts; two other county employees have pleaded guilty to charges.