[EL] question on state 'pay to play' regulations

Tue May 24 06:10:32 PDT 2011

Thanks, I guess the other half of my question is, to what extent do these special disclosure requirements mirror the proposed EO, in that they require companies, directors and executives to disclose their donations to 501(c)4 groups as well as trade and professional associations?

Sean Parnell

President

Center for Competitive Politics

http://www.campaignfreedom.org

http://www.twitter.com/seanparnellccp

124 S. West Street, #201

Alexandria, VA  22310

(703) 894-6800 phone

(703) 894-6813 direct

(703) 894-6811 fax

From: Craig Holman [mailto:holman at aol.com] 
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 6:03 PM
To: sparnell at campaignfreedom.org; law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] question on state 'pay to play' regulations

Hello Sean:

States and other jurisdictions that require special public disclosure of campaign finances for government contractors -- beyond the regular campaign finance reports that everyone has to file -- include, of course, most of the jurisdictions that ban or restrict campaign contributions from government contractors, including Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio and the Securities Exchange Commission. 

In addition, many other states impose only special disclosure requirements on government contractors. These jurisdictions include: California (contractors for the California Public Employees Retirement System, State Teachers Retirement System Board, California State Lottery and the Los Angeles County Transportation Authority); Hawaii; Louisiana (for gaming interests seeking contracts); Maryland; New Mexico; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; and Vermont (on behalf of the Office of Treasurer). I may have missed a few jurisdictions.

A good summary of state pay-to-play disclosure and/or contribution ban requirements is provided by Perkins Coie at: http://www.perkinscoie.com/overview-of-state-pay-to-play-statutes/ 

In addition, there are several dozen localities with similar pay-to-play bans and/or disclosure requirements for local government contractors (last time I counted, on the order of about 50 localities).

Craig Holman, Ph.D.
Government Affairs Lobbyist
Public Citizen
215 Pennsylvania Avenue NE
Washington, D.C. 20003
TEL: (202) 454-5182
CEL: (202) 905-7413
FAX: (202) 547-7392
Holman at aol.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Parnell <sparnell at campaignfreedom.org>
To: law-election <law-election at uci.edu>
Sent: Mon, May 23, 2011 4:02 pm
Subject: [EL] question on state 'pay to play' regulations

Democracy 21 has a  <http://democracy21.org/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC=%7b91FCB139-CC82-4DDD-AE4E-3A81E6427C7F%7d&DE=%7b91E06F0F-B5A0-474B-BF46-FC964508F343%7d> letter today challenging Senator Susan Collins and statements she made in a Washington Post op-ed the other day. One item in particular, referencing an earlier letter sent to the Obama administration, caught my eye:

In response to numerous contracting scandals, more than a dozen states have imposed specific campaign finance disclosure requirements on government contractors.

I think I recall a similar statement being made by Trevor Potter and Craig Holman in the last week or so.

I’m of course familiar with several states having banned contributions by government contractors, including Connecticut and New Jersey, but I’m not specifically aware of any state laws that require the executives and directors of a company along with the company itself that is a government contractor to reveal their donations and member dues to trade and professional associations and social welfare organizations if those groups engage in even a small amount of election-related speech along with their other, non-political major-purpose activities (I’m assuming that the proposed Obama executive order would be applied in a manner similar to that proposed in the DISCLOSE Act, whereby if a group engages in any election-related speech at all then all donations, dues payments/assessments, and other revenues are automatically assumed to be for the purpose of funding that speech).

Can someone tell me which states are among the dozen that have this type of disclosure requirements imposed on government contractors? Thanks.

Sean Parnell

President

Center for Competitive Politics

 <http://www.campaignfreedom.org> http://www.campaignfreedom.org

 <http://www.twitter.com/seanparnellccp> http://www.twitter.com/seanparnellccp

124 S. West Street, #201

Alexandria, VA  22310

(703) 894-6800 phone

(703) 894-6813 direct

(703) 894-6811 fax

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