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 AB 510 (AMMIANO) Page 2 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. AB 510 (AMMIANO) Page 3 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 AB 510 (AMMIANO) Page 4 AB 510 (AMMIANO) Page 5