Posted on 02/11/2008 9:41:30 AM PST by NormsRevenge
More money is flowing into California's legislative campaigns than ever, despite contribution limits that voters approved eight years ago in an attempt to quash the influence of well-heeled special interests in state elections, according to an analysis by The Chronicle.
Big-ticket donations have moved from candidate-run funds, where individual contributions are capped at $3,600 per election, into independent campaigns run by powerful groups to elect or defeat candidates.
Special interests also use loopholes to funnel money to legislators by donating to funds that fall outside the law's limits, including legal defense funds, ballot measure committees or lawmakers' favorite charities.
As a result, watchdog groups say, it has become nearly impossible for the public to follow the money.
Insurance and tobacco companies, unions, Indian tribes and other groups have used independent expenditure campaigns to pump millions of dollars into otherwise obscure state Assembly and Senate races, sometimes outspending the candidates themselves.
While such expenditures were allowed before voters restricted political giving by passing Proposition 34 in 2000, their use in legislative races has exploded by more than 2,500 percent since campaign contributions went into effect - growing from $1 million in 2000 to nearly $27 million in the 2006 election cycle.
For example, a special election in December to fill a vacant Los Angeles Assembly seat turned into a slugfest between labor unions and business groups - as a committee funded by state employees spent $251,000 running phone banks and organizing precinct walkers to support Democratic candidate Warren Furutani, who eventually won.
A corporate coalition funded by real estate developers, doctors and energy companies ran a $266,000 campaign for another Democrat in the race.
"The bottom line is the financing of political campaigns is a mess," said Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican strategist, ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Gee, why didn't conservatives warn them? /sarc
Thank you John McCain!!!!
It’s not like we didn’t warn that it was better to have the money being reported to the FEC than to hand the power directly to the special interests. But hey, he’s the Sheriff of the Senate so he must know better than us simpletons out here in flyover country.
And the more complicated the laws, the more loopholes there are to exploit.
This is about the California version "campaign finance reform" not the the federal level.
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