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 [...]

In this month’s edition of Waste Age, “Touting Trash” highlights how waste industry firms need to be sensitive to compliance obligations under state and local campaign finance, lobbying and gift laws. Laurence D. Laufer will be speaking on this topic next week at the 2010 WasteExpo in Atlanta, Georgia. WasteExpo is North America’s [...]

We have previously discussed public pension fund reform laws and regulations in place in New Jersey (SIC Rules), New York (Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s Pension Fund Code of Conduct and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s Executive Order) as well as a proposed SEC rule.  The wave of reform now reaches California.
On October 11, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger signed [...]

After every citywide election, the New York City Campaign Finance Board is required by law to evaluate the success of the Campaign Finance Program.  The CFB has traditionally held a series of public hearings to comply with this mandate.  For the 2009 elections, the CFB is holding hearings today and tomorrow at its offices.  Please [...]

As the case against former governor Rod Blagojevich moves forward , we take note of legislation effective January 1, 2009 that prohibits political contributions by business entities whose contracts with Illinois state agencies, in the aggregate, total more than $50,000. The law covers contributions to political committees promoting the candidacy of: (i) the officeholder [...]

In a decision issued on Friday, the District of Connecticut upheld two challenged provisions of Connecticut’s Campaign Finance Reform Act.   The first provision bans “communicator lobbyists”and their immediate family members from contributing or soliciting donations to candidates for state office.  The second provision bans principals of state contractors or prospective contractors from contributing or soliciting [...]

Pay-to-play has become a term familiar to those with state business in New Jersey. But New Jersey isn’t the only state with this type of law – another is Connecticut.
The Connecticut pay-to-play legislation was passed in December 2005. The law imposes an absolute ban on campaign contributions made and solicited by state [...]

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently issued a decision which upholds the constitutionality of Philadelphia’s Campaign Finance Law. The law had been challenged by local officials who alleged that the Philadelphia campaign finance law was preempted by the State’s election law. In a 5-2 decision written by Justice Baer, the Court held that the [...]