Latest Developments:
- The Governor of Washington signed HB 1195, but vetoed parts of the measure. The bill revises campaign finance statues by changing definitional threshold for an independent expenditure to $1,000 or more, requiring e-filing, allowing commissioners to hold over for up to one year, revising when campaign contribution limits are adjusted (once every two to five years, instead on each even-numbered year), and altering private attorney general enforcement provisions. However, the Governor’s partial veto strikes out a provision that would have prohibited the public posting of officials’ financial disclosure statements.
- The United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Tschida v. Motl, which struck down a provision of Montana’s law that prohibits disclosure of ethics complaints against public officials until certain findings are made by the Commissioner of Political Practices. The court found that the statute violates the First Amendment. According to the Associated Press, the decision “effectively makes all allegations of ethical breaches by elected and unelected state officials public information.”
- The Bipartisan Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress made recommendations to “update the lobbying disclosure system.” According to The Hill, the recommendations will “be drafted into legislation,” and “standardize how the disclosure system files and tracks the names of lobbyists, by giving each lobbyist a unique identifier.”
- The Governor of Texas approved B. 1785, which requires that lobbyists indicate on their registration form if they are required to register under the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
In Case You Missed It:
- New York Ethics Agencies’ Credibility Questioned: The Gotham Gazette has criticized multiple New York State and City ethics agencies for a lack of transparency in their investigatory process, calling them “completely compromised.” According to the article, “By design, many of these agencies are not required to inform the public about the complaints they receive, or are prohibited from doing so to prevent reputational harm against individuals or entities that may be the subject of a complaint. But good government groups say that must change in order to build trust in institutions, and that the public would be better served if agencies provided more transparency about how they handle complaints and report on outcomes of investigations.” The implication is that cronies’ problems are not made public; but see the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Tschida v. Motl, described above, for its view of the issue.
- Lobbyists need a Better Lobbyist: Tennessee enacted B. 1262, which removes 15 professions, from athletic agents to veterinarians, from the imposition of an occupational “privilege tax.” Only physicians and osteopaths, investment agents, brokers and advisers, attorneys, and lobbyists remain subject to the tax.
- Fundraiser’s Remorse: Last week we told you that the Los Angeles City Council voted 14-0 to ask the City Attorney to draft proposals limiting developer contributions. The Los Angeles Times reports that there are “fresh doubts about how much of the overall plan will survive.” Restrictions on behested payments for charities and limiting contributions to those from individuals (prohibiting contributions from labor unions and businesses) seem particularly difficult for city politicians. The article indicates that one council member “questioned whether fears about donations from real estate developers are merely ‘hysteria.’”
Pay-to-Play in Action:
- “One of (New York Governor Andrew) Cuomo‘s most generous campaign donors,” who provided the Governor with free transportation on private jets, was “awarded the lucrative development rights for four of five land parcels at Long Island’s Republic Airport,” according to the Albany Times-Union. The donor’s company was eventually awarded all of the development rights; “the Cuomo administration decided to un-designate the (original) winner” of the competitive bidding process.
- Former Arkansas State Senator Jeremy Hutchinson, nephew of current Governor Asa Hutchinson, was indicted in federal court for accepting eight payments of $7,500 each from a subsidiary of Preferred Family Healthcare, Inc., as “a monthly retainer ‘purportedly as the Charity’s attorney’ even though he ‘often performed little, to no, legal work,’” according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. The indictment concerns Hutchinson’s amendment of H.B. 1129 in 2014 that affected Medicaid service providers; his amendment stopped regulatory measures opposed by Preferred Family.