15. It was a pretty good year for anti-pay-to-play rules in court as the SEC anti-pay-to-play rule for investment advisers to public pension fund survived a court challenge, Hawaii got to keep its anti-pay to play law, and the Hatch Act was upheld 11-0 in the D.C. Circuit.
14. Wisconsin took the cake for legal contortions to avoid Supreme Court review of the John Doe saga when the State Supreme Court fired the special prosecutor in the case.
13. Maryland’s strong new campaign finance law passed in 2013 went into effect. It’s the first of its kind to require corporate disclosures directly to investors.
12. Montana is combatting dark money with a new bipartisan law requiring disclosure of electioneering communications.
11. Sadly, the SEC was unmoved by clever graphic subway ads urging them to fight dark money from corporations in elections. But shareholders continued to hold their firms accountable through shareholder resolutions on corporate political activity.
10. It was also a good year for public financing as Seattle passed the nation’s first publicly financed voucher system for local elections. And Maine voters voted to strengthen their public financing system.
9. A Crossroads GPS document from the FEC finally saw the light of day after a court order.
8. Vermont won a key case on coordination and enmeshed PACs.
7. Shell left the American Legislative Exchange Council (better known as ALEC) in August making it the 106th corporation to cut ties with the group.