BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Norma J. Torres, Chair
BILL NO: AB 1418 HEARING DATE: 6/18/13
AUTHOR: ASSEMBLY E&R COMM. ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: AS INTRODUCED
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
The Political Reform Act of 1974: omnibus bill
DESCRIPTION
Existing law creates the Fair Political Practices Commission
(FPPC), and makes it responsible for the impartial, effective
administration and implementation of the Political Reform Act
(PRA).
Existing law requires campaign statements to be open for public
inspection and reproduction from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on the
Saturday preceding a statewide primary or statewide general
election in the offices of the Secretary of State (SOS),
Registrar-Recorder of Los Angeles County, the Registrar of
Voters of San Diego County, and the Registrar of Voters of the
City and County of San Francisco.
Existing law requires specified committees to indicate on their
statements of organizations whether they support or oppose
candidates or measures and whether such candidates or measures
have common characteristics, such as a political party
affiliation.
Existing law requires a committee that is controlled by a
candidate for partisan office to indicate on its statement of
organization the political party with which the candidate is
affiliated.
Existing law prohibits any non-clerical staff position at the
FPPC from being included in the same class in the civil service
classification plan with any position of any other department or
agency.
This bill repeals a requirement that campaign statements must be
open for public inspection and reproduction from 9:00 a.m. to
5:00 p.m. on the Saturday preceding a statewide primary or
statewide general election in the offices of the SOS, the
Registrar-Recorder of Los Angeles County, the Registrar of
Voters of San Diego County, and the Registrar of Voters of the
City and County of San Francisco.
This bill corrects an erroneous cross-reference in a provision
of the PRA that governs the civil service classification of
staff positions at the FPPC.
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This bill makes technical changes to conform to the "top two"
primary election system and related legislation.
BACKGROUND
This is one of the Assembly Elections & Redistricting
Committee's omnibus bills, containing various minor and
technical changes to the PRA.
COMMENTS
1. According to the Assembly Elections and Redistricting
Committee : When it was first enacted, the PRA required
statewide office holders, candidates for statewide office,
and certain other statewide campaign committees to file a
copy of all campaign reports with the Registrars of Voters in
Los Angeles and San Francisco counties. To ensure that
voters had access to these campaign reports immediately
before an election, the PRA subsequently was amended to
require the offices of the Secretary of State (SOS) and of
the Registrars of Voters in Los Angeles, San Diego, and San
Francisco counties to be open for public inspection and
reproduction of campaign statements from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m. on the Saturday preceding a statewide primary or
statewide general election.
Since that time, the Legislature has taken a number of steps to
make these campaign reports more publicly accessible,
including setting up an online campaign disclosure database,
requiring most candidates and committees active in campaigns
for state office to file campaign disclosure reports
electronically, and requiring the SOS to make other specified
reports available online even when those reports are not
required to be filed electronically. Given the increased
availability of campaign reports online, the SOS and counties
have reported that it is uncommon for the public to come to
their offices on the Saturday before a statewide election to
view or obtain copies of campaign statements. In fact, the
SOS indicates that no member of the public has visited that
office during these hours for the last several election
cycles.
In 1985, the state's laws governing the state civil service
Personnel Classification Plan were reorganized, and a number
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of code sections were renumbered. However, a section of the
PRA that cross-references those laws was never updated. This
bill corrects that outdated cross-reference.
2. "Top Two" Cleanup : In February 2009, the Legislature
approved SCA 4 (Maldonado), Res. Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009,
which was enacted by the voters as Proposition 14 on the June
2010 statewide primary election ballot. Proposition 14
implemented a top two primary election system in California
for most elective state and federal offices. At the same
time that it passed SCA 4, the Legislature also approved and
Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 6 (Maldonado), Chapter 1,
Statutes of 2009, which made various changes to state statute
that became effective upon the approval of Proposition 14 by
the voters. Among other provisions, SB 6 provides that
individuals who select a political party when
registering to vote are no longer considered to be
affiliating with that party, but instead are declaring a
preference for that political party. One section of the PRA,
however, still refers to candidates' political affiliations,
rather than their political preferences.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 7-0
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 17-0
Assembly Floor: 75-0
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: Secretary of State
Oppose: None received
AB 1418 (ASM. E&R COMM.)
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