A bill that would require campaign-finance reports to be submitted in digital form to the secretary of state failed to pass in the Arkansas House on Thursday, but a bill placing campaign contribution limits on certain political advertising by outside groups passed.
House Bill 1233 by Rep. Jana Della Rosa, R-Rogers, would have required campaign reports to be filed online. The proposal would have required changes in Arkansas Ethics Commission rules, so for it to pass, it needed the approval of two-thirds of House members, or 67 representatives.
The bill failed 48-33, after an almost 30-minute debate.
Della Rosa argued that HB1233 would put Arkansas' campaign-reporting requirements in line with laws in dozens of other states where candidates for statewide and district offices must put their campaign-finance reports in an electronic format that can be easily researched and analyzed by the public.
Currently, candidates in Arkansas are only required to submit paper reports, which can be hundreds of pages long.
The bill would not have required local or county candidates to file their reports electronically.
"I didn't realize this when I started this, but I think one of the hardest things to do in this building is to get people to change their own behavior," Della Rosa said after several representatives expressed concerns that they would not be able to file on time if the law passed.
"I realize that's what I'm asking everybody in this room to do, but I'm asking you to do it for a very good reason. We do not have campaign-finance transparency in Arkansas today."
Opponents argued that some areas of the state do not have enough Internet bandwidth capability to guarantee that something as serious as campaign-finance reports can be delivered by deadline. They also argued that it would be easier for mistakes to happen and result in more Ethics Commission actions.
Meanwhile, HB1425, by Rep. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, passed 56-14 and now heads to the Senate.
The bill would subject political advertisements coordinated with but not financed by a candidate to campaign contribution limits. The bill defines the ads in question as ones where the "only reasonable conclusion to be drawn from the presentation and content of the communication is that it is intended to influence the outcome of an election."
The groups that pay for those advertisements would be limited to spending $2,000, because the ads would be considered in-kind contributions under the bill. The legislation would apply only to radio and television ads, Tucker said.
The bill was amended earlier this week to drop a second provision that would have required the buyers of those radio and television ads that name candidates to disclose their identities and the identities of donors that paid for the electioneering activity.
The legislation would prohibit a type of campaign ad used in the 2014 attorney general's race that resulted in an unsuccessful ethics complaint against Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. The Ethics Commission dismissed the complaint because it said the ad hadn't explicitly asked viewers to vote for Rutledge.
In that ad, Rutledge appeared on camera and told voters to support her in her fight against government intrusion from Washington, D.C. The ad was paid for by the Republican Attorneys General Association, a national group that spent more than $300,000 to run the ad.
If the bill passes, similar coordinated ads would be subject to the $2,000 contribution limit.
Metro on 03/27/2015