State Senator Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) has proposed legislation that would require the disclosure of the donor sources of contributions made by non-profit organizations to political campaigns. The law is intended to address the situation created when an out-of-state non-profit contributed $11 million in the final days of the election to a PAC supporting Proposition 32 and opposing Proposition 30. The California Fair Political Practices Commission had to sue to get the list of donors and the names were not revealed until the Supreme Court ruled on the case.
The Orange County Register’s Brian Joseph reports:
To avoid future problems like this, Orange County state Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, has proposed new legislation that would require donors to so-called “dark money” groups like Americans for Responsible Leadership to reveal themselves automatically if the nonprofits are brand new or are already engaged in political activities.
Working with Fair Political Practices Commission staff, Correa has crafted Senate Bill 27, which would apply existing state campaign disclosure laws to nonprofit donations if the nonprofit is less than two years old, gave more than $500,000 in its first contribution to a California-regulated campaign, or has been giving donations to California campaigns in the last calendar year or four previous years.