Senator Ihara’s floor speech on campaign finance

Senator Ihara gave the following speech on the floor on March 3, 2010:

Madame President. I rise in support of Senate Bill 2251, but with reservations.

First, I’d like to note that the bill description conceals what it actually does. The description says it “updates, organizes, and clarifies current campaign financing laws”, but the bill actually changes the current law in several important ways.

SB 2251 deletes an existing provision that limits corporate contributions to PACs at an aggregate amount of $1,000. The bill also deletes the requirement that all corporations must register as a political action committee.

While this bill is consistent with last year’s “Tavares” appeals court ruling. The ruling allows corporations to make direct contributions to candidates – but this bill does not provide for any reporting requirement.

The purpose of our campaign finance law is to provide transparency so the public can easily learn the funding sources of campaigns. For many years until the Tavares case, voters could conveniently see the expenditures corporations made to influence elections. But now there’s the cumbersome task of looking up dozens of candidate reports to tally how much a corporation contributes.

I’m also troubled by section 11-dd on page 50 that allows 10 donors to contribute up to $500 at a political event without having to record donor names and amounts donated. This would allow one donor to give $400 and 9 others $10 each – all anonymously. I believe allowing these anonymous donations can only cause unnecessary mischief.

My other concern is allowing Campaign Spending Commissioners to participate in political party activities. This would allow these commissioners to have ongoing political relationships with the people they regulate. I believe this is not acceptable.

Finally, I note that SB 2251 triples the amount of campaign funds that can be donated to charitable causes, in particular community groups and public schools and libraries. Currently—for senators, up to $4,000 in campaign funds can be contributed to community causes. This bill would increase this amount to $12,000. [note: current law actually allows senators up to $8,000 in donations to community groups]

A decade ago, there was no limit. Legislators and candidates could donate tens of thousands of dollars to community groups from their campaign war chests. But news stories reported on numerous donations to community groups made by well-funded and well-meaning public officials. The donations were perceived by many that they improperly influenced nonprofit groups to support the campaigns of these generous candidates. Public trust was harmed then, and I worry about – again allowing abuses that originally led to today’s current limit.

As this bill is considered in conference, I would like to request that the bill’s section 1 purpose statement be amended to include the above changes being made to current law. This would more accurately state what the bill actually does.

I also request that the original declaration of policy be reinserted in the bill as proposed by the Campaign Spending Commission. It states: “The purpose of this part is to ensure the integrity and transparency of the campaign finance process. Integrity is essential to promote the public’s confidence in government. Transparency provides disclosure of contributions and expenditures to assure the public is fully informed.” This language was deleted and I request that it be reinserted during conference.

Thank you Madame President..