Latest Developments:
- The House Ethics Committee announced Thursday that it is suspending its investigation of Rep. Ross Spano (FL) at the Justice Department’s request. The Committee announced in September that it was “investigating the circumstances of loans to Spano’s campaign that…may have violated campaign finance laws.” The request indicates that “the Justice Department is apparently conducting a criminal investigation…[given that] committee press releases have used the same language in the past in at least two cases of members of Congress who were investigated and charged with criminal offenses.” Two of Spano’s 2018 election opponents filed complaints that he knowingly diverted to his campaign $180,000 in loans from friends and claimed them as personal funds.
- “Sunlight on Dark Money,” San Francisco’s Prop F, passed overwhelmingly last week, which “means [that] campaigns will be forced to more prominently disclose who donates big chunks of money to a cause.” In addition to the banning of contributions from LLCs, LLPs, and those with certain interests in land-use approval matters before the city, “campaign ads now will have to display the names and contribution totals of the top three donors giving $5,000 or more. If any of the top three donors is a committee, the ad must also show the name and the dollar amount contributed by each of the top two major contributors of $5,000 or more to that committee.” The measure received 76% of the vote, though it only needed a simple majority to pass.
- Personal lawyer to the President Rudy Giuliani is facing federal probes surrounding his dealings with firms linked to the Ukraine, according to anonymous officials. The investigation concerns “possible campaign finance violations and a failure to register as a foreign agent as part of an active investigation into his financial dealings.” Indeed, the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office has “scrutinize[d] his activities in Ukraine as prosecutors investigated two of his associates…[who] were subsequently charged in the U.S. with illegally funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to U.S. officials and a political action committee.” Doubts remain as to the implications for Giuliani given the complexity of the matters involved.
In Case You Missed It:
- Shining light on Beacon Hill (and Sacramento): Media outlets in Massachusetts and California appear to have a renewed interest in examining and securitizing the influence of state level lobbying activity. A local television station in Boston claims with astonishment that “public records…[reveal] special interests spending about $45 million every year…in Massachusetts to try to influence which bills pass.” With a similar tone, The Los Angeles Times estimates that “interest groups spent an average of about $2 million every day the Legislature was in session this year on lobbying – adding up to almost $33 million a month and a total of $296.4 million from January through September, a period spanning the legislative year for 2019.” Apart from the sums spent, both outlets focus on the industries that are most active and the nexus between lobbyists and former lawmakers.
- Ward room revolving doors: In the wake of three Illinois state officials under federal investigation for influence peddling, city officials in Chicago are considering measurers similar to those proposed on the state-level. The Chicago Sun Times reports that, under a proposed measure, “Chicago aldermen would be prohibited from lobbying state and local government – and their counterparts at those other levels would be barred from doing the same at City Hall.” Two of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s close allies have proposed the measure, including Alderman Matt O’Shea, who commented, “We’ve seen multiple ethical scandals across the state at multiple levels of government…If it continues, it’s not a question of if, but when the City Council is dragged in.”
- TikTok races for influence: Amidst the extended national debate over foreign influence in national affairs, Bloomberg reports that the music video app TikTok is rapidly expanding its “advocacy priorities and…growing [its] lobbying operations.” Regulators’ concerns about TikTok are multifaceted as it is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance Inc. There are “concerns… that TikTok could pose a national security threat because of its Chinese ownership and the risk that the government in Beijing could get access to the app’s growing troves of user data.” There also exist concerns about how foreign acquisitions of domestic businesses may “give foreign buyers access to data about U.S. citizens.” While “lawmakers have pushed for a review, saying that TikTok poses a potential counter-intelligence threat,” the company has contracted with lobbying firms closely associated with the technology sector.