Hooray for Fridays!

It's finally Friday!

Gather 'round for your weekly one-stop-shop for state news and happenings.  

• Voters in Arizona this November will be entered in a lottery to win $1 million dollars.
  
• Matt Brix, the Executive Director of Common Cause New Mexico, appeared on the Al Franken Show to talk about public financing.
  
• The debate over voter IDs in Georgia continues.
  
• Also, a voter ID law in Missouri is being challenged.
  
• There are about a gajillion redistricting proposals being offered in Texas right now, each with their own agenda.  How many of them are aimed at protecting the voting rights of minorities?  Just a handful.
  
• Ralph Reed lost his primary for Georgia Lt. Governor after his ties with Jack Abramoff became front-page fodder.
  
• The ACLU is challenging Connecticut's public financing law in court.
  
• Common Cause Pennsylvania has asked for an official inquiry into suspicious campaign spending by State Speaker of the House John Perzel.
  
• The latest campaign finance data from New York has been released.
  
• Ethics reform in North Carolina is looking good.  The State Senate passed overhauling legislation this week; there are differences with the State House, but this is one state that is making great progress towards real reform.

It is Friday and time for the state weekly roundup. This week was a busy week for Common Cause with a lot of activity in the state chapters. I hope that everyone is sitting comfortably in air conditioning, rather than battling the heat and humidity. Unless, of course, one lives in New Mexico or Arizona where the heat is allegedly "dry." On to the states!

·    Common Cause Ohio is one of the plaintiffs in the suit regarding H.B. 3, the Ohio legislature's attempt at election reform. H.B. 3 is a potentially devastating piece of legislation that could reverse all of the voter registration and voter turnout gains over the last eight years.

·    The California state senate is dragging its feet on the subject of SCA 3, a proposed ballot initiative that would create a balanced and impartial redistricting system.

·    Chicago, Illinois is home once again to a patronage scandal.

·    Nebraska was home to a campaign financing victory, when a University of Nebraska Board of Regents member was impeached by the state supreme court. Common Cause Nebraska was integral in facilitating the decision.

·    The North Carolina state senate is proposing the creation an ethics reform commission. However, the commission, in the proposed form, would have very little power.

·    A federal court in Georgia suspended the dangerous mandatory photo ID law for next weeks primary, and possibly the general election in November. This is a great victory for voting rights.

·    Common Cause's Barbara Burt was in New Mexico this week to meet with the National Association of Secretaries of State.

·    Rhode Island's 2006 Public Accountability and Reform Act became law.

·    And, finally, July's campaign finance reports are beginning to be posted on the New York board of elections website.

Along with the U.S. House passing H.R. 9, the Voting Rights Act renewal bill, the developments in Nebraska and Georgia have made this a great week for holding power accountable. Please comment on any issue, and fill in anything that I may have missed. Have a great weekend!

It's Friday afternoon, and you know what that means - it's State Round-Up time.  Use the Comments section to fill us in on any news we missed from your state.

• Common Cause New Mexico threw a party to kick off their statewide Voters First Pledge campaign; it was a huge success.
  
• Georgia past legislation last year mandating voter ID cards, but less than a month before the primary, they still haven't issued them.
  
• Florida politicians and contractors toed the Sunshine line.
  
• The New York Legislature's session ended this week, leaving a lot of work to be done at the last minute.
  
• Massachusetts lawmakers have earmarked more than $700 million in spending on pet projects this year.
  
• A headlining corruption trial in Wisconsin has people considering the future of campaign finance and ethics reform in that state.  Meanwhile, the state's most notorious corrupt politician has been allowed to remain free on bail while his appeals are pending.
  
• California's anti-revolving door law for statewide officials has been expanded to include local and county politicians as well.
  
• The head of the Oregon ethics commission is leaving to head up the independent and better-funded sister commission in Nevada.
  
• Samuel Gresham of Common Cause Ohio appears tonight on a roundtable news show, talking about politics in Ohio.
  
• The Pennsylvania Speaker of the House has introduced his weak lobby reform bill while delaying and blocking stronger measures.  As imagined, there are a lot of unhappy people in Pennsylvnia right now.

In case you've missed a story from our states this week, here's your weekly State Round-Up; this entry will also double as the weekend open thread.  Use the Comments section to tell us about anything happening in your state, or about anything at all...such as Saturday's Stanley Cup Game 6 (how 'bout that Pisani?), what you think the Safavian jury verdict will be, or what you're having for dinner tonight.

• Common Cause Pennsylvania's lawsuite over legislators' self-pay raises was tossed out by the court.  Their next battle is to increase transparency for legislative expense reports.
• Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher was arraigned last week; his lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
  
• Matt of Common Cause New Mexico gave us an update on everything going on there, from the state's ethics task force to ethics scandals to Albuquerque ethics laws.
  
• Ohio is no stranger to election controversy, and the months leading up to the 2006 midterm elections are seeing increased media attention on the problems, past and present, the state has had.
  
• Anti-pay-to-play legislation is a big hit in New Jersey, with everyone except some Democratic politicians who are receiving less contractor money.
  
• This was the last week of the New York legislative session, and Common Cause New York made a big push for some action on ethics reform.
  
• A Seminole County, Florida, commissioner also works as a lobbyist, prompting all sorts of "Wha...?" questions.
  
• Primary elections in Virginia only saw 3% voter turnout.
  
  

Have a good weekend everyone, and Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there!

Here's your weekly round-up of what happened in the states; this was a busier week than usual for the states:

• California Congressional candidates attended an ethics reform panel discussion.
  
• Rachel Leon, the Executive Director of Common Cause/New York, shared with us her bi-weekly radio address for the northeastern states.
  
• Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's controversial Secretary of State, angered a lot of people by implementing voter registration rules stricter than the law calls for, including the New York Times.
  
• David Hamilton, the Maryland lawyer accused of being an unregistered lobbyist, has raised more eyebrows with emails that cast doubt on his claims.
  
• Massachusetts gubernatorial candidates have turned down public financing, meaning this will be one of the most expensive governor's races in state history.
  
• A candidate for county executive in Maryland is raising over $300,000, mostly from private fundraisers that are shadowed from the public eye.
  
• The Albuquerque city council failed to pass ethics reform legislation, but local advocates are planning to bring it back in the form of a public referendum.
  
• Some dude in Utah wants his local town council to vote to repeal the 17th Amendment, which made Senators popularly-elected officials, instead of political appointees.
  
• Pennsylvania may finally get a lobbyist disclosure law - it's the only state in the nation without one.
  
• A small town Illinois mayor was busted for decades of corruption.
  
• Everyone's curious to see what a pay-to-play trial getting underway in Wisconsin will reveal about the operations of state government.