(a) If any person or other entity, other than the state, a county or municipality, contracts to pay a fee, commission or any other form of compensation for consulting services or campaign services to any staff person or employee of the general assembly; member of a commission established by and responsible to the general assembly or either house of the general assembly; member or employee of a state regulatory commission, including, without limitation, commissioners of the Tennessee public utility commission; or member or employee of any executive department or agency or other state body in the executive branch, then such person or entity shall disclose the following to the Tennessee ethics commission:

Attorney's Note

Under the Tennessee Code, punishments for crimes depend on the classification. In the case of this section:
ClassPrisonFine
class C misdemeanorup to 30 daysup to $50
class A misdemeanorup to 11 monthsup to $2,500
For details, see Tenn. Code § 40-35-111
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 2-10-125

  • Candidate: means an individual who has made a formal announcement of candidacy or who is qualified under the law of this state to seek nomination for election or elections to public office, or has received contributions or made expenditures except for incidental expenditures to determine if one shall be a candidate, or has given consent for a campaign committee to receive contributions or make expenditures with a view to bringing about the individual's nomination for election or election to state public office. See Tennessee Code 2-10-102
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Election: means any general, special or primary election or run-off election, held to approve or disapprove a measure or nominate or elect a candidate for public office. See Tennessee Code 2-10-102
  • filed: means the date actually deposited with or received by the appropriate office or the date of the postmark if postmarked and sent by registered or certified mail of the United States postal service. See Tennessee Code 2-10-102
  • Multicandidate political campaign committee: means a political campaign committee to support or oppose two (2) or more candidates for public office or two (2) or more measures. See Tennessee Code 2-10-102
  • Person: means an individual, partnership, committee, association, corporation, labor organization or any other organization or group of persons. See Tennessee Code 2-10-102
  • Political campaign committee: means :
    (A) Any corporation or any other organization making expenditures, except as provided in subdivision (4), to support or oppose a measure. See Tennessee Code 2-10-102
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) The person to whom the fee was paid, including the full names and identities of any person or other entity through which payment flowed to or from the person making the disclosure;
(2) The position of the person to whom the fee was paid;
(3) The amount of the fee;
(4) The date the services were rendered; and
(5) A general description of the services rendered.
(b) The disclosure must be on a form designed by the Tennessee ethics commission, be made under oath, and contain a statement that a false statement on the report is subject to the penalties of perjury. A disclosure form must be filed within five (5) days of entering into a contract for consulting services or campaign services. If services continue to be provided under the contract for a period exceeding twelve (12) months, the disclosure form must be updated annually within five (5) days of the initial contract date in each subsequent year in which the contract is in effect.
(c) All disclosures made to the commission pursuant to this section are public records and open for inspection during regular business hours.
(d)

(1) It is a Class A misdemeanor for a person or entity to knowingly fail to file a disclosure or to knowingly provide false, incomplete, or misleading information on the disclosure form.
(2) It is a Class C misdemeanor for any person or entity to file a disclosure form required by this section more than thirty (30) days after the date on which the report is due.
(e) If a person or entity contracts to pay a member of the general assembly or a staff person or employee of the general assembly a fee, commission, or other form of compensation, for the provision of campaign services to a candidate for state office or to a political campaign committee attempting to influence the result of a state election, the person or entity shall make the disclosures required under subdivisions (a)(1)-(5) with respect to the campaign services provided.
(f) As used in this section, “campaign services” means services to advise or assist a candidate, political campaign committee, affiliated political campaign committee, or multicandidate political campaign committee in affecting the result of a state election, including, without limitation, campaign work, paper and electronic advertising, producing mailers and fliers, and distributing mailers and fliers.
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