Democrats push corporations to disclose spending

4/27/2010
Joe Hanel
Journal Denver Bureau
http://www.cortezjournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=105&ArticleID=10805&TM=11125.92

DENVER - State Democrats moved Monday to require corporations to disclose the money they spend on political races.

The U.S. Supreme Court this year said corporations have a First Amendment right to spend freely on political races - something that was barred by Colorado law.

State legislators have no power to overturn the ruling, known as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. But Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, at least wants people to know who is spending money on campaigns.

Carroll said she fears a new era of money in politics.

"We may be moving into one dollar, one vote, rather than one person, one vote," Carroll said. "That is a problem, and people deserve the right to know this."

She announced Monday that she will introduce a bill this week to require companies and unions to tell the public when they spend money on political races. Gov. Bill Ritter and Secretary of State Bernie Buescher said in March that they support such a bill.

Carroll's bill, like the Supreme Court case, applies to money that corporations spend independently, not to donations to official candidate committees. Many corporate and union donations to candidates are still prohibited under Colorado law.

For example, the "Acme Corporation" cannot donate to the Bill Ritter for Governor Committee. But thanks to Citizens United, Acme could, on its own, buy television advertising that urges people to vote for Ritter.

Carroll's bill would require Acme to tell the Colorado Secretary of State whenever it spent money on such an ad.

House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, will be the House sponsor.

Weissmann said he is looking for bipartisan support. However, he hadn't showed the bill to the House's top Republican on Monday.

House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, said he couldn't say whether he supports the bill because he has not seen it. But in principle, he supports added disclosure, plus the removal of limits on donations to candidate committees.

Colorado voters in 2002 adopted strict campaign finance limits. But not all corporate and union money was banned. They can still give to campaigns through political actions committees and "small donor committees" - a device often used by union.

Carroll's bill does not affect either PACs or small donor committees.

Printable Version of this Page