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Dear Senator Allen: On behalf of the City of Oakland, I am writing in strong support of Senate Bill 1107 (Allen) The Political Reform Act of 1974, which would restore much needed control to local governments and the state to enact new options for election campaign funding.

Dear Senator Allen, On behalf of California Common Cause and our members, I am writing with a letter of support for Senate Bill 1107, which would restore control to local governments and the state to enact new options for election campaign funding.

Dear Chair Allen, The undersigned organizations write to support Senate Bill 1349, which would direct the Secretary of State to modernize Cal-Access, California’s online system for campaign finance filing and disclosure. This necessary upgrade would make the system more reliable, better inform voters, and simplify compliance by campaigns. Modernizing Cal-Access would increase the transparency of campaign financing without requiring new disclosure rules, simply by providing easier public access to the information that campaigns already report.

Dear Senator Hertzberg, On behalf of California Common Cause and our members, I am writing with a letter of support for Senate Bill 1349, which would direct the Secretary of State to modernize Cal-Access, the online system for campaign finance filing and disclosure. Thank you for your leadership on this bill.

The Supreme Court has held that campaign contribution limits are a legitimate means of “deal[ing] with the reality or appearance of corruption inherent in a system permitting unlimited financial contributions.” Campaign contribution limits help to ensure that candidates are not overly reliant on a few wealthy donors to finance their campaigns. With a cap on individual contributions, candidates must also build a broader base of smaller contributions to be viable. As of 2014, the federal government and 38 states had enacted campaign contribution limits. Thirty-four states have also enacted local campaign contribution limits.

Dear Senator Hill, On behalf of California Common Cause and our members, I am writing with a letter of support for Senate Bill 21. SB 21 requires that nonprofits that make more than $10,000 in travel gifts to elected officials, or more than $5,000 to any one elected official, disclose the donor who paid for this gift and requires all officials to disclose the destination of any travel gifts they received in their annual Statement of Economic Interest.