SB 52 Defeated — But the California DISCLOSE Act will fight on

Dear Clean Money and California DISCLOSE Act supporters,

We have disappointing news — though with an encouraging development for the future.

Senators Leno and Hill and the California Clean Money Campaign will not be pursuing an Assembly floor vote this year on SB 52, the California DISCLOSE Act (Leno-Hill). Opposition from California organized labor leaders made passage of the DISCLOSE Act this session with a 2/3 vote extremely unlikely and even called into question its ability to get a vote at all.

While we worked ambitiously and diligently with organized labor for over a year to address their concerns, those efforts were not successful in persuading them. You can see our response to the labor opposition here, and an article about the situation on Salon.com here.

The encouraging news is that not only have SB 52 authors Senator Leno and Hill committed to future work with the California Clean Money Campaign on the California DISCLOSE Act, but Speaker Toni Atkins has, as well. You can read more about this important development in Senator Leno's press release here.

The California Clean Money Campaign and other supporters of the California DISCLOSE Act will regroup to determine our next steps. There are a number of options and we will actively seek the input of not only our legislative champions and coalition partners, but of the people that that made our extraordinary progress against tremendous odds possible -- activists like you.

And make no mistake, our progress has been extraordinary. David Dayen in the Salon article called our campaign "the biggest post-Citizens United effort to alter how campaigns are run in America". And thanks to the incredible grassroots movement that has grown behind it, SB 52 passed five legislative hurdles and came within two legislative votes and 24 hours of being sent to the Governor's desk.

No comprehensive measure to require political ads to clearly and prominently show their top original funders rather than letting them show the names of misleading front groups has ever gotten this far anywhere in the country.

The coalition behind the California DISCLOSE Act is extraordinary. As Libby Sholes of California Church Impact said, "You have probably put together the single-largest coalition citizens have ever seen in California".

Just take a look at the more than 400 organizations and leaders that endorsed SB 52. Add in the more than 78,000 Californians who have signed petitions for SB 52 and the 18 newspapers that editorialized in favor of it, and you can see how powerful this movement has become.

But as our indefatigable board member and volunteer coordinator Nancy Neff said, you can tell how powerful an effect legislation will have by how hard it is to pass.

Thank you...

We can not thank Senator Leno enough for being such an extraordinary leader for an issue that he correctly says is "so fundamental to our democracy". Senator Hill as well. But most importantly, we cannot possibly thank enough all of the thousands of you who have volunteered and contributed in other ways to empower this movement.

The California DISCLOSE Act did not quite pass this legislative session. But our movement continues, and it will be back. And with your help, and the help of others, we will succeed. Our democracy depends on it.

If you're on Facebook, be sure to:

Like the California DISCLOSE Act page on Facebook and share its posts.

and then like the California Clean Money Campaign on Facebook and share its posts.

You can also follow Clean Money on Twitter and retweet our tweets.

We'll keep you informed on ways you'll be able to help decide the next steps for the California DISCLOSE Act. In the meantime, stay tuned for other ways you can join the California Clean Money Campaign and our partners in fighting the undue influence of Big Money in politics.

— Trent Lange and rest of the Board of Directors of the California Clean Money Campaign