LWVMN and Common Cause Minnesota push for campaign finance disclosure bill

The League of Women Voters of Minnesota and Common Cause Minnesota are urging state legislators to support Rep. Ryan Winkler’s campaign finance disclosure bill.

“The state of Minnesota is at a crossroads right now,” said Mike Dean, executive director of Common Cause Minnesota, at a press conference announcing the proposal to Politics in Minnesota. “The upcoming election will determine what direction the state takes. If this legislature fails to act now to address the problems created by Citizens United, it will become more susceptible to the influence of special interest groups.”

The proposed legislation would require disclosure of all contributions and expenditures over $5,000 within 48 hours for all independent expenditure groups. Advertisements over $25,000, made during an election year or that identify a candidate running for election would also be required to give full disclosure of who paid for the ad, how much was spent, who contributed to the group running the ad, the candidate mentioned, how much was spent on each candidate and what medium it ran on. All campaign material over $5,000 would be required to have a disclaimer statement that outlined who paid for the material. Also, Companies would required to inform shareholders what was spent on political expenditures if the contributions exceed $10,000.

“This bill is what we should be doing at a minimum,”  Winkler told Minnesota Public Radio.  “If we have to take something less at some point along the line here before the end of session in order to provide some disclosure, some transparency, some sunlight into these disclosures, it would probably be better than doing nothing.”

Mike Franklin, with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, said Winkler’s proposal goes too far, and he would like to see corporate rules be the same as rules for independent groups.

According to the Star Tribune, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce asked U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson to declare unconstitutional a state law prohibiting corporate political spending.  Chamber lawyer Thomas Boyd told Magnuson that its members may want to advertise, use Internet social media or wage a phone campaign to influence races.

Recently, a conference committee met to discuss proposed legislation in the House that would prevent a public utility from recovering funds used to promote a candidate or ballot question.