BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó






                           SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS 
                            AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
                             Senator Alex Padilla, Chair


          BILL NO:   AB 510               HEARING DATE: 6/17/14
          AUTHOR:    AMMIANO              ANALYSIS BY:  Darren Chesin
          AMENDED:   5/28/14 
          FISCAL:    YES
          
                                        SUBJECT

           Political Reform Act: advertisement disclosures
           
                                     DESCRIPTION  
          
           Existing law  , pursuant to the Political Reform Act (PRA),  
          requires a committee that makes an expenditure of $5,000 or more  
          to an individual for his or her appearance in an advertisement  
          to support or oppose the qualification, passage, or defeat of a  
          ballot measure, to do both of the following:

           File a report within 10 days of the expenditure identifying  
            the measure, date of the expenditure, name of the recipient,  
            and amount expended; and,

           Include the following statement in the advertisement in highly  
            visible roman font shown continuously if the advertisement  
            consists of printed or televised material, or spoken in a  
            clearly audible format if the advertisement is a radio  
            broadcast or telephone message:

          "[Spokesperson's name] is being paid by this campaign or its  
            donors."

           Existing law  requires a committee to disclose the following  
          information on a periodic campaign statement for each person to  
          whom the committee made an expenditure of $100 or more during  
          the period covered by the statement:

           The name and street address of the person;

           The amount of each expenditure; and,

           A brief description of the consideration for which each  
            expenditure was made.










           This bill  additionally requires an advertisement relating to a  
          ballot measure to include a specified disclaimer if it includes  
          an appearance by an individual who is paid to appear in the  
          advertisement and it communicates that the individual is a  
          member of an occupation that requires licensure or specialized  
          training.  Specifically, this bill:  

          1.Requires a committee that makes an expenditure of any amount  
            to an individual for his or her appearance in an advertisement  
            that supports or opposes the qualification, passage, or defeat  
            of a ballot measure, and that states or suggests that the  
            individual is a member of an occupation that requires  
            licensure, certification, or other specialized documented  
            training as a prerequisite to engage in that occupation, to do  
            both of the following:

           File a report within 10 days of the expenditure identifying  
            the measure, date of the expenditure, name and occupation of  
            the recipient, and amount expended; and,

           Include the following statement in the advertisement in highly  
            visible roman font shown continuously if the advertisement  
            consists of printed or televised material, or spoken in a  
            clearly audible format if the advertisement is a radio  
            broadcast or telephone message:

          "Persons portraying members of an occupation in this  
            advertisement are compensated spokespersons not necessarily  
            employed in those occupations."

          1.Provides that a committee may omit this disclosure statement  
            if all of the following are satisfied with respect to each  
            individual identified in the report filed for that  
            advertisement:

           The occupation of the recipient identified in the report is  
            substantially similar to the occupation portrayed in the  
            advertisement.

           The committee maintains credible documentation of the  
            appropriate license, certification, or other training as  
            evidence that the individual may engage in the occupation  
            identified in the report and portrayed in the advertisement  
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            and makes that documentation immediately available to the Fair  
            Political Practices Commission (FPPC) upon request.

                                      BACKGROUND  
          
           Existing "Paid Spokesperson" Requirements  :  In 2000, the  
          Legislature passed and the Governor signed SB 1223 (Burton), Ch.  
          102, Statutes of 2000, which became Proposition 34 on the  
          November 2000 General Election Ballot.  The proposition, which  
          passed with 60 percent of the vote, made numerous substantive  
          changes to the PRA, including enacting new campaign disclosure  
          requirements and establishing new campaign contribution limits.   
          One of the provisions of Proposition 34 established new  
          reporting and disclaimer requirements for ballot measure  
          advertisements that featured paid spokespeople.  Those  
          requirements apply only when a committee makes an expenditure of  
          $5,000 or more to the individual appearing in the advertisement.  
           

          Additionally, any entity that qualifies as a "committee" under  
          the PRA is required to itemize all expenditures of $100 or more  
          on the periodic campaign disclosure reports that it is required  
          to file.  To the extent that a committee paid a spokesperson  
          $100 or more to appear in an advertisement supporting or  
          opposing a ballot measure, that information is already required  
          to be reported on the committee's campaign disclosure  
          statements.

                                       COMMENTS  
          
           1.According to the Author  :  Many Californians today are  
            frustrated, feeling that political choices they are offered  
            give them no real choice at all.  California voters oppose the  
            transfer of their sovereignty to "supranational organizations"  
            that create non-transparency while sending their message to  
            the people.  Campaign commercials use the professional status  
            of commercial participants as spokespersons in an attempt to  
            sway the opinion of the voters by giving the viewer the  
            impression that professionals in that field may be better  
            informed than they.  These spokespersons, be they doctors,  
            engineers, or other professionals are often compensated by the  
            campaign for their participation in the commercial with the  
            audience left knowing no better.

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          Current law does not protect voters from being deceived in  
            campaign commercials.  For example, an individual wearing a  
            white coat, standing in front of a hospital, and portraying a  
            doctor, could state that they support smoking cigarettes and  
            that cigarettes have zero health concerns.  The viewer will  
            assume that the individual speaking is a doctor and using this  
            deception, the campaign commercial can trick voters.  The  
            current law does not relate to these actions of deception.   
            This bill will remedy the possibility of deception by  
            requiring a disclaimer or proof of the spokespersons  
            profession.  The affected would be the campaign committees  
            producing campaign commercials. 

           2.No Threshold  :  This bill does not establish a threshold for  
            the reporting and disclaimer requirements that it imposes-a  
            committee that made an expenditure of any amount of money to a  
            person for that person's appearance in a ballot measure  
            advertisement would be required to comply with the reporting  
            and disclaimer requirements.  That appears to be the case even  
            if the only expenditure made by the committee was to reimburse  
            the spokesperson for his or her costs in travelling to the  
            location where the campaign advertisement is being produced,  
            or for food and beverages provided to the spokesperson during  
            the production of the advertisement.

                                     PRIOR ACTION
           
          Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee:  5-1
          Assembly Appropriations Committee: 12-2
          Assembly Floor:                         58-16
           
                                      POSITIONS  

          Sponsor: Author

           Support: League of Women Voters of California
                    Public Citizen
                    Sierra Club California
                    
           Oppose:  None received




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