Latest Developments:
- The Oregon Supreme Court issued a ruling in Ofsink v. Fagan, turning down an appeal asking the “Secretary of State to withdraw her orders that disqualified their initiative petitions from appearing on the November 2022 general election ballot.” The initiatives would have permitted Oregon voters to consider campaign contribution limits at the November 2022 election. Oregon Public Broadcasting explains that “The decision is almost certainly a fatal blow to the effort to institute campaign finance limits this year.”
- A federal judge in Wyoming “ruled that the state cannot force a Second Amendment advocacy group to share the names of its donors.” According the Cowboy State Daily, the judge found that “‘the state can only impose these disclosure and disclaimer requirements where it satisfies exacting scrutiny.’” He found that “it would be impossible for the [Wyoming Gun Owners] to determine which contributions would be used specifically for political advertising and which would be used to pay for other activities.” He also found “the statute is also unconstitutional because it calls for the reporting of expenditures which ‘relate to’ campaign communications, a term he said was unconstitutionally vague.”
- A US District Court judge sentenced “[a] Ukraine-born U.S. businessman…to one year and one day in prison on Tuesday after being convicted last year… for funneling money from Russian tycoon Andrey Muraviev to U.S. political candidates who could help a cannabis company he was building.” The defendant sought to avoid prison time by claiming that he can better help Ukrainian refugees and charitable efforts in his home country, but the judge claimed the sentence would serve as a deterrent. The sentencing comes amidst the federal government “target[ing] wealthy Russian businessmen with possible sanctions, asset seizures and criminal charges to pressure the Kremlin to stop its invasion of Ukraine.”
Reminders:
The Practising Law Institute presentsNonprofit Involvement in Elections: What to Look for in 2022, a one-hour webinar on March 29, 2022, from 10-11 am PT, moderated by Joel Aurora of Nielsen Merksamer.
Interested persons may register here. CLE credit will be available.
In Case You Missed It:
- Failure to Register PAC Results in Criminal Charges: The New Mexico Attorney General announced that he had filed criminal charges “against Couy Griffin for one count of violating the Campaign Reporting Act. The Associated Press explains that the ‘’New Mexico elected official was charged Friday with a misdemeanor campaign finance violation for refusing to register his political group Cowboys for Trump.” The charges come after Griffin lost an appeal in the 10th Circuit (Cowboys for Trump v. Toulouse Oliver). The Associate Press reports that Griffin is “planning a fresh challenge to the reporting requirement.”
- Deceased Reportedly Made Campaign Contributions in Baltimore: Baltimore City’s State Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s late grandfather, deceased since 2015, is listed on campaign finance reports as having made campaign contributions in 2017 and 2021 to both her campaign account and that of her Baltimore City Councilmember husband. According to local media, Mosby, who is under “indict[ment] on federal charges of perjury and making false statements on a loan application…chalked up the contribution made in Mosby’s late grandfather’s name as an ‘administrative oversight’.”
- State Capitols Reopening: The Hartford Courant reports that, after two years, “mask-wearing lobbyists say they are happy to be back [in the state capitol building] after having little personal access to lawmakers during the entire pandemic.” The article points out that “Lobbying is the art of personal persuasion, reading body language, and making follow-up points. That is very hard to do on the phone or on Zoom.”
- Atoning for Years of Missing Campaign Finance Reports: Local media in Charlotte, North Carolina is reports on former City Council member James “Smuggie” Mitchell’s contrite statements for missing three years of campaign finance reports. Fox46 reports that Mitchell, who is running again City Council, “failed to file his campaign finance reports with the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections Office for almost three years. The last campaign finance report filed by Mitchell was in July of 2019.” Last year, the former council member had “resigned due to a conflict of interest when he got a job as the CEO of a construction company that did business with the City.”