By Sean Whaley, Nevada News Bureau: Two major bills seeking reforms to and transparency in Nevada’s campaign finance laws have seen final approval in the Legislature and are now on their way to Gov. Brian Sandoval for his consideration.
Assembly Bills 82 and 452 are two of three campaign finance reform measures sought by Secretary of State Ross Miller in the 2011 session.
The third, Assembly Bill 81, remains to be reconciled between the two houses. The Assembly did not accept a Senate amendment to the bill.
AB82, which would allow a county to establish an electronic voter registration system, was amended to include a provision prohibiting candidates from accepting campaign contributions from foreign nationals.
The amendment was sought by Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, in response to a controversy over a separate bill seeking to legalize Internet poker in Nevada. Several lawmakers received contributions from PokerStars, the foreign-based company seeking the measure. Most lawmakers receiving the contributions said they were unaware the company, based in the Isle of Man, was foreign.
Federal law prohibits contributions from foreign nationals, but Nevada’s law was not clear on the issue.
AB452 would require on-line filing of campaign contribution and expense reports by most candidates and require earlier reporting of the information so voters could review the data before casting their ballots.
Reports would be filed four days before early voting and would be updated to reflect any additional contributions and expenses four days prior to the primary and general elections.
It would also make the Secretary of State’s office the central repository for the campaign reports for all elections, as well as for financial disclosure statements required of candidates and elected officials. These reports would also be filed electronically.
The information would be maintained in a searchable database so the public could review the reports in a simple and comprehensive way.
AB81 contains a provision restricting the creation of political action committees to circumvent limits on how much money can be contributed to a campaign as is now being reviewed in Rory Reid’s failed gubernatorial bid.
Miller’s office is investigating Reid’s use of 90 shell political action committees his campaign established to funnel $750,000 into his failed race for Nevada governor. Reid has said the use of the multiple PACs was legal.
Another section of the bill would allow for bigger financial penalties if a third-party group spends money in a Nevada campaign without filing the required disclosure information.
