California’s ethics watchdog, the Fair Political Practices Commission, adopted a new rule that prohibits lobbyists from hosting fundraisers in their homes. This rule implements legislation passed after a lobbyist was fined for hosting what the LA Times called “lavish fundraisers” featuring “wine, liquor, and cigars,” in his home. Lobbyists in California are prohibited from making campaign contributions, but the statute previously exempted from the definition of a “contribution” the use of one’s home for a campaign event, along with$500 for food and drink. The legislation eliminated this exemption, providing that any “payment made by a lobbyist or a cohabitant of a lobbyist for costs related to a fundraising event held at the home of the lobbyist, including the value of the use of the home as a fundraising event venue,” is now a contribution.Continue Reading Not Homeward Bound: California Lobbyists Barred from Hosting Fundraisers in their Homes

CoffeeCupWhen Arkansas legislators gave voters a chance to approve a constitutional amendment banning corporate contributions and gifts from lobbyists, even the referendum’s sponsor thought it was doomed.  Why?  Because coupled with these reforms was a provision extending legislators’ term limits, a measure so unpopular that voters had previously rejected it by a 40-point margin.  Indeed, a committee opposing the referendum brought a 10-foot wooden horse to campaign events to help convince voters that the only real intention of the referendum was to get rid of term limits.

Whatever the motivations – which at times were hard to discern as the Republican legislature that placed the referendum on the ballot later passed a resolution to oppose it – the referendum passed last week with 53% of the vote.  It makes a number of important changes in Arkansas law, including: 
Continue Reading Welcoming the Trojan Horse: Arkansas Voters Approve Term Limits, While Banning Corporate Contributions and Lobbyist Gifts

Yesterday, we focused on the honoring and recognizing categories of expenses that have to be reported. There are also three other categories that have to be disclosed on the LD-203 report.

  • Political Contributions: Contributions made by registered lobbyists, the connected PAC of a registrant, or a PAC controlled by a lobbyist must be disclosed

The LD-203 requires registrants and lobbyists to disclose a variety of payments made for the purpose of honoring and recognizing covered officials. Guidance issued by the House and Senate includes some very helpful examples.

Payments that need to be disclosed fall in four different categories.

  1. The cost of an event to honor or recognize a covered legislative branch official or covered executive branch official;
  2. Payments to an entity that is named for a covered legislative branch official, or to a person or entity in recognition of such official;
  3. Payments to an entity established, financed, maintained, or controlled by a covered legislative branch official or covered executive branch official, or an entity designated by such official; or
  4. The costs of a meeting, retreat, conference, or other similar event held by, or in the name of, one or more covered legislative branch officials or covered executive branch officials.
    Continue Reading Honoring and Recognizing

The end of the second quarter is a good time to terminate individuals who will no longer serve as lobbyists because they can end their LD-203 obligations with this mid-year report. If the individuals do not have a reasonable expectation of being a lobbyist in the current or next quarter, then the Guidance says that the individual may be terminated. A lobbyist is someone who has made more than one lobbying contact (ever) and spends more than 20 percent of his or her time on lobbying activity in a three-month period. Thus, if an individual is changing roles, or the organization has determined that the person does not (and will not in the next quarter) spend 20 percent of his or her time on lobbying activity, then termination is appropriate. Remember, an organization can always re-list the person if things change.
Continue Reading To be a Lobbyist or not to be a Lobbyist

puzzle

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:

  • Include any payments to outside lobbying firms in this figure. Even if it seems like double counting (since those firms will report the amount they receive from your organization), the LDA and guidance are clear that payments to lobbying firms must be included.
    Continue Reading Reporting the Amount Spent on the LD-2

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.

Paperwork

 

increaseLast week the Federal Election Commission increased the reporting threshold for contributions bundled by lobbyists to $17,300 (up from $17,100). Candidates, leadership PACs, and federal party committee must file lobbyist bundling reports if during a six-month reporting period they receive two or more bundled contributions exceeding the $17,300 threshold. We have written here about the

Capitol

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:

  • Creative ways to be involved in the political process; 
  • Operating a compliant PAC;
  • Federal and state lobbying compliance;
  • Pay-to-play laws that affect