, , ,

CU at the FEC? (And more political law links for today)

RECORD FOR FOREIGN TRIPS. Roll Call. “The costs of overseas trips taken by Senators and their staffers jumped by about 20 percent last year, reaching an all-time high of more than $5 million in publicly reported costs, which is still likely less than half the actual total.”

“CASTLES AT THE CAPITOL.” Press release here. “Castles at the Capitol will be held over lunchtime on Tuesday, June 14, which is Flag Day. Members of Congress were notified of the lunch treat by hand-delivered invitations. White Castle employees will be serving up fresh hamburgers, cheeseburgers and jalapeno burgers to all members of Congress. The Sliders® then will be hand-delivered in White Castle’s Crave Cases of 30 burgers each.”

DONORS AND ADMINISTRATION JOBS. Politico. “More than two years after Obama took office vowing to banish ‘special interests’ from his administration, nearly 200 of his biggest donors have landed plum government jobs and advisory posts, won federal contracts worth millions of dollars for their business interests or attended numerous elite White House meetings and social events, an investigation by iWatch News has found.”

CU AT THE FEC? The Federal Election Commission is scheduled to meet today and the meeting agenda is online here. A Salant report on what the “U.S. Federal Election Commission” is scheduled to consider is here.

“LIKES” FOR CANDIDATES ON FACEBOOK. Clickz reports. “SocialCode believes its recent test measuring political ads on Facebook could help inform how GOP candidates advertise there this election season.”

ETHICS ISSUES FOR REP. WEINER? A story is here. The story quotes a source that the committee will weigh whether the device Rep. Weiner used was “official” or “campaign”. “Another issue for the Congressman is his use of his official title as his name on Twitter. ‘@RepWeiner which potentially suggests it was intended as an official account, or at least that he was tweeting in an official capacity,” a source said.’”

MN BALLOT ISSUE FINANCING IN THE NEWS. Story here. “The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board met Tuesday to hear arguments on whether it should revoke a 14-year-old opinion that allows corporations to make donations to ballot campaigns without revealing their own donors.”

CAP FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE FINES IN OREGON? That’s the topic of this news report. “Oregon legislators are nearing a final vote on a bill that could dramatically lower the potential penalties that lawmakers – and other political candidates — face for violating campaign finance reporting laws.”

NC CAMPAIGN FINANCE BILL STALLED. A report on this topic is available here. “The House Elections Committee defeated on party lines a motion Tuesday to recommend a bill to make dozens of changes, including the end of straight-ticket voting, a return to partisan judicial elections and the ouster of the Democratic state elections board chairman. Individual or committee contributions to political parties also would be limited to $250,000 per election.”

LOBBYISTS’ RIGHT TO WORK. Here’s a report from Canada. “Lobbyists are unhappy that the federal government is cautioning companies against using them during the countdown to the bid deadline for billions of dollars of shipbuilding work.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.

Original post

Leave a Comment

Leave a comment

Leave a Reply