QUESTION
What would happen if the clerk's office was tasked with confirming a lobbyist's prior political activities? What structure does the NYC Campaign Finance Board envision to regulate such activities?
2:07:51
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79 sec
The NYC Campaign Finance Board Executive Director explains that if the clerk's office had to confirm if a registered lobbyist worked on a political campaign or did fundraising for an elected official within a certain period, the lobbyist would be prohibited from lobbying those individuals during that designated time frame according to their lobbying reports.
- The primary goal is to prevent lobbyists from raising money for or consulting the individuals they lobby or plan to lobby.
- Restricting lobbyists' ability to contribute funds is seen as less burdensome on First Amendment rights than prohibiting lobbying entirely.
- The lobbying report disclosure forms a 'backstop' within a broader regulatory framework to increase integrity in local government.
Lincoln Restler
2:07:51
Just making sure I follow, if the clerk's office, hypothetically, were tasked with confirming that a registered lobbyist had worked on a political campaign or conducted fundraising for an elected official within the, you know, previous period of time, then they would be noted it would be noted in their lobbying reports that they are prohibited from lobbying those individuals during that period of time, whatever the designated period of time is.
2:08:25
Is that essentially what you envision Yes.
2:08:27
And that is what I would describe as sort of
Paul Ryan
2:08:29
the backstop because the first line of improving or increasing integrity in local government would be to simply say that those who are lobbyists can't raise money for or serve as consultants to the individuals they lobby or anticipate lobbying and that restriction on their ability to contribute is a lesser burden on their first amendment rights than the prohibition on their lobbying.
2:08:52
So it's, you know, it's really creating what is in the heart of the structure of the current bill as the backstop make the most constitutionally vulnerable aspect of this proposal into this backstop and a small piece of it and have a slightly different structure capture most of the people we're trying to get at with regulation.