Assembly Speaker Proposes Bill to Increase Independent Expenditure Disclosure (Updated)

As reported by the AP and the Times Union, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has introduced legislation (A.690) “to ensure that entities engaged in express advocacy of candidates are subject to the same registration and disclosure provisions that are now required of candidates and their campaigns.”

The Speaker’s proposal is intended to address the proliferation of Super PACs, which are getting more and more involved in state elections.  His bill defines the term “express advocacy” more broadly than the state Board of Elections currently does, defining it not only as a communication that includes the so-called “magic words,” but also where “reasonable minds could not differ” about the purpose of the communication:

§ 2. Section 14-100 of the election law is amended by adding two new subdivisions 12 and 13 to read as follows:

12. “express advocacy” means a communication:

 (1) that contains express words such as vote, oppose, support, elect, defeat, or reject, which call for the election or defeat of a candidate, or  (2)  when  taken as a whole with limited reference to external events, such as the proximity to the election, could only be interpreted by a reasonable  person  as  containing advocacy of the election or defeat of one or more clearly identified candidates because:

(A) the electoral portion of the communication is unmistakable, unambiguous, and suggestive of only one meaning; and

(B) reasonable minds could not differ as to whether it encourages actions to elect or defeat one or more clearly identified candidates or encourages some other kind of action.

Read the Speaker’s press release here.

With the state Attorney General moving forward with regulations that will require non-profits to report their political spending, and the Governor’s promise to propose a sweeping campaign finance reform package, Super PACs and independent expenditures seem poised to be high profile issues in Albany in 2013.

Update:  Incoming Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins has introduced a Senate version of the Speaker’s bill, S.1460.