BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2357
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2357 (Saldana)
As Amended April 8, 2010
2/3 vote
ELECTIONS 7-0 APPROPRIATIONS 13-1
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|Ayes:|Fong, Adams, Bill |Ayes:|Fuentes, Conway, Ammiano, |
| |Berryhill, Coto, Mendoza, | |Coto, Davis, Bonnie |
| |Saldana, Swanson | |Lowenthal, Hall, Miller, |
| | | |Nielsen, Skinner, |
| | | |Solorio, Torlakson, Hill |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Norby |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires certain expenditures made in connection with
polls or surveys regarding ballot measures to be disclosed on
campaign reports. Specifically, this bill requires a committee
that is primarily formed for the qualification or support of, or
opposition to, an initiative or ballot measure, to include the
following information in campaign statements filed by the
committee:
1)The amount of each expenditure made in connection with a poll
or survey used in a communication to influence voters
regarding the qualification or passage of an initiative or
ballot measure.
2)The amount of each expenditure made in connection with a poll
or survey used to gauge the public's opinion on the ballot
title and summary of an initiative or ballot measure.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Minor absorbable costs to the Fair Political Practices
Commission (FPPC), which administers and enforces the
Political Reform Act (PRA), potentially offset by penalty
revenues.
2)Potential non-reimbursable costs to local governments for
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prosecution, offset to some extent by fine revenues.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "In the 1960s, there were 47
initiative proposals submitted for review. That number
increased to 391 in the 1990's, and then jumped to 647 in the
2000-2009 decade. One contributing factor for this drastic
increase is that initiative proponents frequently choose to
submit numerous, largely duplicative, measures to the State to
have their ballot titles and summaries drafted, with the intent
of ultimately pursuing signatures for only one of them. In one
particularly egregious example this year, a total of seven
similarly-worded initiative proposals were filed. In this
practice, sometimes referred to as 'ballot-title shopping,'
proponents will then commission polls or surveys to gauge the
public's opinion of the nuanced ballot titles and summaries in
order to determine which version might fare the best in a
petition drive, or raise the most money from potential
contributors. While it is not the intent of this bill to alter
that practice, it is clear that these polling activities are on
par with other communication efforts to qualify and pass an
initiative, and therefore should adhere to the same disclosure
requirements. The [FPPC] has found on numerous occasions that
when results of a poll or survey are used in a communication to
advocate the qualification or passage of a ballot measure, the
cost of conducting the poll or survey constitutes a reportable
expenditure. While records of this determination can be found
in FPPC Advice Letters, it is not clearly stated in Code. AB
2357 will codify those findings."
The FPPC has long held that an initiative, referendum, or recall
does not become a "measure" for the purposes of the PRA until
the proponents begin to circulate petitions to qualify the
proposal for the ballot. However, it is also the longstanding
position of the FPPC that once a proposal becomes a measure,
campaign statements filed by committees supporting or opposing
the measure must include contributions received and expenditures
made in anticipation of the proposal being placed on the ballot,
even if those contributions and expenditures were made before
the proposal became a "measure" (In re: Fontana (1976), 2 FPPC
Ops. 25).
In requests for advice, the FPPC has distinguished between
payments made by an entity other than a committee that are
exploratory in nature from payments that are used to expressly
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advocate for the qualification or passage of a ballot measure.
Given that general policy, an FPPC campaign manual indicates
that the cost of a poll or survey is a reportable expenditure
under the PRA if the results of that poll or survey are used in
a communication to influence voters regarding the qualification
or passage of a measure. However, the same manual indicates
that the costs of a poll or survey to determine the feasibility
of drafting a measure are not reportable as long as the results
from the poll or survey are not used in a communication to
influence voters.
This bill expressly requires committees that are primarily
formed for the qualification or support of, or opposition to, an
initiative or ballot measure, to disclose the amount of money
spent on certain polls or surveys on campaign statements if
certain conditions are met. First, this bill requires
expenditures on a poll to be disclosed if that poll is used in a
communication to influence voters regarding the qualification or
passage of an initiative or ballot measure. Because
expenditures on polls are already required to be disclosed in
these circumstances under the FPPC's interpretation of the PRA,
this provision of the bill has little substantive effect other
than to codify the FPPC's interpretation.
This bill also requires, however, that expenditures on polls by
a committee primarily formed for the qualification or support
of, or opposition to, an initiative or ballot measure be
disclosed on campaign reports if those polls are used to gauge
the public's opinion of the ballot title and summary of an
initiative or ballot measure. This provision of the bill
appears to require disclosure of certain polling expenditures
that are not required to be disclosed under existing law.
California voters passed an initiative, Proposition 9, in 1974
that created the FPPC and codified significant restrictions and
prohibitions on candidates, officeholders and lobbyists. That
initiative is commonly known as the PRA. Amendments to the PRA
that are not submitted to the voters, such as those contained in
this bill, must further the purposes of the initiative and
require a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094
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