Campaign Finance

On February 10, 2008, Bobby Jindal, the newly elected governor of
Louisiana, said in <a href="http://www.gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&catID=3&a…; target="”_blank”">a
big speech</a>:<ul>

It's nice to see conflicts of interest being opposed by political party
leaders, but not when they're taken out of context. The opposition this week
has been limited to public sector unions. The conflict involves
public sector unions making contributions to candidates who will be in
a position to deal with union compensation.<br>
<br>

Local governments cannot afford to do the level of due
diligence that corporate compliance offices do on a regular basis. But
it is worth looking at how corporate compliance offices and corporate
executives deal with other entities that are found to be

In a Pay to Play Law Blog response to <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/responding-arguments-against-signific…; target="”_blank”">my
recent blog post</a> on a discussion that had appeared in the Pay to
Play Law Blog, the argument is made that pay-to-play laws that go
beyond disclosure, such as prohibiting campaign contributions from
government contractors, set up a slippery slope toward the undermining

<br>After being convicted of money laundering for the purpose of illegally
giving corporate money to Texas legislative candidates last week, Tom
Delay said,
"This is an abuse of power. It’s a miscarriage of justice. I still
maintain my innocence. The criminalization of politics undermines our
very system and I’m very disappointed in the outcome."<br>
<br>
I too have, on several occasions, criticized the criminalization of
government ethics. But are Delay and I talking about the same thing?<br>

<b>A Resignation from an Ethics Board for a Possible Future Conflict</b><br>
A member of the Philadelphia Board of Ethics resigned recently,
according to <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/city/20101021_Nolan_N__Atkin…; target="”_blank”">an
article
in the Philadelphia <i>Inquirer</i></a>. The reason for his

Former House majority leader Tom DeLay is currently on trial for
laundering
$200,000 in PAC contributions from corporate lobbyists through the
Republican National Committee to Texas candidates. In Texas, corporate
money cannot be used for political campaigns.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/politics/07delay.html&quot; target="”_blank”">an

<br>
U. S. Senate candidate for Connecticut Linda McMahon was, until she
announced her candidacy, the CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment
(WWE), and her management of that company has been her principal
argument for electing her. <a href="http://corporate.wwe.com/2010_10_28.jsp&quot; target="”_blank”">WWE announced yesterday</a>
that it will be "giving away WWE merchandise near select Connecticut
poll locations on Election Day."<br>

According to <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527023033395045755664817617902…; target="”_blank”">an
article in today's <i>Wall Street Journal</i></a>, business organizations are arguing
that government employee unions have a conflict of interest that should
prevent them from supporting candidates for office. "Public-sector

<br>
<br>
It's always nice to see clever, simple, effective forms of disclosure
that convey the most important information in the most readable,
quickly understandable way. Such a form of disclosure is suggested in <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1676108&quot; target="”_blank”">a
paper published a month ago by Justin Levitt</a>, a professor at Loyola