Latest Developments:
- The Arizona Court of Appeals decided The Arizona Advocacy Network Foundation v. State of Arizona, which reinstates a statute that limits the Citizens Clean Elections Commission’s ability to require disclosure of political spending by nonprofit organizations. The Commission had sought to reclassify some tax-exempt organizations as political committees. The Arizona Daily Star, however, notes that the “appellate judges said lawmakers had no right to limit the Clean Elections Commission to policing only independent expenditures made on behalf of candidates who are accepting public financing.”
- The United States Department of Justice announced that a grand jury has indicted a former Indiana state senator and a casino executive for laundering illegal corporate campaign contributions. The Associated Press reports that the executive allegedly recruited 15 individuals to act as straw donors and make maximum $2,700 contributions to the state senator’s federal campaign for election to the House of Representatives using corporate money.
- The Governor of California signed AB 2151, which requires local governments that receive campaign reports place those reports on the Internet within 72 hours of the deadline for filing the reports. The law also requires that the agencies retain the records for four years from the date of the election to which they pertain.
- The New Mexico State Ethics Commission reached a settlement with the Committee to Protect New Mexico Consumers to disclose “expenditures on campaign advertisements supporting a ballot question .” According to the Commission’s statement, “individuals or entities who spend more than $3,000 on independent expenditures are required to make disclosures.”
In Case You Missed It:
- CARES Campaigns Beware: West Hawaii Today reports that the Hawaii County Council voted “to give each of the nine members $100,000 to direct to specific projects in their council district” out of an allocation of $80 million to the county from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. But handing out CARES money during an election season may run afoul of a prohibition in “federal laws about using CARES money to lobby or influence elections.”One Council Member who faces a runoff in November was barred from personally distributing the funds.
- Behind Closed Doors: According to the Tennessean, a judge found that the Tennessee Registry of Elections violated the state’s Open Meeting Act when it reduced a state representative’s fine in a “secret vote” so that the representative would be eligible to file for reelection. “The vote was taken the night before the election filing deadline.” The article points out that the representative needed a resolution because he “likely would not have been able to file as a candidate without a settlement of his debt.”
- Charitable Giving Plan Linked to Public Sale: The Florida Times-Union reports that when the publicly owned Jacksonville Electric Authority was put up for sale by the city, a potential buyer – Florida Power and Light – planned a campaign of making charitable contributions to charities associated with various public officials who would vote on any sale. Florida Power and Light “identified 15 ‘potential sponsorship opportunities’ and notes about each one,” including close ties to various officials. At the time, “bidders and their representatives were strictly forbidden from discussing the sale of JEA with any officials who would have a role in the decision-making process.” The article explains that the documents disclosing the plan were “obtained by a City Council committee investigating the failed sale.”