Disclosure of Campaign Contributions (H 6255, S 1004)

A campaign finance bill introduced only in the last week of the 2019 session raised important First Amendment concerns, prompting the ACLU’s opposition. Presently, all campaign contributions over $100 to political action committees or candidates must be publicly disclosed. This legislation would have reduced the threshold to $25. Years ago, the ACLU successfully challenged a $0 disclosure requirement on behalf of an anonymous Jane Doe who wanted to make a small donation to a pro-choice PAC but was afraid that she would face retribution from her Catholic church. This led to the legislature’s adoption of a $100 contribution disclosure threshold which struck the correct balance between individual privacy, First Amendment rights, and campaign finance transparency. Although this bill swiftly passed out of the Senate on the second-to-last day of the session, it never received a vote in the House and died.