Compliance Notes - Vol. 5, Issue 35
RECENT LOBBYING, ETHICS & CAMPAIGN FINANCE UPDATES
We read the news, cut through the noise and provide you the notes.
Welcome to Compliance Notes from Nossaman’s Government Relations & Regulation Group – a periodic digest of the headlines, statutory and regulatory changes and court cases involving campaign finance, lobbying compliance, election law and government ethics issues at the federal, state and local level.
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Campaign Finance & Lobbying Compliance
The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday, November 18, 2024, to hear a challenge based on constitutional free speech protections to a voter-approved measure in Alaska that requires greater public disclosure of certain political donations, as the justices passed up a chance to curtail campaign finance regulation further. The justices turned away an appeal by several Alaskan residents and advocacy groups, represented by a conservative legal group, of a lower court’s ruling upholding the law narrowly approved as a ballot initiative in 2020. The initiative, Ballot Measure 2, adopted sweeping changes to the state’s elections system. The plaintiffs objected to what they called some of the most stringent disclosure requirements in the United States on political donors. A lawyer for a group called Alaskans for Better Elections, which backed the new law, called it gratifying to see the Supreme Court turn away the case and allow a disclosure system like Alaska’s to stand. (Nate Raymond, Reuters)
Arizona: Arizonans have an absolute right to know who is trying to influence elections, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled on November 8, 2024. In a unanimous decision, the three-judge panel rejected a series of claims by the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and the Center for Arizona Policy that a 2022 voter-approved law, Proposition 211, interferes with their rights of privacy in the Arizona Constitution and the rights of their contributors. The Voters Right to Know Act says any organization that spends more than $50,000 on a statewide race, or half that for other contests, has to disclose anyone who has given at least $5,000 publicly. Recipient groups must also trace the money back to the original source. The court said Proposition 211 serves an “important government interest’’ because it can help prevent corruption by ensuring voters know exactly who is trying to sway elections for those who support their positions rather than allowing them to hide their identities by funneling their cash through other organizations. (Howard Fischer, tucson.com)
Indiana: Former Vanderburgh County Commissioner Ben Shoulders used tens of thousands of dollars in campaign money to buy baseball cards and basketball season tickets, among other purchases, and then tried to report the expenditures as fraudulent in an effort to recoup some of the money, Evansville police say. According to a probable cause affidavit filed in Vanderburgh Circuit Court, Shoulders spent more than $41,000 on eBay purchases using a debit card assigned to his “Shoulders for Commissioner” account. He would then list the buys on his campaign finance forms as something else. The investigation began in October 2023 when Shoulders contacted now-EPD Chief Phil Smith. He was “requesting a report after he discovered ... fraudulent purchases on his bank account,” the affidavit states. Shoulders faces preliminary charges of attempted fraud, filing a fraudulent report with the Evansville police, false informing and commingling committee funds with personal funds and an infraction for unpermitted use of money contributions. (Jon Webb, Evansville Courier & Press)
Government Ethics & Transparency
Texas: A report issued by the Austin City Auditor found Former interim City Manager Jesús Garza violated Austin’s ethics rules when he hired two former City Hall staffers to serve as consultants after the 2023 winter storm. The report, commissioned by the City Auditor, found that Laura Huffman and Joe Canales were paid $200 and $190 an hour, respectively, during their 10 months at City Hall. Garza pushed to hire them, the audit report found, skirting city rules requiring a vote from the Austin City Council on contracts more than $76,000 a year. The issue is now before the city’s Ethics Review Commission. (Andrew Weber & Luz Moreno-Lozano, KUT 90.5)
