BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 510| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 510 Author: Ammiano (D) Amended: 5/28/14 in Senate Vote: 27 SENATE ELECTIONS & CONSTIT. AMEND. COMMITTEE : 4-0, 6/17/14 AYES: Padilla, Hancock, Jackson, Pavley NO VOTE RECORDED: Anderson SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8 ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 58-16, 1/30/14 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Political Reform Act of 1974: advertisement disclosures SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill 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. ANALYSIS : 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/her appearance in an advertisement to support or oppose the qualification, passage, or defeat of a ballot measure, to do both of the following: CONTINUED AB 510 Page 2 1. File a report within 10 days of the expenditure identifying the measure, date of the expenditure, name of the recipient, and amount expended; and 2. 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: 1. The name and street address of the person; 2 The amount of each expenditure; and 3 A brief description of the consideration for which each expenditure was made. This bill: 1. Requires a committee that makes an expenditure of any amount to an individual for his/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: A. 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 B. Include the following statement in the advertisement in highly visible roman font shown continuously if the advertisement consists of printed or televised material, CONTINUED AB 510 Page 3 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." 2. 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: A. The occupation of the recipient identified in the report is substantially similar to the occupation portrayed in the advertisement. B. 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 and makes that documentation immediately available to the Fair Political Practices Commission upon request. Background Existing "Paid Spokesperson" Requirements . In 2000, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed SB 1223 (Burton, Chapter 102, Statutes of 2000), which became Proposition 34 on the November 2000 General Election Ballot. The proposition, which passed with 60% 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 CONTINUED AB 510 Page 4 $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. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: Yes SUPPORT : (Verified 6/30/14) California Professional Firefighters League of Women Voters of California Public Citizen Sierra Club California ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, "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." ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 58-16, 1/30/14 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Ammiano, Atkins, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chesbro, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Hall, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lowenthal, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez NOES: Allen, Chávez, Conway, Dahle, Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Grove, Hagman, Harkey, Jones, Maienschein, Mansoor, Morrell, Patterson, Wagner, Wilk NO VOTE RECORDED: Bigelow, Linder, Logue, Melendez, Nestande, Olsen RM:d 6/30/14 Senate Floor Analyses CONTINUED AB 510 Page 5 SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED