Unfair Advantage: The Abuse of State Resources in Elections If candidates are permitted to maintain their public posts while running for office, there may be legal requirements for political parties and candidates to report on their finances – including donations and expenditures during the electoral period and outside of the electoral period – that could help facilitate the detection of abuses of administrative resources. The U.S. legal framework places detailed restrictions on state personnel who are running as candidates for public office. U.S. federal law differentiates among public employees who are more or less restricted, based on the nature of the employing agency’s mandate. Federal executive personnel are prohibited from running as candidates for public office in a partisan election.42 Employees who work for certain federal agencies, including agencies whose responsibilities include election administration, law enforcement, and intelligence, are also restricted from running in a partisan election.43 Federal judges are required to resign from judicial work if they are candidates in a primary or general election, regardless of whether the election is partisan.44 Legislative personnel, on the other hand, such as Members of Congress, are permitted to run for re-election while serving in their roles. Excerpts from U.S. state law: Alaska (1) high moral and ethical standards among public employees in the legislative branch of government are essential to assure the trust, respect, and confidence of the people of this state; (2) a fair and open government requires that legislators and legislative employees conduct the public’s business in a manner that preserves the integrity of the legislative process and avoids conflicts of interest or even appearances of conflicts of interest; […] (7) compliance with a code of ethics is an individual responsibility; thus all who serve the legislature have a solemn responsibility to avoid improper conduct and prevent improper behavior by colleagues and subordinates” Legal provisions for state-level officials vary: some Alaska Stat. Ann. § 24.60.010 (West) states expressly guarantee that all government personnel have a right to seek public office as a political candidate;45 some permit state employees to run as candidates but require those who are not already elected officials to take a leave of absence during their candidacies;46 and in other states, civil service employees are strictly prohibited from running as a candidate in a partisan election, even during a period of absence from their government jobs. Restrictions on State Personnel Contributing Resources to an Electoral Campaign Human resources are critically important for election campaigns. However, it is necessary to prevent incumbents from leveraging the considerable pool of government employees to gain an electoral advantage, and to conserve government work-time strictly for governance functions. In addition, regulations regarding state personnel’s time and financial contributions to an electoral campaign can also serve to protect government employees from coercion with regard to their election activity. Speck and Fontana highlight the summoning of public employees to participate in campaign rallies and the government declaration of a public holiday on the day the ruling party organizes a rally in town The Hatch Act, 5 U.S.C. § 7323(a)(2)-(3) (2012). Id.; see also 5 C.F.R. § 734.411(b) (2016. 44 See Guide to Judiciary Policy, supra note 36, at Canon 5(A)-(C); see also Use of Electronic Social Media by Judges and Judicial Employees, 2014 WL 2625011, at *5 (US Jud. Conf. Comm. Code Cond. Mar. 1, 2014). 45 Examples include Connecticut and North Dakota. See, e.g., Conn. Gen. Stat. § 5-266a(b) (2005); N.D. Cen. Code § 44-08-19(1). 46 Examples include Florida and Minnesota. See, e.g., Fla. Stat. § 110.233(4)(a) (2001); Minn. Stat. § 43A.32(2) (1994). 42 43 7