For what seems like such a simple question, many organizations have a very hard time calculating the amount they spend on lobbying activities.
A few reminders might help:
Second quarter federal lobbying disclosure reports are due on July 21 and LD-203 expenditure reports are due on July 30. In addition, many states have mid-year lobbying reports due this month. We’ll have a series of posts on things to remember when preparing these reports in the next few days.
Like 15 other states, Ohio has a law that prohibits false statements made during a campaign. The law allows virtually anyone to file a complaint alleging that an ad is false and allows the Ohio Elections Commission to make the initial determination as to whether it is truthful or not. The problem is that once
As a reminder that it’s not the complicated campaign finance laws but the simple ones that will get people into trouble, a straw donor in southern California recently pleaded guilty to a number of federal charges. The charges included:
When the owner of a business runs for public office, he or she has to be careful not to use the assets of the business for the campaign. In the past, this issue has come up when the business owner uses money from a business account, uses customer mailing lists, or business equipment in a
In case you missed our webinar last week on government affairs compliance, you can click here for the recording and here for the presentation materials. We covered topics including:
Please join us for a webinar on January 16, 2014, at 1:00pm EST, which will provide a tune-up on government affairs compliance and examine recent trends. We will cover all the major topics you need to be thinking about as you ramp up for lobbying the new Congress and state legislatures and prepare for the
Buried in the recently‐enacted and controversial North Carolina Voter ID law is an additional restriction on political activity by lobbyists. North Carolina already prohibited lobbyists from making personal political contributions at any time, and from collecting and transferring contributions from multiple donors (known as bundling). Starting October 1, lobbyists will be prohibited from collecting and
A leaked email written by a senior Congressional aide became fodder for the politics section of the Washington Post last week, painting a picture of secret industry collusion with candidate campaigns on independent expenditures. The aide’s email, reportedly written to several of his boss’s campaign officials, explained that a prominent industry trade association was committed
Sitting state office holders often run for federal office. As a recent decision from the FEC reminds us, it is important that resources from the state campaign not be used in the federal campaign, unless the federal campaign pays fair-market-value for those resources. Indeed, this same principle applies when other types of related organizations seek