N.C. Legislators End Personal Use Of Campaign Funds
POSTED: 7:55 am EDT July 14, 2006
UPDATED: 7:55 am EDT July 14, 2006
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The General Assembly approved two more campaign finance reforms Thursday, preventing candidates from converting campaign donations to personal use and requiring more disclosure of donors to independent political organizations.
With little debate, the House agreed by a vote of 111-2 to Senate changes on limits that a candidate or campaign committee could spend political donations to seven specific areas.
They include expenses related to running for and holding public office, charity and penalties for election law violations.
The conversion of campaign money received attention after former Rep. Michael Decker, R-Forsyth, received a $4,000 contribution from House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, in February 2005, then closed his campaign account the next day and kept the money.
Several other former members _ both Democrats and Republicans _ also have written checks to themselves for office rent, cars and other items.
"This is an example of legislators imposing new restrictions on themselves, so it's not insignificant," said Bob Hall with the campaign finance reform group Democracy North Carolina. "Money is given to them for limited purposes, and they've taken action to honor that political purpose that the money is given for."
Later, the House approved tighter reporting requirements for so-called "527" political groups that have taken an increasing role in state politics in recent years, including Republican primaries for the two most recent election cycles.
The passage brings to three the number of campaign reform recommendations by a special House committee that have gone to Gov. Mike Easley's desk this year. The panel was created by Black after two people connected to him were investigated for lobbying law violations related to last year's passage of the lottery.
A Senate committee continued debating Thursday a measure that attempts to consolidate ethics monitoring toward one statewide commission.
The 527 groups, named after the section of the federal tax code in which they are regulated, can accept unlimited corporate and union donations and report very little about how it is spent, especially to state regulators.
"Those who run for office are vulnerable to people who want to spend large amounts of money," said Rep. Joe Hackney, D-Orange, who co-chaired the special House panel. The bill "seeks to reduce the amount of anonimity ... that is transparency that is good for our political process."
A 2004 state law says the corporate donations can't be used to produce campaign materials that identify a candidate mailed or broadcast to a large group of people 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election.
If such "electioneering communications" occur during that period, the group must disclose contributors and expenses to the State Board of Elections.
The bill approved Thursday would require spending on a 527 group's mailed materials to be reported if mail is sent to 2,500 or more addresses in a legislative race, down from the current 5,000 addresses. And the group wouldn't be able to avoid reporting by arguing they sent different batches of mail.
A similar threshold reduction would apply to the number of telephone calls a group may make in a House or Senate district. Other changes would expand the definition of "mass mailing" to cover more political messages and remove potential avenues for groups to avoid financial disclosures.
Some Republicans argued the bill would limit free speech by adding more restrictions to the 2004 law while failing to reduce the unlimited amounts of money that legislative leaders can funnel through their parties to allied candidates.
"I just don't see any desire to limit some sources of money, but a greater desire to limit other outside sources of money," said Rep. John Blust, R-Guilford, before the 527 changes were approved 87-27.
Blust was a leader in 2004 of the Republican Legislative Majority Committee, which was funded by the family business run by former GOP Rep. Art Pope. The committee targeted GOP primary elections in 2004 and this year with fliers critical of House Speaker Pro Tempore Richard Morgan, R-Moore, and his legislative allies.
Morgan filed a state elections board complaint in April accusing the committee of hiding illegal corporate contributions, coordinating with candidates backed by Pope and failing to file campaign finance reports. The committee denies the allegations. The board has set a hearing on the issues Aug. 29.
Pope said in an interview the 527 rules, if they become law, will give incumbents an advantage to get out their message and quell dissenting viewpoints.
"The downside is for North Carolina citizens," Pope said. "It will be hard for organizations to let people know how legislators voted."
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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