Latest Developments:
- The United State Supreme Court vacated the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Thompson v. Hebdon and sent the case back to the Ninth Circuit for reconsideration. The Court’s per curium decision expressed concern that Alaska’s contribution limit of $500 from an individual to a candidate may be “too low.”
- The U.S. Department of Justice issued an announcement that a Houston-based engineering company agreed to pay a $1.6 million fine for making campaign contributions through conduits. According to the Justice Department, the company “made $323,300 in illegal conduit contributions through various employees and their family members to federal candidates and their committees.” The company’s former CEO has been separately charged in a criminal complaint.
In Case You Missed It:
- No Security Guards at the Revolving Door: McClatchy DC reports that while Members of Congress and their staffers are supposed to refrain from lobbying for one or two years after government service, the bans are limited and “lobbyists who break the law are unlikely to be detected.” The report indicates that the Government Accountability Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Clerk of the House, and the Secretary of the Senate, who are charged with monitoring or enforcing revolving door restrictions, don’t check whether lobbyists have violated the restrictions. McClatchy found three members of Congress and countless staffers whose lobby forms indicated they violated the restrictions. Further, the analysis didn’t “take into account so-called shadow lobbying,” in which individuals engage in activities below the threshold that requires lobbyist registration.
- Four Million Dollars Buys Lobbyist Seven Years: According to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, a former lobbyist “received a seven-year prison sentence Monday for his role in a bribery scandal that also led to the convictions of five Arkansas legislators.” The lobbyist “spent almost $4 million making illegal campaign donations, kickbacks and other gifts to Arkansas lawmakers between 2011 and 2017.”
- FBI Interested in Coincidences: Days before voting to spend nearly a million dollars to acquire a golf course for use as a solar farm, the Mayor of Independence, Missouri received over $10,000 in contributions from PACs funded by the company that would receive the contract to operate the solar project for the city. The Kansas City Star indicates that “FBI agents have been asking questions about the project.” The Mayor told the Star there was “no relationship between the donations and her vote.”
Can’t See the Money in Arizona: The Arizona Capitol Times reports that the Arizona Secretary of State’s campaign finance websites are “broken.” With less than a year before the next major election, the state’s “See the Money” website has never worked properly, according to the article. The website is supposed to display information gathered by “Beacon,” the state’s campaign finance reporting tool. A representative of the Arizona Action Network said she “can’t remember the last time they used the website because they’ve had so many issues with it.” She and her coworkers use third-party websites that are “generally more accurate.”