ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS KILL LAW TO FIX CAMPAIGN FUNDRAISING LOOPHOLE
With the mighty rallying cry “stop the harassment of corporate America”, Assemblymember Ray Haynes rallied the Assembly Republican Caucus to kill a real election reform law (AB 938 Umberg, D-Santa Ana) that would close a fundraising loophole for ballot measures.
The law required a 2/3 vote of the Assembly and amended the Political Reform Act by requiring certain campaign committees to file an electronic report within 10 business days of making contributions or independent expenditures of $10,000 or more to support or oppose the qualification or passage of a single state ballot measure.
In the past few months we have seen the Small Business Action Committee exploit this campaign finance loophole to great effect by essentially skirting current election laws and accepting unlimited contributions from unknown sources and then transferring these contributions to the Coalition for Employee Rights – an initiative committee formed to quality a statewide initiative.
Mr. Haynes attacked this measure as an attack on the “power of the people” designed to quash the initiative process. Huh? How would shining some light on these shadow committees that launder contributions to help qualify statewide initiatives kill the initiative process? Maybe the citizens of California deserve to know who is really behind these initiatives while they are in circulation and not six months later.
Small Business Action Committee – PAC ID# 1270683
Contributions to Coalition for Employee Rights:
3/24/05 $ 75,000
4/06/05 $200,000 4/18/05 $ 35,000
4/29/05 $ 20,000
5/03/05 $225,000
TOTAL $555,000
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The law required a 2/3 vote of the Assembly and amended the Political Reform Act by requiring certain campaign committees to file an electronic report within 10 business days of making contributions or independent expenditures of $10,000 or more to support or oppose the qualification or passage of a single state ballot measure.
In the past few months we have seen the Small Business Action Committee exploit this campaign finance loophole to great effect by essentially skirting current election laws and accepting unlimited contributions from unknown sources and then transferring these contributions to the Coalition for Employee Rights – an initiative committee formed to quality a statewide initiative.
Mr. Haynes attacked this measure as an attack on the “power of the people” designed to quash the initiative process. Huh? How would shining some light on these shadow committees that launder contributions to help qualify statewide initiatives kill the initiative process? Maybe the citizens of California deserve to know who is really behind these initiatives while they are in circulation and not six months later.
Small Business Action Committee – PAC ID# 1270683
Contributions to Coalition for Employee Rights:
3/24/05 $ 75,000
4/06/05 $200,000 4/18/05 $ 35,000
4/29/05 $ 20,000
5/03/05 $225,000
TOTAL $555,000
# # #
posted by Roger Salazar & Andrew Acosta at 1:03 PM
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