Senate Co-Leader to Introduce Campaign Finance Reform Legislation Next Week

State Senator Jeff Klein, Senate Co-Leader and head of the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) announced today that he will introduce legislation next week that will overhaul the state’s  campaign-finance laws, implement a system of public financing for state elections and revise some state election laws.  The story was first reported in today’s Wall Street Journal.

According to the IDC press release, the bill will propose a campaign-finance system like the one in place in New York City, which will provide candidates with matching public funds at a rate of 6 to 1 for the first $250 of every donation.

The proposal will also prohibit contributions by corporations, ban transfers between state parties and individual political committee and cap contributions to state and county party committees.

He will propose a cap on spending by gubernatorial candidates of $15 million for a general election, and caps of $7.5 million for state Comptroller and Attorney General.  State Senate candidates could spend up to $1.5 million, while Assembly candidates would be capped at $750,000.

The bill will also propose the repeal the “Wilson-Pakula” provision of the state’s election law, which allows candidates to run on multiple ballot lines.