Attempts to clean up campaign finance or put even rudimentary controls on mud-slinging political ads resemble Whac-a-Mole, that arcade game where every time you bop one critter on the head, another pops out of another hole.
The latest such reform attempt in Colorado is House Bill 1074, by state Rep. Morgan Carroll. Named the Clean Campaign Act of 2007, the bill shot out of the House State Affairs Committee on a 9-1 vote last Thursday. It should come before the full House soon.
The Post urges approval of Carroll’s bill, which would simply apply the same disclosure standards that Colorado law already applies to political committees in the state to 527 committees. But we also urge expanding HB 1074 to cover another class of tax-exempt organizations, known as 501(c)(3) groups, when they also engage in political advocacy. The relentlessly political Independence Institute is an example of such a 501(c)(3) that refuses to disclose the source of its money and so escapes scrutiny.
Both types of organization are named after the clause of the federal Internal Revenue Code that authorizes them. As Congress and the legislature have imposed controls on the cash candidates can raise and spend directly, the 527s have exploded. In the last election, the 14 largest 527 committees raised almost $29 million in Colorado, according to Carroll. Ten backed Democratic candidates, raising almost $21 million. The four Republican 527s raised about $7.8 million.
Not that any of the 527s were honest enough to admit their political slants, of course. Had they forthrightly said “Vote for Jones” or “Defeat Smith,” they would have been considered to have engaged in “express advocacy,” which would have made them subject to at least token disclosure requirements under state and federal law. Instead, 527s hide behind weasel-worded ads, saying “Jones is too extreme for Colorado” but avoiding the specific words that would trigger the disclosure rules.
Carroll’s bill will simply add 527s to the definition of political committees in Colorado, thus requiring them to disclose their donors, expenses and contact information to the secretary of state year-round. Such disclosure will make it easier for citizens to find out how 527s raise their funds and spend their money, as is now required for all other candidate committees and political committees.
But unless 501(c)(3) organizations are also added, Carroll’s legislation, worthy as it is, would probably cause the smear artists to operate under the rubric of 501(c)(3) instead of 527. In other words, different numbers but the same old attack-ad politics.
