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Sources of Michigan’s Dark Money Set to Remain Hidden
The bill will affect the 2014 elections in Michigan in two crucial ways. First, the bill doubles the maximum allowable contributions to candidates. Previously, statewide candidates could not accept donations from individuals in excess of $3,400, state senate candidates could not accept donations above $1,000, and state House candidates were limited to $500. Those limits are now $6,800, $2,000, and $1,000, respectively. These limits are not set in stone, however, as the legislation also included provisions coming into effect in 2019 which will index those limits to inflation, meaning those limits should gradually rise over time.
The effects of these changes could be sizable, but may pale in comparison to the effects of the changes that were not made. The bill Snyder signed included the provision added via amendment in the State Senate which would block the Secretary of State’s proposal to require electioneering communications groups disclose their donors under the provisions of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act. In approving this change and blocking disclosure, Snyder directly reversed himself from an earlier white paper released by his campaign. That document read, “All electioneering communications – broadcast, printed, and telephonic – that feature the name or image of a candidate for public office or ballot initiative should be considered expenditures subject to appropriate disclosure requirements.”
Under the terms of the new legislation, such groups will now be required to end electioneering communications or robo-calling with an acknowledgement including the name of the group. They will not, however, be considered expenditures under the Michigan Campaign Finance Act, and thus will face no requirement to disclose donors. This isn’t a theoretical matter either: the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, after examining only television ads targeting statewide offices and high court races, estimated that there was more than $70 million in unaccountable electioneering communications between 2000 and 2010.
Reposted from Follow The Money – Jan 9, 2014 by Zach Holden, shared using Creative Commons Attribution
Source: http://freedetroit.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-sun-never-rises-sources-of.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sources-michigans-dark-money-set-remain-hidden
What else should we expect from the first shariah state?