Lawmakers and activists in Montpelier have been clamoring for greater campaign finance disclosure since the 2012 general election kicked into full gear. Much of the debate has been over the conservative Super PAC Vermonters First, which bankrolled more than $1 million last election cycle.
Now, Republican Rep. Kurt Wright — the former Burlington mayoral candidate whose campaign manager, Tayt Brooks, founded Vermonters First — is spearheading legislation he says will impose more disclosure requirements on politicians and political organizations.
On Thursday, Wright and 10 legislators — nine Republicans and Democrat Sarah Buxton of Tunbridge — announced their intent to introduce legislation next week that would enhance campaign finance disclosure. The crux of the bill, Wright said, would be new mandatory filing deadlines.
Wright’s bill calls for monthly campaign finance filings after Jan. 15 during an election year and quarterly filings in an off year. Leading up to a primary or general election, filings would be due every two weeks, he said. Super PACs would have to file an additional report within 24 hours if they receive a donation 45 days prior to a primary or general election.
Wright’s bill would also require super PACs, PACs or parties to list a top contributor if he or she provides more than half of all contributions within a six-month period. The bill would force super PACs to disclose their top three contributors if their combined contributions account for more than half of all contributions and if each contribution is above $2,000.
Democratic Sen. Tim Ashe of Burlington, meanwhile, already introduced a bill that would streamline campaign finance reports by allowing for electronic filing. The bill would also impose a $50 penalty for each day that a filing.
Many of these recommendations echo those recently made by Secretary of State Jim Condos and VPIRG executive director Paul Burns.
Burns said while many of Wright’s proposals are “perfectly valid,” he said they don’t go far enough. Burns wants the state to require that top contributors submit a photo id as well.
“The disclosure requirements allow the biggest fat cats to remain, not completely anonymous, but hidden from public view in ways they shouldn’t be,” he said. “We would like to see Vermont law go further and require in those cases where you have single individuals funding more than half of a political action committee’s contributions that actually appear in those ads — take ownership. This is a person trying to influence the outcome of these races.”
Wright said he rejects that proposal.
“That would be really aimed at one particular person,” he said. “That would be the anti-Vermonters First, (or) the anti-Lenore Broughton bill, and that’s not what I’m about. This is moving forward, not looking back.”
Lenore Broughton contributed more than $1 million to Vermonters First.
Wright said the Vermont Attorney General’s Office has advised that a provision requiring photo ids of top contributors would be “very hard to defend.”
Burns would also like to see the state cap contributions for elections at levels commensurate to a position’s reach and responsibility. One such bill that the Senate passed but the House did not take up last year would have limited single-source donations to $500 for representatives, $1,000 for senators, and $2,000 — which the cap is set at now — for statewide and gubernatorial races.
“We really need to re-establish common sense limits on campaign contributions and insist on the best disclosure possible,” Burns said.
Rep. Tom Koch, R-Barre, said while he’s all for more disclosure, he doesn’t support contribution limits.
“People of this state have a right to know who is contributing to campaigns, how much, (and) how the money is being spent,” he said at the press conference. “What they do with that information is their business. I do not propose to regulate how much people can spend or how much they can contribute.”
Koch said he would take Wright’s proposal one step further and mandate that records be submitted electronically.
Electronic filing, however, might not be cheap or fast.
In 2010, then Secretary of State Deb Markowitz commissioned a study of the cost to implement a digital campaign finance system. The project would take three years and more than $1 million to complete, according to the report.
Bob Stannard, a lobbyist who founded Priorities PAC, supports Wright’s legislation.
“I think that anything we can do in a bipartisan way, we need to do in this state,” he said. “Any restrictions we can put on super PACs without finding ourselves in conflict with federal law, Vermont should be willing to do. And I think (late) disclosure after an election is sneaky and not fair play. People should know within 24, 48 or 72 hours who is buying the votes.”
House Majority Leader Willem Jewett, D-Ripton, who attended the press conference said reforming Vermont’s campaign finance system is a priority for House Democrats.
Doc Cloud Digital Finance Reform Report:
