Bills need action before General Assembly session ends
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| Here is a prime example of the kind of election abuse this legislation is designed to fight. From the League of Rhode Island Businesses (LORIB) which set up 40 PACs and is running candidates against nearly every Democratic woman legislator in South County. |
“As elected officials, our constituents expect us to represent their best interests and not the best interests of wealthy donors,” said Senator DiMario (D-Dist. 36, Narragansett, North Kingstown, New Shoreham).
“Furthermore, our state constitution charges the General Assembly with setting
limits on political donations and ensuring that campaign donations and
expenditures are clearly and publicly reported. But as with many laws that we
pass, we have to keep an eye on them so that they work as intended. This bill
seeks to close the gaps between intention and practice in campaign finance by
closing loopholes that have become apparent over the years. It’s time for the
letter of the law to reflect the spirit of open, fair and transparent
campaigning set down in our constitution.”
The bill (2026-S 2720, 2026-H 7450) would strengthen Rhode Island’s campaign
finance laws in a variety of ways, including closing a loophole that
allows campaigns to receive unlimited donations from vendors if those vendors
agree to allow an outstanding invoice for their services to remain unpaid for
an indefinite period of time. The bill would set a time limit for unpaid
invoices before they must be classified as donations.
“This is critical legislation that closes loopholes
surrounding election donations and campaign expenditures,” said Representative
Fogarty (D-Dist. 35, South Kingstown). “Our laws are clearly intended to place
reasonable limits on the role of money in politics and make sure its influence
is transparently reported. But we’ve been falling behind upholding these
ideals as donors, candidates and political action committees have found and
exploited loopholes since our laws were last updated. By addressing areas where
our laws are coming up short, this bill will increase transparency and boost
public confidence in the electoral process.”
The bill would also prohibit using multiple political action
committees under the control of the same person or group of people to evade the
annual $2,000 limit on contributions to a political candidate — a practice
already outlawed in federal elections — and strengthen the penalties for
illegal straw donations that are similarly used to subvert contribution limits.
It would also clarify the definition of an in-kind
contribution, require campaigns to itemize payments to vendors, tighten rules
for political action committees to stop them from scamming donors by spending
the bulk of their funds on overhead and close a loophole that could allow
corporations that are banned from donating to candidates in Rhode Island to
evade the ban by donating paid personal services.
Senator DiMario and Representative Fogarty’s legislation was
supported in committee by the Rhode Island Board of Elections, the Campaign
Legal Center and Common Cause Rhode Island, the latter of which wrote “together
these changes will make our campaign finance limits and reporting more
effective and reduce the role of money in our politics.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: LORIB has targeted Charlestown state Rep. Tina Spears as well as our state Senator Victoria Gu. The authors of the legislation, Rep. Kathy Fogarty and Sen. Alana DiMario are also targets, as are Rep. Teresa Tanzi, Rep. Carol McEntee, and Sen. Bridgette ValVerde. Many of these challenges take the form of putting up a DINO (Democrat in name only) candidate up against a real Democrat in the September 9 Democratic Primary. That's the case in Charlestown where a pro-gun lawyer specializing in defending clients charged with sex crimes is up against our hard-working state Rep. Tina Spears. - Will Collette
