Virginia Democratic Congress stalls campaign finance reform bill without vote

each time increasingly expensive In a bid to gain seats in the Virginia General Assembly, state lawmakers continue to seek new ways to block efforts to place limits on the state’s expansive campaign finance laws.

This year, several bills aimed at slowing the flow of money into Virginia politics were blocked without a recorded vote showing that lawmakers were doing so.

Over the past decade, proposals have been introduced in Virginia to create stricter campaign finance limits and increase public confidence that the Legislature cannot be bought by special interests that write checks of unlimited amounts. .

Some Democrats have been vocal about making campaign finance reform a priority, and many have accepted big checks from Clean Virginia. The group, a well-funded advocacy group focused on energy and campaign finance reform, claims its mission is to “fight corruption in Virginia politics.”

But the party’s return to full control of the General Assembly this year does not appear to have led to any progress on campaign finance issues as Tuesday’s crossover deadline approaches. No major campaign finance bills have passed on either side of the Capitol as both chambers rush to complete work on their respective bills. If these positions hold in the second half of the session, no bill can win final passage.

Instead, Democratic-sponsored campaign finance proposals have stalled in Democratic-controlled committees, and some bills have been allowed to lapse without hearings.

Democratic Congressman Josh Cole when Prince William gave a presentation. invoice The bill would have prohibited candidates from receiving campaign contributions from public utilities such as Dominion Energy, but no one on the 22-member House Privileges and Elections Committee made a motion for or against the bill. The proposal died without a vote. invoice A proposal sponsored by Rep. David Bulova, D-Fairfax, that would place caps on donations from both businesses and individuals was never written down by the same committee.

Cole said in an interview that he will continue to fight for campaign finance reform despite the unprecedented failure of his latest bill.

“Time will tell what happens,” Cole said. “I definitely have an appetite.”

On the Senate side, another campaign finance reform focused on public works projects. invoice D-Prince William, sponsored by Sen. Danica Roem, passed through the Assembly’s Elections Committee but stalled when it was sent to the Finance and Appropriations Committee. No public hearings were held there, even though it was not expected to affect the state budget.

Sen. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth), chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee, did not provide any procedural explanation when asked why Roem’s bill was not put into writing, and instead offered no explanation for the bill itself. criticized.

“People who are unhappy with Dominion being a monopoly want to replace them,” Lucas said. “They want a monopoly. So what’s the difference?

Critics of Clean Virginia have accused the group and its main funding of engaging in a new form of influence peddling, offering large checks to lawmakers who vow to stop accepting Dominion money. He has often criticized his provider, Michael Bills, a wealthy Charlottesville investor.

In an interview, Ms. Rome didn’t seem disappointed about the bill’s fate.

“This is the first time we’ve been out of committee. This still shows progress,” Rome said. “Obviously we still have steps left.”

Nancy Morgan, a campaign finance reform advocate at BigMoneyOutVA, said it appears Democratic leaders are “bringing lawmakers to kill the bill in an opaque manner.”

Morgan’s group said in a statement last week that “not allowing a bill to be voted on, or even considered by members of Congress, is anathema to our democratic process.”

At first glance, there is little room for debate. suggestion The bill, which bans spending campaign funds for non-political personal uses and is already banned at the federal level and in nearly every other state, passed the state Senate 35-4 and the House of Representatives. It was expected to be passed this year after passing the election committee unanimously. .but house version It stalled in the budget committee after three state agencies estimated it would cost more than $745,000 to add staffing to implement the law.

But Congress’ own fiscal analysts vehemently disagreed with that figure, saying the law would create virtually no new costs or substantially increase existing workloads.

“It seemed very inflated,” said Shea Price, D-Newport News, who chairs the House Campaign Committee and formally sought a second opinion on the high cost estimate.

in written analysis Attached to the private use bill, staff on the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee found that the proposal would place a substantial burden on state agencies after reviewing similar laws in Georgia and Tennessee. He said he concluded that it was not. According to JLARC, both states already have systems in place to investigate complaints and issue advisory opinions similar to what Virginia’s proposal envisions, since they typically only process a few cases a year. The burden on staff is kept to a minimum.

General Assembly analysts disputed estimates from the Virginia Department of Elections and the Virginia Department of Corrections, saying, “JLARC estimates that the fiscal impact of this bill will be negligible.”

JLARC’s statement did not mention an estimate of an additional $429,426 from Attorney General Jason Miyares’ office, which claims two additional attorneys and a paralegal are needed to help enforce the law. It has not been.

Despite JLARC disputing the projected cost of the personal use bill, Rep. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax, said the chances of passage were “very slim” after it failed to pass the House. “It’s close to that.” The House could still consider the Senate version of the bill, but Simon said it’s unlikely the bill will become a priority for Congress later in the session as lawmakers try to finalize more expensive measures. He said it was low.

Although Simon offered a less-than-optimistic prediction about the outcome of efforts to ban the private use of campaign funds, Clean Virginia still supports a “common-sense ban” with “an overwhelming bipartisan majority.” He said he hopes the bill will pass the Senate and be passed by the end of the year.

“Passage of this bill would be a strong first step toward comprehensive campaign finance and ethics reform in Virginia,” said Clean Virginia Legislative Director Dan Holmes.

General Assembly members and statewide officials are prohibited from raising campaign contributions during the legislative session, but a recent effort to extend that ban to special sessions died without lawmakers adding their names to the ballot. It looks like we’re moving in that direction.

A bipartisan bill has been introduced on the Senate floor that would ban fundraising during “active” special sessions. However, in an unrecorded voice vote last week, the Senate chose to send the bill back to the Elections Committee, which had already finished its work on the Senate bill, a ploy to kill it. Ta.

On the floor, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) said there were “a lot of problems” with the bill.

“It’s going to create more problems than it solves,” Surovell said.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. David Suterlein (R-Roanoke), said his bill appears headed for the same death of unrecorded votes that often befalls bills banning the private use of campaign funds. , opposed this move.

“Every year, we were finding a different way to die with unrecorded votes,” Suterlein said.

Mercury writers Nathaniel Klein and Charlie Paulin contributed to this article.