Most attention given putative new laws passed in the waning
moments of this year??™s legislative session in
Sacramento has gone to items like a
“sanctuary state†compromise
making California safer for non-criminal undocumented
immigrants and measures to move the state??™s next
presidential primary up into early March.
But the one bill with the most potential to improve this
state??™s politics is the long-sought
“DISCLOSE Act,†which ??" if
Gov. Brown signs it before an Oct. 15 deadline ??" could do
more than any modern measure to clean up
California??™s money-dominated initiative
process.
This bill “will fundamentally change how
campaign financing is disclosed,†said its
latest sponsor, Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo, the
No. 2-ranking Democrat in the Legislature??™s lower
house.
It just might do that. The bill requires ads for ballot
propositions and independent expenditure ads for and
against candidates to identify their top three funders,
with no one able to hide behind phony names like
“Californians for Purity,â€
or anything of that sort. The idea is to identify people
and organizations actually trying to exert influence,
possibly causing some to downsize their contributions if
they don??™t want to be exposed as leading
donors.
If Brown signs it, this will let voters know exactly who is
trying to influence their decisions. From the
“who,†it??™s usually
only a short distance to discern the
“why,†which could then see
voters cast their most educated ballots ever. In short,
this proposed law could make California politics not only
more transparent than ever before, but also might go far
toward cleaning up the state??™s
special-interest-driven politics.
Voters will know, for example, when industrialist Eli
Broad, who has financed many charter school backers in
local elections, is at work. They??™ll also know when
teachers unions ??" which often oppose charter schools ??"
are the biggest supporters of candidates aiming to feather
the nests of their members.
Brown has long claimed to favor transparency in politics
and government, but has not always acted accordingly. Yes,
he helped write the state??™s Political Reform Act,
passed as an initiative in 1974 while he ran for governor
for the first time. That measure not only created the Fair
Political Practices Commission, which polices campaign
spending, but also imposed spending limits (later tossed by
the courts), restricted what lobbyists can give to
officials and banned anonymous campaign donations of more
than $100.
But lately Brown has been secretive about some of his
communications with state officials on utility rate cases
and other big-money issues. With only about a year left in
office, if he wants to be remembered as a good-government
advocate, rather than a transparency obstacle, he must sign
the DISCLOSE Act. Unlike his handling of the sanctuary
state bill, Brown has not yet indicated whether
he??™ll sign or veto this one. His decision here will
reveal a lot about his true priorities ??" whether he
favors voters and consumers or the big donors who often
want anonymity.
It??™s true the measure could have been better than
it is. It could have demanded that disclosures of donors be
made in print equal in size to the largest anywhere else in
an ad. Instead, the meaning of the vague words
“clearly and prominently,â€
will no doubt be litigated for years if Brown signs.
Similarly, the original goals of this plan were to expose
the largest contributors to candidates. That went by the
boards during the legislative process, but plenty of major
improvements remain.
What??™s more, legislative passage of the DISCLOSE
Act was pretty bipartisan, with every Assembly Democrat who
voted saying yes and five Republicans from swing districts
joining them.
Said Trent Lange, president of the California Clean Money
Campaign, who has pushed the DISCLOSE Act for almost a
decade, “We??™ve never been
closer, anywhere in the country, to shining a light on dark
money by making it illegal for voters to be misled about
who is truly paying for ballot measure
ads.â€
It??™s up to Brown now, and what he does on arguably
the most important bill to pass the Legislature in years
will go a long way toward defining how he??™ll be
remembered.