Democratic Party chair Jake Perkinson, Speaker of the House Shap Smith, Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell, and Secretary of State Jim Condos unveiled the Democratic edition of campaign finance reform at a press conference held at the Statehouse on Tuesday.
Most of the Democrats’ suggestions fell in step with the campaign finance reform proposal floated by Republican lawmakers on Jan. 17, and though the event was a distinctly Democratic affair, each speaker took care to note that they, as Perkinson put it, “welcomed the current enthusiasm among our Republican brothers and sisters.”
The group of Democrats called for the following reforms:
• Impose more frequent filing requirements. Require PACs and super PACS to disclose contributions and expenditures over $250 within 24 hours during the 45 days leading up to the election.
• Require PACs and super PACs to include the names of individual donors on all ads, if they’ve contributed 25 percent or more of the total money raised.
• Require electronic filing.
• Impose harsher penalties for candidates or entities that fail to meet filing deadlines.
• All PACS must have an in-state agent to field inquiries.
Democrats did foray into new territory with one proposal — Perkinson is pushing to impose disclosure requirements on an “overtly political” organization. The precise definition of “overtly political” has yet to be ironed out, Perkinson said, but he pointed to Campaign for Vermont as one example. The group self-identifies as “nonpartisan,” but Perkison said it “attacked the governor and the Legislature over health care reform” last year, and this type of activity warrants donor disclosure.
House Minority Leader Don Turner said he was pleased to see the Democrats’ proposal echo the main point in the GOP’s plan, and he liked the concept of extending disclosure requirements to a broader range of organizations. But Turner suggested a different group he’d like to see stop operating under the radar in the political realm — Vermont Public Interest Research Group.
Paul Burns, VPIRG executive director, was quick to point out that VPIRG has never been involved in a partisan race. “We assiduously avoid that kind of thing,” Burns said. If the Legislature looks at disclosure requirements for 501(c)4s, “the crux of the matter is whether or not the organization is actually working to elect or defeat candidates,” he said. Any attempt to place disclosure on issue-based advocacy groups not involved in the electoral fray would be an “incredible infringement on the freedom of association and freedom of speech rights of these groups,” Burns added.
Perkinson harped on how outdated Vermont’s current campaign finance system is, alternately calling it “obtuse,” “arcane,” and “antiquated.” Condos, who oversees the reporting, said setting up an electronic filing system is the keystone to all other reforms. Former Secretary of State Deb Markowitz estimated that setting up this system would cost between $600,000 and $1 million.
“You can’t put a cost on making democracy transparent and accessible for everyone,” Condos said. Smith said the Legislature will proceed with caution in light of its poor record with recent IT projects.
Sen. Tim Ashe has introduced a bill that would create an online searchable database of campaign finance reports and require penalties for tardy filers.
Another campaign finance bill will be filed in the Senate by the end of the week. Turner said he and fellow Republican Reps. Kurt Wright and Tom Koch testified in front of the Senate Government Operations Committee last week, and the chair, Sen. Jeanette Wright, plans to introduce a bill consistent with their proposal.
“We don’t really care who gets credit. Let’s fix it. I don’t care if it’s a Senate Gov Ops [Government Operation Committee] bill or a Kurt Wright bill,” Turner said.
The Democratic lawmakers said the past election cycle was a wake-up call, and they are optimistic that the Legislature has the impetus to pass a campaign finance law this year. The effort will mark the body’s fifth attempt to bolster the state’s campaign finance laws since 2007. The most recent attempt languished in the Senate last year.
So far absent from both parties’ public conversations about campaign finance is a call to limit direct contributions to candidates. Vermont’s strict limits were overturned by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2006, which muddled the legal clarity surrounding the current default limit of $2,000.
