State GOP leaders ask for clarified ethics rule

LITTLE ROCK — State GOP Chairman Doyle Webb of Benton and Pulaski County Republican Committee Treasurer Russell Reddoch of Little Rock on Friday asked the state Ethics Commission about the meaning of a commission rule governing covering reporting by political action committees. They said the rule is ambiguous because "aggregate" isn't defined.

A political action committee is required to register with the secretary of state within 15 days after accepting contributions during a calendar year that exceed $500 in the aggregate. It's required to file a quarterly report with the secretary of state within 15 days after the end of each quarter. The reports are required to include "the total amount of contributions received and the total amount of contributions made during the filing period" and the cumulative totals, and the current balance of funds. They are to include "the name and address of each person that made a contributionor contributions to the committee that exceeded five hundred dollars ... in the aggregate, the contributor's place of business, employer, occupation, the date of the contribution, the amount contributed, and the total contributed for the year."

"Let's say you give $200 in the first quarter, and you give $200 in the second quarter, and then you give $200 in the third quarter, at that point do you need to report that you have exceeded $500 for the year or by the fact that you stayed under $500 for each of the quarters you don't have to report?" Webb told reporters.

"We support disclosure," he said. "We just want to be sure the law is clarified, so the public is on notice of that and that someone couldn't come back later and say there is an ambiguity here in which they would not have to report it."

Graham Sloan, the commission's executive director, said the rule parallels Arkansas Code Annotated 7-6-215. He said the commission has interpreted the rule to provide the greatest public disclosure, and it might need to be clarified in a future legislative session.

The committee is "required to disclose somebody by name when [the committee has] received $500 in the aggregate from [that person]," he said. "If they gave them $499 one quarter and $2 the next quarter, then we would interpret the law that the political action committee would in fact need to list the name of the person because they've given them more than $500 in the calendar year. Once somebody has given $500, you keep listing them by name every time you gave them any more money that year."