[EL] House candidate Carr’s campaign drops ball on required finance filing

Tue Jul 29 01:46:06 PDT 2014

Quick correction here: Under the definition, you're a "candidate" if 
you're seeking nomination or election for federal office ... and you're 
*deemed to be doing that* if you have raised or spent $5,000 (or if 
someone has done so for you with your consent).  So, *all* of the people 
on the Calif. CD 33 ballot were "candidates," even the one who filed the 
form indicating he was exempt from the disclosure requirement.  So much 
for the useful reason to exclude some people on the ballot from 
candidate forums.
   - dah

p.s. since the law Craig cites below requires filing the disclosure 
after "becoming a candidate as defined in [2 U.S.C. § 431(2)]," it's 
arguable that failing to reach the $5,000 threshold does not exempt you, 
if you're on the ballot, from filing the disclosure.  Is the form I 
linked below (the .pdf) misleading or in error?

On 7/27/2014 9:05 PM, David A. Holtzman wrote:
> Thanks, all.
>
> The LA Times article says “House Ethics rules” require the filing.But 
> now I know, thanks to Joseph and Craig, it’s really federal law that 
> requires the filing.I’ve submitted a correction to the paper through 
> its web form.
>
> The definition of “candidate” used in the federal law here (raising or 
> spending $5,000 or more, or letting someone do that on your behalf) [2 
> U.S.C. § 431(2)] could be useful for limiting who can participate in 
> future candidate forums.
>
> I think there were 18 people on the ballot in the primary here 
> (California’s 33rd C.D.), and 16 or 17 of them were on the stage at a 
> forum I went to.Only 10 of them filed the disclosures at issue (find 
> their forms at 
> http://clerk.house.gov/public_disc/financial-search.aspx ), although 
> another one filed a convenient form saying he was exempt 
> (http://clerk.house.gov/public_disc/financial-pdfs/2013/8213545.pdf).
>
> - dah
>
> On 7/27/2014 3:23 PM, Craig Holman wrote:
>> Joseph explained it well. Federal law requires House candidates to 
>> file with the Clerk, Senate candidates with the Senate Secretary, and 
>> presidential candidates with OGE, which is then enforced by DOJ. It 
>> is an invaluable disclosure law for voters to discern conflicts of 
>> interest, and it mandates such disclosures for federal employees as 
>> well, not just candidates. The congressional offices and OGE are the 
>> administrative agencies. I just want to add the cite:
>>
>> 5 USC app., section 101 et seq.
>>
>>
>> Craig Holman, Ph.D.
>> Government Affairs Lobbyist
>> Public Citizen
>> 215 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
>> Washington, D.C. 20003
>> T-(202) 454-5182
>> C-(202) 905-7413
>> F-(202) 547-7392
>> Holman at aol.com
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Joseph E. Sandler <sandler at sandlerreiff.com>
>> To: David A. Holtzman <David at HoltzmanLaw.com>; Election Law 
>> <Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>
>> Sent: Sun, Jul 27, 2014 9:31 am
>> Subject: Re: [EL] House candidate Carr’s campaign drops ball on 
>> required finance filing
>>
>> David
>> The requirement for a candidate for US House to file a personal 
>> financial disclosure report is not imposed by the Rules of the House 
>> but by the Ethics in Government Act--the federal statute.  While that 
>> statute confers certain authority on the House Ethics Committee to 
>> review the reports and implement the reporting requirements, the 
>> authority to enforce the law against a candidate lies with the US 
>> Department of Justice--not the House Ethics Committee which as you 
>> correctly surmise, has no jurisdiction to impose penalties on persons 
>> that are not currently Members of Congress or employees of Congress.
>> Joseph E. Sandler
>> Sandler, Reiff, Lamb, Rosenstein & Birkenstock P.C.
>> 1025 Vermont Avenue, N.W.  Suite 300
>> Washington, D.C. 20005
>> Tel: (202) 479-1111
>> Fax: (202) 479-1115
>> Cell: (202) 607-0700
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> *From:* law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu 
>> <mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> 
>> [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu 
>> <mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu>] On Behalf Of 
>> David A. Holtzman [David at HoltzmanLaw.com <mailto:David at HoltzmanLaw.com>]
>> *Sent:* Saturday, July 26, 2014 9:26 PM
>> *To:* Election Law
>> *Subject:* Re: [EL] House candidate Carr’s campaign drops ball on 
>> required finance filing
>>
>> How can the House, simply by its own rule, constitutionally require a 
>> non-member to file an ethics statement?
>> Can it really collect a late fee?
>> Even if the guy loses?
>> (The guy is a Republican running against a party-endorsed Democrat 
>> for Rep. Waxman's seat.)
>> (And the Congress for which he's running isn't the current one whose 
>> House adopted the rule.)
>>
>>>
>>>     “House candidate Carr’s campaign drops ball on required finance
>>>     filing” <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=63732>
>>>
>>> Posted on July 24, 2014 9:28 pm 
>>> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=63732>by Rick Hasen 
>>> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>>> LAT. 
>>> <http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-carr-late-filing-20140724-story.html>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
>> david at holtzmanlaw.com
>> Notice: This email (including any files transmitted with it) may be 
>> confidential, for use only by intended recipients.  If you are not an 
>> intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this email 
>> to an intended recipient, be advised that you have received this 
>> email in error and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing 
>> or copying of this email is strictly prohibited.  If you have 
>> received this email in error, please immediately notify the sender 
>> and discard all copies.
>> _______________________________________________
>> Law-election mailing list
>> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu  <mailto:Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>
>> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>>
>> -- 
>> David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
>> david at holtzmanlaw.com
>>
>> Notice: This email (including any files transmitted with it) may be 
>> confidential, for use only by intended recipients.  If you are not an 
>> intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this email 
>> to an intended recipient, be advised that you have received this 
>> email in error and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing 
>> or copying of this email is strictly prohibited.  If you have 
>> received this email in error, please immediately notify the sender 
>> and discard all copies.
>>
>
> -- 
> David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
> david at holtzmanlaw.com
>
> Notice: This email (including any files transmitted with it) may be 
> confidential, for use only by intended recipients.  If you are not an 
> intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this email 
> to an intended recipient, be advised that you have received this email 
> in error and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing or 
> copying of this email is strictly prohibited.  If you have received 
> this email in error, please immediately notify the sender and discard 
> all copies.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20140729/d4637d5a/attachment.html>