Advisory Opinion No. 2004-12
Application Of The Codes To
Benefits Received By Legislators At
Mary Anne O
1. At
a conference of a national legislative organization, may a member of the
General Assembly accept a meal from a lobbyist who is not registered in
2. At
a conference of a national legislative organization, may a member of the
General Assembly accept a meal from a lobbyist who is not registered in
· As discussed in response to question no. 1; supra, the presumption will be that the meal is offered by virtue of the legislators public position, and therefore the one hundred dollar rule would apply. If, however, the benefit is strictly personal, e.g., the out-of-state lobbyist and the legislator are longtime friends, the Code does not limit the cost of the meal.
3. At
a conference of a national legislative organization, may a member of the
General Assembly attend a meal or reception which is sponsored by a corporation
and to which all conference attendees are invited, if the corporation does not
directly pay for the meal or reception, but pays a fee to the national legislative
organization which allows it to be listed as the corporate sponsor of the
event? Does it matter if the corporation
has a lobbyist who is registered in
·
As the Commission has previously stated, When a
Connecticut lobbyist provides funds to another entity with the explicit
understanding that the monies will be used to underwrite an event at which
Connecticut officials will be in attendance, the expenditures will be subject
to the Lobbyist Codes gift restrictions.
State Ethics Commission Advisory Opinion No. 2000-19, 62 CLJ 22, p. 5E (
4. At
a conference of a national legislative organization, may a member of the
General Assembly attend a meal or reception which is paid for by the
organization and to which some or all conference attendees from
·
As discussed in response to question no. 3, supra,
the fact that a national legislative organizations conference is generally
underwritten by corporations, including corporations registered to lobby in
5. How does the Code apply if a national legislative organization establishes a state scholarship account that pays for a members travel expenses and hotel accommodations for a conference sponsored by the organization, if such account is funded by corporate contributions? Does it matter if the contributing corporations have registered lobbyists in Connecticut?
·
Whether or not the scholarship account is funded
by lobbyist contributions, a
6. Does the Code apply to functions of a political party at state or national conventions, or is the Code superceded by the Campaign Finance laws with respect to such events?
· In general, the Ethics Codes gift and reporting provisions apply with equal effect to political and nonpolitical events. See, e.g., Ethics Commission Docket Nos. 2001-3 and 2001-13: wherein the Commission sanctioned two Respondents for violating the Lobbyist Codes gift and reporting requirements incident to receptions hosted by said Respondents at the 2000 Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
The Ethics Code is, however, superceded when, for example, a specific provision of Connecticuts campaign finance statutes allows contributions solicited by or on behalf of a public official, including contributions from lobbyists, to be used to pay for meals for the candidate, the candidates spouse and campaign or committee workers incident to political or campaign purposes, without a dollar limitation or itemized disclosure. See, Conn. Gen. Stat. §9-333i(g)(2).
7. At
a national political convention, may a member of the General Assembly accept a
meal from a lobbyist who is not registered in
· The response to this query is the same as to question no. 1. Under the Ethics Codes, this response is not dependent on whether the recipient is an official delegate to a political convention or is at the convention for a more general political purposes.·
8. At
a national political convention, may a member of the General Assembly accept a
meal from a lobbyist who is not registered in
· The answer to this question is the same as to question no. 2. Again, under the Codes, this response is not altered by the legislators status as a convention delegate or his or her political purpose.
9. At
a national political event, if a corporation sponsors an event to which
admission is charged and a lobbyist purchases tickets to the event, may a
member accept a ticket to such an event from the lobbyist? Does it matter if the lobbyist is registered
in
· This question has been addressed in detail by the Commission in Advisory Opinion No. 2004-10, ___, CLJ No. ___, p. ___ (___).
By order of the Commission,
Rosemary Giuliano
Chairperson