Nonprofits, Labor Groups To Have Their Say on City’s Proposed Independent Expenditure Rules

The NYC Campaign Finance Board (CFB) has released its agenda for tomorrow’s public hearing on CFB’s proposal to require disclosure of independent spending on local political campaigns. (More background on the issue in this prior post.)

The agenda includes some a number of unions and nonprofit groups, which (according to this NY1 report) “are teaming up” to fight against the proposal:

The bill would require groups or individuals report to the Campaign Finance Board if they spend more than $1,000 to influence any city campaign. If they spend more than $5,000, they would also have to report who their funders are.

Unions have ramped up this kind of spending in recent city elections, flooding mailboxes with flyers. They now claim the disclosure could violate their First Amendment rights and restrict their ability to communicate with their members. They are convincing nonprofit groups to jump on board.

Father Joseph P. Parkes, chair of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, writes in support of CFB’s proposed rules in Gotham Gazette today:

[The draft rules] are designed to meet the aims outlined by the Commission and validated by Supreme Court precedent: to help members of the public evaluate messages aimed at influencing their votes; to help the public hold candidates accountable for their supporters; and to help ensure that candidates are complying with City law.