The Legislature’s opening gambit is a campaign finance proposal that may do more harm than good, according to a watchdog group.
A conference committee has approved legislation that would raise limits on the amount of money political parties can accept. The bill is up for action on Thursday and Friday.
Under current law, the limit on party donations is now $2,000. The cap would be $10,000 from a single source or a political action committee under the new proposal. In addition, a national political party can contribute up to $60,000 to a state party.
The much larger cap — the Senate and House had approved $3,000 and $5,000 caps respectively — was arrived at in conference committee.
For the first time, parties could, in turn, amass large sums through this new vehicle and give unlimited contribution amounts to any candidate for the Legislature or statewide office.
In addition, the amount corporations and individuals can give directly to statewide candidates and political action committees is doubled from $2,000 to $4,000. Meanwhile, the amount legislative candidates can receive from an individual source has been reduced from $2,000 total over two years to $1,000 for House candidates and $1,500 for Senate candidates.
Democrats say they want to give more power to political parties. They fear that parties will be left behind in the fundraising arms race as Super PACs and outside groups, which are protected under federal precedent, spend limitless amounts of money through independent expenditures on advertising for candidates. Because of recent federal court decisions, a cap on independent expenditures would have led to a legal challenge. The new rules would give parties more money and more sway in Vermont elections, state representatives said.
More stringent reporting requirements were rejected. The number of times candidates must file a report with the Secretary of State’s office would go up from seven to nine times over the course of a two year election cycle. House and Senate candidates that raise more than $500 would have to report on fundraising for every deadline.
Paul Burns, the executive director of VPIRG, which has lobbied for campaign finance reforms, is disappointed with the bill. “We had high hopes last year this would finally be the time to pass meaningful campaign finance reform, and this bill is not it,” Burns said. “It’s a bill with significantly higher limits and modest increases in disclosure and that doesn’t make a strong campaign finance bill.”
Giving parties the unfettered ability to give unlimited amounts to candidates just ups the ante, Burns said.
“It is the arms race argument that the best answer is to allow unlimited contributions from parties, wealthy individuals or corporations,” Burns said. “It all serves to diminish the standing and voice of ordinary citizens with their elected officials.”
The best way to counteract the Super PAC phenomenon, Burns said, is better disclosure. He advocates for a law that would require major contributors to appear in ads.
Burns says he was also disturbed to see that the conference committee did not take the recommendations of the Senate and House for party caps, but instead doubled the amount on the table, bringing the limit to $10,000.
“In terms of what individuals and corporations can give for statewide office, that level was increased to $4,000 from $2,000,” Burns said. “Very few Vermonters can ever imagine giving $4,000 to a political candidate. This is really a benefit for very wealthy individuals and corporations.”
Burns likes a provision in the bill that doubles the amount of money available for publicly financed campaigns.
If S.82 passes, it will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015, after the next election cycle.
This is the fourth time the Senate has taken up campaign finance reform since 2007. Two previous attempts were vetoed by Republican Gov. Jim Douglas; a third bill was never taken up by the House.
In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Vermont’s 1997 campaign finance law.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:32 a.m. Jan. 8.