WHAT'S AVAILABLE NOW:
Late contributions
and independent expenditures
Daily updates of contributions of $1,000 or more filed between May
17 - June 2, 1998.
State ballot measures summary contribution data and
itemized contributions of $10,000 or more through March 14, 1998
Federal disclosure data
WHAT'S COMING IN THE FUTURE
1998 General Election:
Mandatory diskette filing by statewide candidates and ballot measure committees that
raise or spend $100,000 or more
1999/2000 Election cycle:
Mandatory electronic filing by all statewide and legislative candidates who raise
or spend $50,000 or more;
Mandatory electronic filing by lobbyists, lobbyist employers, lobbying
organizations, political action committees, major donors, political parties and slate
mailer committees, with various thresholds and phased-in implementation.
MORE DISCLOSURE INFORMATION:
(from the Secretary of State's Political Reform Division):
Explanation of the reports candidates must file
1998 Filing schedule for state campaigns
Where candidates must file their disclosure reports |
ABOUT LATE CONTRIBUTIONS
This election year, you can find late contributions and independent expenditure
reports online at the Secretary of
State's web site.
The Secretary of State's new program follows "Late
Contribution Watch", a highly-acclaimed demonstration project sponsored
by the California Voter Foundation in 1996. For two weeks during the 1996 General
Election, CVF sent a team of researchers equipped with laptops every day to the Secretary
of State's office to data-enter the large, last-minute contributions that flood California
campaigns in the final days of the election. The data was uploaded every day to CVF's
1996 Online Voter Guide. Daily summaries were also emailed to hundreds of journalists
around the state, who otherwise would not have been able to view the late contribution
records, which get stacked up in huge binders housed at the Secretary of State's
office.
CVF's project was codified into law in 1997, when the California Legislature passed
SB
49, which also requires mandatory electronic filing of all California disclosure
reports. The next provision of SB 49 that will be implemented is mandatory diskette
filing of contributions and expenditures by statewide candidates and ballot measure
campaigns that raise or spend $100,000 or more. Then, beginning in 1999, a full-scale
Internet filing program will kick in, mandating digital disclosure by all state filers
-- legislators, statewide officeholders, political action committees, political parties,
lobbyists, major donors, and slate mailer committees.
The Secretary of State is also implementing a voluntary electronic filing program,
to help prepare filers for the mandatory electronic filing requirement that will
take effect in 1999. CVF is aiming to achieve 100 percent online disclosure in the
Fall of 1998 by encouraging candidates to participate in the voluntary program, and
by working with news organizations throughout the state to make a point of asking
candidates whether they will file their reports electronically or not.
CVFâs Fall 1998 California Online Voter Guide will track candidate participation
in the voluntary program so that voters are aware of which candidates are willing
to put their records online and which ones arenât. Finally, if CVF has the staff
and intern resources, we may data-enter the records of candidates who do not participate
in the voluntary program.
Federal Disclosure Data Available Online
Data for federal candidates is also available online. The FECinfo
Web site features data for California candidates running in congressional
races and in the U.S. Senate race. Summary data for Senate and House candidates is
available within 24-48 hours after it's disclosed with the Federal
Election Commission. Scanned copies of federal campaign finance reports filed
with FEC are also available online within 24-48. FEC filers include candidates for
the House of Representatives, political party committees, and federal political action
committees. Please note that because U.S. Senate candidates; disclosure reports are
not scanned by the FEC because these reports are filed with the Secretary of the
Senate rather than the FEC.) Itemized contributions for all federal candidates, including
U.S. Senate candidates are also data-entered by the FEC and available online within
4 - 6 weeks after the data is disclosed.
For more information about CVF's work to promote Internet access to political disclosure
data, please visit our Digital Sunlight
web site, featuring news articles, links, reports, contact information and much more.
-- KA
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