Review of the Public Integrity Reform Act of 2011, Part 6: Election Law and Campaign Finance

This is my final blog post reviewing the major parts of the Public Integrity Reform Act (PIRA) of 2011 (Chapter399 of the Laws of 2011).  Previous posts are linked to below:

Part 1: The Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE)
Part 2: The Project Sunlight Database
Part 3: Advocacy Organization Donor Disclosure Requirement
Part 4: Pension Forfeiture for Public Officials Convicted of a Felony
Part 5: Lobbying Act Revisions

Election Law and Campaign Finance

The new law addresses the reporting of independent elections expenditures, which became effective when the bill was signed into law.

The State Board of Elections must issue regulations no later than January 1, 2012, clarifying requirements for individuals, corporations, political committees and other entities to disclose independent spending for advertisements or any other type of advocacy that expressly identifies a political candidate or ballot proposal and that is not coordinated or approved by the candidate in question.  [It will be interesting to see how these regulations compare (or conflict with) similar regulations that were proposed by the New York City Campaign Finance Board last week.]

The new law increases penalties for violations of the Election Law’s filing requirements and for exceeding or otherwise violating the Election Law contribution limits from $500 per violation to $1,000 per violation.

It also creates the following new penalties:

• $10,000 for repeat (three or more) violations of Election Law filing requirements within an election cycle, and
• up to $10,000 for persons who accept an illegal contribution on behalf of a candidate or political committee.