Campaign Finance Overview 2008
Public Financing of Campaigns for the General Assembly: Cross-filed bills (Senator Pinsky, Delegate Cardin) will be introduced to establish a voluntary system to finance legislative campaigns. Public financing has been a League priority for several years. A bill passed the House of Delegates and EHEA in 2006. No action was taken by the House in 2007 as advocacy efforts focused on the Senate. EHEA passed a bill, which fell one vote short on the Senate Floor. Our advocacy efforts in 2008 will, once again, focus on the Senate.
Other Bills Expected: We also expect that a bill will again be introduced to plug a loophole in current law which can be used by Limited Liability Companies to avoid contribution limits.
And, we expect that the Montgomery County delegation will introduce a bill which would allow the County to enact campaign finance laws for local contests that are more stringent than those of Maryland. The bill would include authority to publicly fund campaigns for County offices. The League supported a similar bill in 2007.
Bills Introduced as of January 19:
Delegate Kaiser, et al., have introduced HB 138, Ballot Issue – Committee -Additional Campaign Finance Reports . . . , which will require that ballot issue committees file reports on or before the Fourth Friday Preceding a General Election. HB 138 has been referred to W&M.
Delegate Barve, et al., have introduced HB 153, Campaign Finance – Slate - Disbursements which will allow the Chairman of a slate, in addition to the Treasurer, to make disbursements.