Latest Developments:
- The United States Senate Rules and Administration Committee held a hearing on three nominees to the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. The President nominated Shana M. Broussard, Sean J. Cooksey, and Allen Dickerson to fill empty seats on the Commission. The Gazette Extra reports that, although the committee has not yet scheduled a vote to approve the nominees, the chair hopes to “move this year to confirm (the) three nominees.”
- The New York Joint Commission on Public Ethics approved emergency adoption of amended Comprehensive Lobbying Regulations and the amended Source of Funding Regulations. Formal adoption of these as permanent regulations will occur in the future. The Commission approved the emergency regulations so that they apply to lobbyists who register for the upcoming year.
- The California Fair Political Practices Commission formally approved inflation adjustments to gift and contribution limits. Under recently enacted legislation (AB 571), the limit applicable to state legislative candidates ($4,900) will apply to all city and county offices in jurisdictions that have not adopted their own limits, beginning January 1, 2021.
- The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission formally adopted campaign finance adjustments that will apply to the 2021 gubernatorial election. The limit for contributions to candidates for Governor rises from $4,300 to $4,900 per election for 2021.
- ALASKA CORRECTION: When all the votes were finally counted, Alaska Voters actually approved Measure 2, by a razor-thin margin of 50.55% to 49.45%. That measure requires disclosure of the original source and any intermediaries of contributions to independent expenditure committees over $2,000 in the aggregate during a calendar year. (We should have listened to the Anchorage Daily News which reported early in the month that “Alaska has the slowest ballot-counting process” and that the last votes wouldn’t “be counted until Nov. 18.”)
Reminders:
COGEL, the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws, begins its 42nd annual conference December 1 at 3 p.m. EST in a virtual format. Interested persons may register here. The conference is free for members this year ($500 for nonmembers) and includes live presentations and prerecorded classes that may qualify for CLE. Programs will be available through the month of December. Nielsen Merksamer’s Jason Kaune moderates the panel on Campaign Finance Litigation and participants have access to a Blue Book of federal, state, local and Canadian litigation edited by Mike Kelly and Evann Whitelam. “COGEL is a professional organization for government agencies and other organizations working in ethics, elections, freedom of information, lobbying, and campaign finance.”
In Case You Missed It:
- New Administration Purity Test?: According to Roll Call, “Progressive groups want the incoming administration to reject applicants they view as too cozy with corporate America, but Black and Latino lobbyists are mounting a counteroffensive, arguing that such prohibitions could limit diversity in the executive branch.” The issue is whether former registered lobbyists may serve in the Biden administration. Notwithstanding the controversy, the article notes that “corporate lobbyists say they already feel as if the incoming administration has an open ear.” ABC News reports that many prospective appointees may come from one firm “packed with Obama-era powerbrokers,” but that “President-elect Biden will require his appointees to be governed by an administration ethics pledge.”
- Washington State Campaign Finance Trial: The Columbian has an article from the Seattle Times describing the trial of a “serial initiative filer” who “solicited kickbacks, laundered political donations and flouted campaign finance law in an ongoing scheme to enrich himself and deceive his political donors and the public.” His attorney said the defendant “disclosed everything required of him under the state’s campaign finance laws and that, even if he hadn’t, it wasn’t his responsibility.”
- SF Ethics Probe: According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a former executive of a city contractor has been charged because he “funneled more than $1 million to [the former Public Works director] over the span of several years in an attempt to curry favor with the ex-Public Works director.” He allegedly used nonprofits “as an intermediary to funnel money” to benefit the former director and his family. “If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.”
- Canadian Conflict: The Montreal Gazette reports that the Quebec Minister of Economy, Innovation, and Export Trade was formally sanctioned for ethics violations by unanimous vote of the National Assembly. The Minister is the first provincial minister reprimanded by the National Assembly. According to the article, the Minister “placed himself in a situation where his personal interest could influence his independence and judgment as a cabinet minister because of his close friendship with (a) businessman and lobbyist.”