Historic Victory for Transparency as California DISCLOSE ACT, AB 1648, Passes Assembly Floor

SACRAMENTO - AB 1648, the groundbreaking California DISCLOSE Act, passed the full Assembly yesterday by a solid majority of 50 to 26, moving on to the State Senate.

Nationally, Super PACs that hide their funders have already vowed to spend over one billion dollars this election on the Presidential and Congressional races, most of it in the form of deceptive attack ads and with none of the ads showing who really pays for them. According to the state Fair Political Practices Commission, $150 million has already been raised by campaigns for and against statewide ballot measures in California just this year.

Authored by Assemblymember Brownley (D-Oak Park) and sponsored by the California Clean Money Campaign, AB 1648 will require political television, radio, and print ads to clearly identify their three largest funders of $10,000 or more with their names and logos so voters know who is actually paying for them. These requirements will apply to both ads for or against ballot measures and independent expenditure ads for or against candidates.

"The public has made it clear in polls that they want to know the identity of the financial backers of campaign ads," Assemblymember Brownley said. "We must stop allowing special interests to hide their political spending. This measure will cast a bright light on their activities. That is why they are trying so hard to defeat it."

AB 1648 would place the California DISCLOSE Act on the November 2014 for the voters to decide. Californians from all major political parties have overwhelmingly stated their support in polls for public disclosure of ballot initiative sponsors and their major donors. A Field Poll late last year indicated 84 percent of registered California voters favored legislation to increase public disclosure requirements of initiative sponsors, including 78 percent of Republicans, 86 percent of Democrats and 88 percent of Independents.

"Voters are sick and tired of being misled about who pays for political ads by fine print disclosures with made-up names," said Trent Lange, President of the California Clean Money Campaign. "The California DISCLOSE Act would be the strongest disclosure on political ads in the nation, which is why there is a growing movement of Californians demanding that the legislature place it on the ballot."

AB 1648 is endorsed by the League of Women Voters of California, California Alliance for Retired Americans, California Clean Money Campaign, California Common Cause, California Church IMPACT, the California League of Conservation Voters, CALPIRG, Consumer Federation of California, Courage Campaign, CREDO Action, the Green Chamber of Commerce, the Greenlining Institute, Progressives United, Public Citizen, Redwood Empire Business Association, Sierra Club California, and over 300 other organizations and leaders.

Over 90,000 Californians have signed petitions urging passage of the California DISCLOSE Act through CREDO Action, Progressives United, SignOn.Org, and hundreds of California Clean Money Campaign and other coalition partner volunteers across California.

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The California Clean Money Campaign is a non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to lessening the unfair influence of Big Money on election campaigns. For further information, visit www.CAclean.org.