Senate Bill 539 needs revisions
Telling Americans they cannot contribute money to political candidates or causes amounts to infringing upon their First Amendment rights. That is something proponents of so-called “campaign finance reform” don’t like to talk about.
But requiring that recipients of such donations say where they got their money is another thing entirely. It helps voters understand that some candidates are beholden to special interests.
A bill in the state Senate would relax restrictions on how much people can contribute to candidates in West Virginia, and that is a good thing. But it also would clamp down on reporting sources of such donations — and that should not be viewed as acceptable.
Senate Bill 539 would make a variety of changes in campaign finance law. Among them are higher limits for donations. For example, current law permits individual contributions of $1,000 to candidates for the state Senate or House of Delegates. If enacted, SB 539 would increase that to $2,700. Similar increases would be implemented for other giving, such as that to political action committees.
Current law requires candidates to submit reports listing names, employers and their industries for people who contribute more than $250. SB 539 would increase that to $1,000 ($5,000 for candidates for statewide offices such as governor).
Supporters of the changes insist they are needed to protect the privacy of small donors. But current limits already do that, unless one considers more than $250 to be a “small” amount. Few Mountain State residents would.
Lawmakers may want to consider increasing allowable political contributions, to give West Virginians more ability to influence government.
But allowing the relatively large amounts specified in the bill to be donated secretly merely opens wide a door many in the Mountain State thought we were closing — of special interests able to control politics without voters knowing that was happening.