The New Year brings with it new laws governing campaign finance, lobbying, and ethics. Below we highlight some of the major state and federal laws that took effect on or around January 1. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list, but highlights some of the most significant changes that are new for 2015.
D.C.
D.C. Council Passes Campaign Finance Legislation
By Robert Kelner on
Posted in Campaign Finance
After extensive legislative deliberation over the past year, last week the Council of the District of Columbia unanimously approved a campaign finance reform bill which aims to tighten up rules around LLC contributions and promote fundraising transparency. Notably, the D.C. Council had contemplated inserting pay-to-play restrictions in the campaign finance bill, but ultimately removed any…
New Frontiers for Pay-to-Play Laws in the Next Election Cycle
By Kevin Glandon on
Pay-to-play laws, which now exist at the federal, state, and local levels, generally restrict or require disclosure of political contributions by firms seeking to do business with the government. Hedge funds, private equity funds, and asset management firms are particularly sensitive to such restrictions because of their reliance on investments from state and local government…
Corporate Contributions in the District of Columbia — The “Pay-to-Play” Provisions
By Robert Lenhard on
Following up on last week’s post, we wanted to highlight the “pay-to-play” provisions in D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s proposal to amend the District’s campaign finance laws. The legislation is undergoing a public comment period until September 17th, and will then be sent to the D.C. Council.
In its simplest form, the proposal is hard…
Is the Tide Turning on Corporate Contributions in the District?
In the wake of several highly-publicized corruption scandals, last week D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray released a draft campaign finance reform proposal. The proposed legislation, which is currently undergoing a public comment period before it is sent to the D.C. Council in a few weeks’ time, can be found here. Among other reforms, the…