The dominoes are tumbling. Last week the Federal Election Commission issued two advisory opinions, AO 2010-9 and AO 2010-11, exempting the funding of PACs making independent expenditures (i.e., not making direct contributions) from federal contribution limits. In an editorial criticizing these FEC opinions, the New York Times noted, “the sluice gates are open on both [...]

On July 9, 2010 the Charter Revision Commission released a preliminary staff report, which reflects the Commission’s work to-date and staff recommendations on a number of topics such as term limits, voter participation, public integrity and non-partisan elections.  The staff also recommends significant changes to the NYC Campaign Finance Board.
In response to the Supreme Court’s [...]

If one thinks of campaign finance and pay-to-play reforms as a tool chest, Connecticut seemed to have a wide-variety of intricately designed instruments adopted in response to corruption scandals that led to the resignation of Governor Rowland. On July 13, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued two decisions in [...]