Louisiana political campaigns might get to withhold more donation, spending info

Louisiana lawmakers might diminish information available to the public about political donations and election spending through a sprawling rewrite of the state’s campaign finance law. 

Gov. Jeff Landry is pushing House Bill 693, sponsored by House Republican Caucus Chairman Mark Wright, R-Covington. It carves out more circumstances under which political contributions and expenditures don’t have to be disclosed on a public campaign finance report.

The 101-page proposal is difficult to understand for people who don’t deal with campaign finance regulations frequently. Even staff attorneys for the Louisiana Board of Ethics, which enforces the campaign finance laws, admit the changes are confusing.

“To be honest with you, it’s going to take quite a grace period to figure all this out,” Ethics Administrator David Bordelon said when presenting the bill to the state ethics board last month. 

Private attorneys Stephen Gelé and Charles Spies helped write the bill. They have represented Landry in multiple disputes he has had with the ethics board, including over campaign finance laws and enforcement. 

Gelé has said the proposal respects constitutional rights, including freedom of speech, while still providing transparency and “preventing the appearance of corruption.” 

The state’s preeminent government watchdog group disagrees. The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR) has come out against the legislation, saying the bill would benefit politicians while offering little for the general public.

“There is a very large bill, and I don’t quite understand the problem it is trying to solve,” PAR President Steven Procopio said at a legislative hearing last month.

The Louisiana House voted to approve the legislation on a 77-16 vote last month. The Senate will start taking up the bill Wednesday, and both chambers need to pass it by the end of the legislative session on June 12.

In more than 20 places in the law, the bill increases the minimum dollar threshold at which a donation or expense has to be included on a public campaign finance report.

For example, national political committees that raise most of their money outside Louisiana are required to publicly disclose their spending on a Louisiana election once it reaches $20,000. The proposed bill would hike that disclosure threshold to $50,000. 

The current law also requires any campaign contributions or expenditures over $200 given within the 20 days before the election to be reported on a public campaign finance report. The proposed law would hike that disclosure threshold to $5,000. 

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Over a dozen similar changes are also part of the legislation. 

Individuals who are not political candidates and groups that are not explicitly political committees could also spend money on an election without disclosing contributions they accepted for the politicking.

Those who are not a candidate or a designated political committee would only be required to disclose election spending over $1,000 in a political cycle and if it involved: 

• federally-regulated broadcast media; 
•  500 pieces of mail;
• a phone bank of 500 calls within a 30-day period; or 
• digital or print advertising with a candidate’s image that’s distributed in the area the candidate would represent within 30 days of their primary and 60 days of their general election

These changes would apply to large, statewide elections and smaller ones such as those for police juries, town councils and school boards. 

Money spent to communicate with people in a “membership organization” – such as a union, industry association or an athletic club – as well as employees and stockholders of a business also would not have to be reported as a political expense. This could include communication sent to thousands of people at once. 

In some cases, current campaign finance law obliges people to report this type of spending that would be shielded under the Wright bill. But supporters of the legislation said these exceptions were mainly carved out with so-called social welfare organizations, which already aren’t required to disclose their donors, in mind.

The organizations, which critics call “dark money” political groups, are registered with the IRS as 501(c)(4) nonprofits for tax purposes and can keep their contributors private under federal regulations. It’s unclear to what extent the groups have to disclose their spending on Louisiana elections under current state campaign finance laws. 

Landry has set up at least one of these “dark money” groups, Protect Louisiana Values, to advance his political agenda. It also notably put up the money for Landry to rent a live tiger to attend an LSU football game last year.

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Former Gov. John Bel Edwards also established two of his own “dark money” groups during his eight years in office: Rebuild Louisiana and A Stronger Louisiana. 

While limiting disclosure on political spending, Wright’s legislation does open up allowable uses of politician’s campaign funds to a much wider group of expenses, including their home mortgages, country club fees and gym memberships.

The legislation is also one of a few bills Landry is pushing to soften ethics laws and regulations this session. Lawmakers in favor of them said they are reacting to overzealous enforcement by the ethics board. 

In 2007, former Gov. Bobby Jindal and legislators passed dozens of restrictions and public disclosure requirements for elected officials and public employees as part of Jindal’s effort to reach a “gold standard” of ethics for Louisiana that would be a model around the country. 

Lawmakers are now saying that effort was overreach that needs to be corrected.

“I haven’t come across an elected official who has enjoyed working through this process and hasn’t questioned what they did back in the Jindal era,” Wright said of ethics and campaign finance regulations.