SB622 HFA Lovejoy et al. 3-6

 

                Delegates Lovejoy, Byrd, Angelucci, Barrett, Bates, Boggs, N. Brown, S, Brown, Campbell, Canestraro, Caputo, Diserio, Doyle, Estep-Burton, Evans, Fleischauer, Fluharty, Hansen, Hartman, Hicks, Hornbuckle, Lavender-Bowe, Longstreth, Lovejoy, Miley, Miller, Pushkin, Pyles, Robinson, Rowe, Rodighiero, Skaff, Sponaugle, Staggers, Swartzmiller, C. Thompson, R. Thompson, Tomblin, Walker, Williams and Zukoff moves to amend the bill on page 13, Section 2, lines 30, 31 and 32, by striking out paragraph (7) and inserting in lieu thereof, the following:

                “(E) (7) The name and address of any person who contributed a total of more than $250 to the entity making the expenditure between the first day of the preceding calendar year, and the disclosure date: and whose contributions were made for the purpose of furthering the expenditure Provided, That any contribution placed into a separate segregated account that is not used for campaign-related expenditures, any money received in the ordinary course of any trade or business or any contribution that is explicitly made for a nonpolitical purpose is not required to be reported. “ 

And,

On page 13, Section 2, after the semi-colon on line 41, by inserting a new subsection (D) to read as follows:

 “(D) If the contributor is an entity other than a registered political action committee subject to the requirements of this article or an individual, the information required by subsection (e), section eight-a of this article;” and re-letter subsequent subsections accordingly;

                And,

                On page 31, after line 100, by inserting a new section, designated 3-8-8a, to read as follows:

§3-8-8a. Disclosure requirements for covered transfers.

(a) The Legislature finds that:

(1) An informed public is critical for the government of this state to function successfully as a true democracy;

(2) There has been a dramatic influx of “dark money” political advertising in recent election cycles that make it difficult or sometimes impossible for the public to determine who is funding campaign-related disbursements for or against certain candidates;

(3) The United States Supreme Court has found that campaign-related disbursements are protected speech under the First Amendment and, therefore, states have a limited ability to restrict campaign-related disbursements;

(4) The United States Supreme Court has found, on the other hand, that requiring reasonable disclosures does not violate the First Amendment because the disclosure requirements do not restrict the speech, but rather help inform the public about the speech;

(5) It is now common practice for the money used to fund campaign-related disbursements to be transferred through multiple entities in an effort to sidestep state and federal campaign finance disclosure laws, thereby creating the so-called dark money;

(6) The prevalence of dark money funding political advertising, combined with the increase in dubious and misleading names for these organizations, serves to potentially mislead the voting public by eliminating the public’s ability to know who funded the communication and, therefore, who is exercising their First Amendment protected speech; and

(7) Requiring greater disclosures of covered transfers, as defined in this section, will serve the state’s interest and the public’s interest in shining light on dark money and ensuring that the voters of this state will know who pays for campaign-related disbursements made by these currently unknown organizations.

(b) For the purposes of this section:

(1) “Affiliate” means two or more persons where:

(A) The governing instrument of one person is required to be bound by decisions of the other person;

(B) The governing board of one person includes individuals who are specifically designated representatives of the other person or are members of the governing board, officers or paid executive staff members of the other person, or whose service on the governing board is contingent upon the approval of the other person; or

(C) The person is chartered by the other person;

(2) “Campaign-related disbursement” means an independent expenditure consisting of a public communication or an electioneering communication, as those terms are defined in this article;

(3) “Covered transfer” means any transfer or payment of funds by a person to another person if:

(A) The person making the transfer designates, requests or suggests that the amounts be used for one or more campaign-related disbursements or for making a transfer to another person for the purpose of making or paying for one or more campaign-related disbursements;

(B) The person made the transfer or payment in response to a solicitation or other request for donation or payment for the making of or paying for one or more campaign-related disbursements or for making a transfer to another person for the purpose of making or paying for one or more campaign-related disbursements; or

(C) The person engaged in discussions with the recipient of the transfer or payment regarding the making of or paying for campaign-related disbursements or donating or transferring any amount of that transfer or payment to another person for the purpose of making or paying for one or more campaign-related disbursements;

(4) “Covered transfer” does not include:

(A) A disbursement made by a person in the ordinary course of any trade or business or in the form of investment; or

(B) A disbursement made by a person if the person prohibited, in writing, the use of that disbursement for campaign-related disbursements and the recipient of the funds agreed to follow the prohibition and deposited the disbursement in an account which is segregated from any account used to make campaign-related disbursements; and

(5) “Person” means an individual, corporation, partnership, committee, association and any other legal entity, organization or group of individuals, including, but not limited to, an organization described in section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and any political organization under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, other than a political committee with an account established under this article that complies with the contribution limits and source prohibitions of this article with respect to accounts established for that purpose.

(c) When a person receives a covered transfer of $10,000 or more, the recipient shall notify the contributor that the contributor must submit the information required in subsection (d) of this section within forty-eight hours of the transfer:  Provided, That if the contributor and the recipient of the covered transfer are affiliates then this subsection only applies to transfers of $50,000 or more.  The recipient of the covered transfer may not make a covered transfer of funds or a campaign-related disbursement until it receives the information required by subsection (d) of this section from the contributor.  If the contributor of the covered transfer fails to send the information required by subsection (d) of this section, then the recipient shall return the covered transfer funds to the contributor or immediately transfer the funds into another account that is not used to campaign-related expenditures in this state.

(d) All persons making covered transfers that meet the thresholds set forth in subsection (c) of this section, shall submit within forty-eight hours of the covered transfer the following information to the recipient:

(1) The name and address of any person who contributed a total of more than the maximum contribution amount that an individual may make to a political candidate, as stated in section 5c of this article, to the person making the covered transfer within the previous twelve months;

(2) The month, day, and year that the contributions of any single contributor exceeded the maximum contribution amount that an individual may make to a political candidate, as stated in section 5c of this article;

(3) If the person is a political action committee, the name and address the political action committee registered with the Secretary of State, county clerk or municipal clerk;

(4) If the person is an individual, the person’s name, occupation, employer name, if any, and if the individual is self-employed, the name of the individual’s business and address of the business; and

(5) A description of the contribution, if other than money, and the value in dollars and cents of the contribution.

(e) If a person makes a campaign-related disbursement that is an independent expenditure regulated by section two of this article, then it shall disclose in the filing required by section two of this article, all of the information required by section two of this article and all of the information received pursuant to subsections (c) and (d) of this section from any covered transfer received in the twenty-four months prior to the campaign-related disbursement.  If a person makes a campaign-related disbursement that is an electioneering communication regulated by section two-b of this article, then it shall disclose in the filing required by section two-b of this article, all of the information required by section two of this article and all of the information received pursuant to subsections (c) and (d) of this section from any covered transfer received in the twenty-four months prior to the campaign-related disbursement.

(f) Any person who willfully fails to comply with this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than $1,000 and not more than $100,000, or confined in jail for not more than one year, or both fined and confined.

(g) The Secretary of State may promulgate emergency rules and propose legislative rules, in accordance with the provisions of chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, to implement the provisions of this section. and re-letter subsequent sections accordingly.”