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Money & Influence 08.28.2018

California lawmakers shelve controversial bill that would have raised campaign contribution limits

A controversial proposal to allow state legislative leaders to accept bigger campaign checks for their favored candidates was sidelined by lawmakers for the year on Monday after it failed to garner sufficient support in the state Senate.

Money & Influence 08.20.2018

Defeat Sacramento legislative leaders’ latest shenanigans

Rarely are power grabs as transparent as Assembly Bill 84. Introduced by Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo, the bill would allow legislative leaders to raise and spend much more campaign money than currently allowed. We urge the state Senate to vote it down.

Money & Influence 08.19.2018

Legislative leaders want to milk more campaign money

“AB 84 would be the biggest rollback of California’s campaign finance law in at least a decade,” Nicolas Heidorn of California Common Cause told the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee before it voted to approve the measure last week.

Money & Influence 08.18.2018

An unseemly legislative power grab

The bill’s supporters are touting AB 84 as a transparency and accountability measure because it would require more frequent disclosures by campaign committees. While we would like to see more frequent campaign disclosures, we are not fooled. Transparency is nothing more than the sweet coating to disguise the bitter taste of a power grab.

Money & Influence 08.17.2018

Thumbs Down: Just what politics needs. More money.

Raise your hand if you think money plays too big a role in politics. We may be naive, but we wouldn’t be surprised if a few officeholders out there are holding their hands in the air, because they’d like to spend less time with their palms out. It’s expensive to communicate with voters. Mail and advertising cost a lot of money, and legislative candidates can burn a lot of fuel getting around geographically large districts.

Money & Influence 08.14.2018

California Democratic Party and open-government groups fight proposal to lift contribution limits for legislative leaders

Faced with opposition from the California Democratic Party and open-government advocates, divided state lawmakers advanced a bill Tuesday that would increase the amount of campaign money that can be accepted by Democratic and Republican legislative leaders. The proposal approved Tuesday by a 3-2 vote of the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee would allow partisan caucuses in the Legislature to accept campaign contributions of $36,000 from individual sources for state races, up from the current limit of $4,400. The bill would also allow the caucus committees to make unlimited contributions to state candidates and accept unlimited funds for independent expenditures not coordinated with favored candidates. “AB 84 would be the biggest rollback of California’s campaign finance law in at least a decade,” Nicolas Heidorn of California Common Cause told the panel.

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