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.
Please enjoy this installment of Compliance Notes.
Campaign Finance & Lobbying Compliance
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) elected Vice Chair Ellen L. Weintraub as Chair and Commissioner James E. “Trey” Trainor, III as Vice Chairman for 2025 at its open meeting on December 12, 2024. Vice Chair Weintraub has served on the FEC since 2002. Before her FEC appointment, Vice Chair Weintraub was Of Counsel to the Political Law Group of Perkins Coie LLP and Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Ethics Committee. Before joining the FEC in 2020, Commissioner Trainor served as General Counsel to the Texas Secretary of State, Counsel to the Texas House Committee on Regulated Industries and represented the Texas Republican Party and two presidential campaigns. Commissioner Trainor has also served on the Advisory Board of the United States Election Assistance Commission. Prior to joining the FEC, Commissioner Trainor was a partner at Akerman, LLP and had his own private practice. (FEC Press Release)
New York: Election officials denied a request from New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ 2025 campaign for millions in public matching dollars. The decision, based on bookkeeping irregularities and a federal criminal case against Adams involving straw donors, deals a blow to the mayor’s reelection effort, which he must now redouble to make up for the withheld cash. Mayoral candidates who receive donations from New Yorkers of up to $250 are eligible to have the contribution matched eightfold with public tax dollars — a system that encourages small-dollar donations to reduce influence peddling. However, officials from the New York City Campaign Finance Board, which oversees the city’s campaign finance system, voted unanimously Monday, December 16, 2024, to deny Adams’ request for that lucrative line of funding. Adams’ campaign attorney, Vito Pitta, expressed hope the Campaign Finance Board will reverse its decision at a future meeting. (Joe Anuta & Jeff Coltin, POLITICO)
Government Ethics & Transparency
Colorado: The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission has ruled that Rick Palacio, a former chief of staff to Gov. Jared Polis and former chair of the state Democratic Party, violated state law by contracting with the governor’s office within six months of his departure. The commission, however, did not fine Palacio and dismissed another claim that he had “double-dipped” as both a contractor and state employee. State law (CRS 24-18-201(1)) says a former state employee may not, within six months of the termination of his employment, be under contract with a state agency “involving matters with which he was directly involved during his employment.” Palacio was on Polis’ staff until November 30, 2020 and Kaufmann decided to retain Palacio as an outside consultant, which began on December 1, 2020. Palacio was paid $14,000 monthly for the contract from December 2020 through May 2021. According to previous reports by The Denver Gazette, Palacio’s Palacio Strategies Group was paid an additional $70,000 for June through October 2020; however, it is unknown if that was part of the same contract. The commission can assess fines when there is a breach of public trust for private gain, but the commission said the complainant did not submit any evidence that Palacio had breached the public trust. (Marianne Goodland, Colorado Politics)
Louisiana: The Louisiana Board of Ethics assessed Jay Dardenne, a longtime elected official who was also Gov. John Bel Edwards’ commissioner of administration, a $3,000 fine for filing four campaign finance reports months after their deadlines passed. Dardenne, who also served as Louisiana’s lieutenant governor and secretary of state, initially faced a much larger fine. The penalty for his four tardy reports was $12,000, but the board voted to reduce it to $3,000 after Dardenne personally apologized at its Friday meeting. The four reports in question were connected to Dardenne’s political action committee, JAY PAC and should have been submitted during the fall and winter of 2023. He made a few small campaign contributions out of that account for state elections at the time. (Julie O’Donoghue, Louisiana Illuminator)
