Latest Developments:
- The United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Schickel v. Dilger, upheld Kentucky’s ethics laws, overturning a lower-court ruling. The court upheld a ban on lobbyists’ contributions to legislators, a restriction on contributions to legislators from lobbyist employers during the legislative session, a ban on gifts from lobbyists, and a ban on lobbyists serving as a treasurer for a legislator’s campaign committee. Courthouse News Service notes that the court ruled that the restrictions “serve the legitimate government interest of cutting down on corruption.”
- The Kentucky Executive Ethics Commission proposed new emergency regulations, which were published in the Administrative Register of Kentucky this week. The regulations revise the registration process for executive agency lobbyists, lobbyist employers, and real parties in interest, beginning July 1, 2019. The emergency regulations, if approved, will take effect on June 27, 2019.
- The Nevada Legislature introduced SB 557 on June 1 and passed the measure overwhelmingly on June 3. Initially, the bill would have required businesses and other organizations that make $10,000 or more in contributions during a calendar year to file an annual report itemizing the organization’s contributions. But on the day of passage, the measure was amended to delete those provisions, leaving the bill’s main focus on restricting the use of campaign contributions by banning certain personal uses of contributions and prohibiting candidates from paying themselves a salary from those contributions.
- Nassau County, New York has announced a new Vendors Code of Ethics. Part of the initiative is implementing a “zero-tolerance” policy prohibiting the acceptance of gifts from vendors. According to Newsday, the new rules also require that vendors certify compliance with the new ethics rules. The policy, as summarized by Newsday, prohibits gifts and job offers to county employees and their family members and imposes a two-year revolving door provision in connection with contracted work.
- The City of Richmond, Virginia, approved Ordinance 2019-115, which imposes a one-year revolving door restriction on city council members and other city officers and employees. The measure prohibits representing a client for compensation on matters related to any agency or office of the city government in which the former officer or employee served or was employed during the one-year period before termination of employment or service.
In Case You Missed It:
- Russia’s U.S. Radio Programing Requires FARA Registration: A media company in Florida was ordered by the United States District Court to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act after signing a deal to rebroadcast Russian state-owned media radio programming. The Hollywood Reporter notes that this is a first, and speculates that perhaps Al Jazeera and the BBC may have to register.
- Zombies Being Chased: The Federal Election Commission has contacted about 50 defunct campaigns that still have bank accounts with questions about spending. The Tampa Bay Times, which originally broke the story about Zombie campaign funds a year ago, reports that the FEC has questioned Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign fund and Michele Bachmann’s campaign fund, among others, about inappropriate “apparent personal use” of those funds.
- Attorney to the Rescue: The Tennessee House of Representative named an Ethics Counsel following a scandal that forced the Speaker to resign his post. The Tennessean reports that “the assistant director of the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance, was named Friday to the newly-created House legal position.”
- Vindication for a Concerned Mom in Colorado: The Governor of Colorado signed B. 232, which revises the procedure for filing a campaign finance complaint, including providing a period to cure a violation. The legislation solves the problem after the courts declared the existing complaint process unconstitutional in Holland v. Williams. That case involved “Tammy Holland of Strasburg, who ran two ads in the local I-70 Scout newspaper urging residents to vote in a local school board race in 2015, though she did not endorse any candidate in the ads,” according to Colorado Politics. Her local school district superintendent filed a formal complaint against her for failure to register as a campaign committee.