This week I have highlights from Kentucky, Tennessee, Wyoming and Hawaii.

In Kentucky, KYKrumudgeon spent some time addressing an opinion made recently from the state’s Legislative Ethics Commission. The opinion reversed a judgment made in 1995 regarding Kentucky campaign contribution laws established in 1993. The ethics law, prohibited lawmakers from asking lobbyists to contribute to their campaigns, however, in 1995 the commission said that lawmakers could ask lobbyists to contribute to political parties.

In Tennessee, BillHobbs and Tennessee Politics blog talk about how a legislative study committee decided to roll back some of the state’s sunshine laws. If the committee’s roll back is allowed then state and local boards will be allowed to hold more discussions that affect the public in private. Also Smart City Memphis points to Knox County Chancellor Daryl Fansler’s ruling on the sunshine law. The opinion is in regards to the Open Meeting Act and is an interesting explanation of why these laws are important.

In Wyoming, NewWest talks about Rep. Cubin’s poor voting record. She is at a 46% voting rate which is one of the poorest in the House. The article, the post refers to, goes into some depth over the nature of her missing votes pointing out that her husband has been very ill and has been in the hospital for almost the entire year. Rep. Cubin’s attendence brings up an important question. It is well known that members of Congress have very busy work schedules that involve a lot of travel, especially for the members from western states. How should a Congressperson balance the challenges of governance with the needs of a loved one?

Hawaii Blog discusses Rep. Jon Riki Karamatsu’s DUI arrest. What is interesting about this is Rep. Karamatsu has a blog and actually blogged about the incident. He then proceeded to acknowledge his mistake and start a discussion on how the media would have treated this incident if he wasn’t open about it. This would have been a revolutionary way for an elected official to communicate with his constituents regarding a controversy if he had let the post stay up for more than two hours. *sigh*

That’s all I got this week. Keep letting in the Sunlight!