SB 318 is on Third Read today in the Senate. It’s a terrible bill. It requires the names of individual contributors to be in political advertisements.
Lines 236 to 244 read-
“If the advertisement is an independent expenditure or expressly advocates for the passage or defeat of a referendum, the sponsor must disclose in the advertisement the name of the sponsor’s three largest contributors. If any such contributor is not an individual, the sponsor shall instead disclose the name of the individual authorized by such contributor to give money and services of any amount, in-kind contributions, and any other thing of value, given, advanced, loaned, or in any other way provided to the sponsor of the advertisement. The visual legend in the advertisement shall state: “The top three contributors to [Name of person or committee] are [largest contributor or associated individual], [second largest contributor or associated individual], and [third largest contributor or associated individual].“
No one wants to be featured in an ad and the general public won’t know or care about the “third largest contributor or associated individual.” All that info is already publicly available anyways, but it’s an arm reach away, which is good. This bill puts it in the ad, for the entire public to consume, not just the watchdogs and professionals, but for your neighbor as well.
This bill is for lazy opposition-researcher-wannabes with a Twitter account. It will lead to doxing of citizens as the laziest trolls are also the vilest. This is entirely a pro-troll and anti-free speech bill. We hope the Senate votes it down.
UPDATE: Senate passed this bill 23-15, with two Democrats not recorded who intended to vote yea. Time for the Republican led House to stop this bill.
