TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation
DATE: August 30, 1996
RE: Senate Kills Electronic FilingToday the California State Senate's Elections Committee killed SB 108/Kopp, a bill that would have required state candidates to file their political disclosure records electronically, and that those records be published on the Internet.
SB 108 was referred to the Senate Elections Committee after it passed the State Assembly two days ago on a strong, bipartisan, 65-4 vote. Had the Senate passed the bill, it would have proceeded to the Governor's desk.
But the bill never made it to the Senate Floor; it was instead held in the Senate Elections Committee for "interim study". This is the same committee that also sent Bruce McPherson's electronic filing bill, AB 1026, to interim study, and defeated Tom Hayden's electronic filing bill, SB 1893, in April.
Only three of the five members of the committee were present for the hearing: the committee's chair, Richard Polanco (a Democrat representing Los Angeles) Henry Mello, (a Democrat representing Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Santa Clara), and Dan Boatwright, (a Democrat representing Alameda and Contra Costa counties). The two Republican members of the committee, Bob Beverly of Los Angeles and Bill Craven, representing Orange and San Diego counties, were both absent during the hearing.
At the committee hearing, the three Democratic senators nit-picked the bill to death, attempting to micro-manage the implementation of this new program. Typically, legislation gives the agencies who will implement the new law some latitude in deciding how to go about it. But in this case, the committee wanted every detail spelled out prior to the bill's passage, despite the fact that the bill requires the Secretary of State to come back to the Legislature several times and report on how the implementation of the new program is going.
On another point, Senator Dan Boatwright said he wondered if, once on the Internet, the campaign finance records would be subject to federal laws, such as the FCC and interstate commerce laws. Although most of us felt fairly certain it wouldn't, there was no qualified attorney in the room who could answer his question, and Boatwright insisted he had to know what the federal law was. Senator Henry Mello objected to the fact that people could download his records and sort out the smaller contributions and then make copies of only his large contributions, which could then be used to mislead people into thinking that he doesn't raise small contributions. (For those interested in reviewing the committee's other objections, I suggest you contact the Senate Elections Committee at (916) 445-2601 and ask them to send you their bill analysis.)
Despite supportive testimony from Senator Kopp, Assembly Member McPherson, representatives from the Secretary of State's office, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, the committee voted 3-0 to send the bill to interim study.
Several of us who watched the hearing found it ironic that, at a time when the Democratic Party's nominee for President talks of building bridges to the future, his own party members in California are holding us back. It was clear that the members of the Senate Elections committee and its staff had tried to think of every conceivable excuse for not passing this bill.
While there were some legitimate concerns raised, those concerns could have been worked out next year, before any of the records would be online in 1998. The Legislature often passes bills that have some loose threads, and goes back the following year to "clean up" those problems. But, unfortunately, once again a political reform bill has been held to a higher standard and a higher level of scrutiny that other types of legislation.
Anyone ready to try an initiative?
Kim Alexander, Executive Director, California Voter Foundation
cvf@netcom.com
916/325-2120
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