BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 990|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 990
Author: Bonilla (D)
Amended: 8/20/15 in Senate
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE ELECTIONS & C.A. COMMITTEE: 4-1, 8/18/15
AYES: Allen, Hancock, Hertzberg, Liu
NOES: Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/14/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Political Reform Act of 1974: advertisement
disclosures
SOURCE: Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of
Voters
DIGEST: This bill imposes new requirements regarding font
size, font style, and location, for disclosure statements on
specified political advertisements.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Requires any advertisement for or against any ballot measure
to include a disclosure statement identifying any person whose
cumulative contributions are $50,000 or more, as specified.
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2)Requires an advertisement supporting or opposing a candidate
or ballot measure that is paid for by an independent
expenditure, to include a disclosure statement that identifies
both of the following:
a) The name of the committee making the independent
expenditure.
b) The names of the persons from whom the committee making
the independent expenditure has received its two highest
cumulative contributions of $50,000 or more during the
12-month period prior to the expenditure, as specified.
3)Requires an advertisement supporting or opposing a candidate
that is paid for by an independent expenditure must include a
statement that it was not authorized by a candidate or a
committee controlled by a candidate.
4)Requires specified advertisements for or against a ballot
measure that include individuals who have been paid for their
appearance to include a disclosure statement stating
"(spokesperson's name) is being paid by this campaign or its
donors" in highly visible Roman font.
5)Requires specified advertisements for or against a ballot
measure that include individuals who have been paid for their
appearance that states or suggests that the individual is a
member of a specified occupation to include a disclosure
statement stating "Persons portraying members of an occupation
in this advertisement are compensated spokespersons not
necessarily employed in those occupations" in highly visible
Roman font.
6)Requires the aforementioned disclosure statements to be
printed clearly and legibly in no less than 10-point type
where applicable.
This bill:
1)Requires that any of the disclosure statements described above
shall be printed in no less than 14-point, bold, sans serif
type font instead of 10-point type.
2)Requires an advertisement supporting or opposing a candidate
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that is paid for by an independent expenditure to specifically
include the following statement:
"This advertisement was not authorized or paid for by a
candidate for this office or a committee controlled by a
candidate for this office."
3)Requires that when included in a mailed advertisement paid for
by an independent expenditure, this statement must be located
within one quarter of an inch of the recipient's name and
address as printed on the advertisement and further requires
that text of the statement must be contained in a box with an
outline that has a line weight of at least 3.25 pt. The text,
the interior of the box, the outline of the box, and the
background of the advertisement must be in contrasting colors.
4)Includes an urgency clause.
5)Makes conforming changes to a related section of law.
Background
Definitions of "Advertisement" and "Independent Expenditure."
Existing law defines "advertisement" as any general or public
advertisement which is authorized and paid for by a person or
committee for the purpose of supporting or opposing a candidate
for elective office or a ballot measure or ballot measures.
"Advertisement" does not include a communication from an
organization other than a political party to its members, a
campaign button smaller than 10 inches in diameter, a bumper
sticker smaller than 60 square inches, or other advertisement as
determined by regulations of the Fair Political Practices
Commission (FPPC).
"Independent expenditure" is defined as an expenditure made by
any person in connection with a communication which expressly
advocates the election or defeat of a clearly identified
candidate or the qualification, passage or defeat of a clearly
identified measure, or taken as a whole and in context,
unambiguously urges a particular result in an election but which
is not made to or at the behest of the affected candidate or
committee.
Proliferation of Independent Expenditures. According to a
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November 4, 2013 report by California Common Sense,
(http://cacs.org/research/independent-expenditures-the-new-money-
in-california-politics/), since the first campaign contribution
limits were enacted in the 1970s, political money has
increasingly taken the form of independent expenditures,
political campaign spending that is not coordinated with a
candidate's official campaign. Though independent expenditures
have only received significant national attention in the wake of
the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC ruling in 2010,
they have been a growing factor in California politics since
Proposition 34 (2000) limited direct contributions to
candidates. $220 million in independent expenditures was spent
on candidate races in California between 2000 and late May 2012.
More recently, according to the Sacramento Bee, the 2015
special elections to fill the vacancy in Senate District 7
generated $12.1 million in campaign spending, almost $9.6
million of which was in the form of independent expenditures.
Comments
1)According to the author, campaign spending has significantly
increased with the advent of independent expenditures.
Leading up to the November 4, 2014 California state elections,
independent expenditures had spent almost $32 million in that
election cycle. It is vital for organizations and interest
groups to be able to communicate their views to voters and
more often than not, independent expenditures communicate with
voters by mailing advertisements. When voters receive tons of
advertisements from outside interest groups, in addition to
advertisements from the candidate themselves, it becomes
difficult for the voter to easily identify exactly who the
message is coming from.
The Political Reform Act requires all advertisements to include
a statement detailing who paid for the advertisement.
However, voters do not spend enough time looking at the
advertisement to notice nor read the statement. When voters
do not notice the disclosure statement it becomes unclear
which advertisements are from the candidate and which ones are
from independent expenditures. It is important that voters
know which advertisements come from the candidate themselves.
In recent elections, voters received over 60 campaign
advertisements. This significantly decreased the likelihood
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the voter would examine the advertisement long enough to
notice the disclaimer and created uncertainty regarding the
candidate's own message. AB 990 will fix this problem by
making it simple for voters to notice and read the disclosure
statement.
Current law requires the disclosure statement to be printed
clearly, in no less than 10-point font and in a "conspicuous
manner." The Fair Political Practices Commission defined
"conspicuous manner" as printed in a contrasting color.
AB 990 updates the way the disclosure statement must be
displayed in order to increase the likelihood that voters see
the statement.
The font is not big enough and the statement is often hidden at
the very bottom of the advertisement where the voter may not
look. AB 990 increases the font size and requires the
disclosure to be printed inside an outlined box. The box must
be a contrasting color to the background of the advertisement
and the text must be in a contrasting color to the box. The
statement must be located within one quarter of an inch from
the recipient's name and address on the advertisement.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
SUPPORT: (Verified8/24/15)
Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters (source)
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/24/15)
None received
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ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/14/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,
Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Linder, Medina
Prepared by:Darren Chesin / E. & C.A. / (916) 651-4106
8/25/15 15:20:01
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