Senate Bill No. 52

Introduced by Senators Leno and Hill

December 20, 2012

An act relating to the Political Reform Act of 1974.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 52, as introduced, Leno. Political Reform Act of 1974: campaign disclosures.

Existing law, the Political Reform Act of 1974, provides for the comprehensive regulation of campaign financing, including requiring the reporting of campaign contributions and expenditures and imposing other reporting and recordkeeping requirements on campaign committees. Existing law makes a knowing or willful violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974 a misdemeanor and subjects offenders to criminal penalties.

This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would strengthen the Political Reform Act of 1974 and the campaign disclosure requirements within that act to require that advertisements disclose specified funding, expenditure, and issue advocacy information in a manner that clearly and unambiguously identifies the three largest major donors.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

This act shall be known as the California Disclose
Act.

SEC. 2.  

It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation
that would strengthen the Political Reform Act of 1974 and the
campaign disclosure requirements within that act to require that
advertisements disclose the largest funders of all political
television, radio, print, and other forms of advertising for ballot
measures, independent expenditures, and issue advocacy in a
manner that clearly and unambiguously identifies the three largest
major donors.