BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1418|
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 1418
Author: Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 27
SENATE ELECTIONS & CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND. COMM. : 4-0, 6/18/13
AYES: Hancock, Padilla, Yee, Torres
NO VOTE RECORDED: Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 75-0, 5/9/13 (Consent) - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : The Political Reform Act of 1974: omnibus bill
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill repeals a campaign statement requirement
regarding public inspection and reproduction, and makes other
minor technical changes to the Political Reform Act of 1974
(PRA).
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Creates the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), and
makes it responsible for the impartial, effective
administration and implementation of the PRA.
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2.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 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.
3.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.
4.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.
5.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:
1.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.
2.Corrects an erroneous cross-reference in a provision of the
PRA that governs the civil service classification of staff
positions at the FPPC.
3.Makes technical changes to conform to the "top two" primary
election system and related legislation.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/28/13)
Secretary of State
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ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : 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 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 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.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 75-0, 5/9/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown,
Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway,
Cooley, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier,
Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray,
Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Mansoor,
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Medina, Melendez, Mitchell, Morrell, Mullin, Muratsuchi,
Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, V. Manuel
Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Stone,
Ting, Torres, Wagner, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams,
Yamada, John A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Donnelly, Holden, Logue, Waldron, Vacancy
RM:nl 7/1/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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