Political Reform Act of 1974: candidate controlled committees: campaign statements.

The Political Reform Act of 1974 provides for the comprehensive regulation of campaign financing, including requiring elected officials, candidates for elective office, and committees to file periodic campaign statements. The act requires that these campaign statements contain prescribed information related to campaign contributions and expenditures of the filing entities. This bill would require a candidate controlled committee established for an elective office for the controlling candidate to report additional information on its campaign statement if (1) the candidate will not appear on the ballot at the next election and (2) The committee makes expenditures to a single person exceeding an unspecified amount in the aggregate during the reporting period. If the candidate controlled committee is required to report this information, its campaign statement must include the full name and street address of the person to whom the expenditures were made, the amount of each expenditure, and a description of any consideration for which each expenditure was made. Existing law makes a knowing or willful violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974 a misdemeanor and subjects offenders to criminal penalties. By requiring certain candidate controlled committees to report additional information on their campaign statements, the bill would expand the scope of a crime and impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.