Legislators push to strengthen ‘embarrassing’ campaign finance regulations

HB 1552, proposed by Del. Marcus Simon, D-Falls Church, and more than 10 additional legislators, would prohibit candidates from converting contributions to an individual or a campaign for personal use, something that is already law on the federal level and most states. Simon has repeatedly introduced legislation that would further prohibit the personal use of campaign funds since he was first elected in 2014, to no avail.

“If campaign contributors could just put money right in your personal checking account, I think everybody would see that that was a problem and be concerned about that,” said Simon. “But if your campaign account has no limits on what you can spend it on, it might as well be your checking account.”

Virginia remains an “outlier” on campaign finance reform, and attempts to introduce legislation have been met with pushback and unintended consequences. Simon said previous versions of the bill had created unintentional loopholes during the drafting process.

A committee tasked with looking at the state’s campaign finance laws for possible reform never convened for a single meeting last year, according to reports from Axios Richmond and the Virginia Mercury.

Another concern, Simon added, was the use of the bill for political gamesmanship. Legislators generally would not want people pulling through their reports, and then filing complaints, so part of it was not so much the prohibition, but the enforcement of it, he said.

“I mean the whole thing is embarrassing,” Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, one of the bill’s patrons, said. “Personal use statutes have come up in the past and I have generally supported them. The question has been one of definition: ‘How are you going to fight this fight of personal use?’”

If passed, the bill would require the State Board of Elections, with the Office of the Attorney General, to develop and publish guidance on the provisions that prohibit the personal use of campaign funds. This guidance will cover the provisions that prohibit the personal use of campaign funds and delineate the differences between prohibited personal uses of campaign funds and permitted uses of the funds, with examples of conduct and periodical updates.

In addition to Simon and Deeds, 12 other delegates and one other senator have signed on as patrons. For Del. Timothy Anderson, R-Virginia Beach, the bill would bring “common sense to an area of campaign finance that does not have a lot of common sense.”

“There’s a very low appetite of politicians to do meaningful campaign finance reform — and to put more restrictions on the way that they raise money,” Anderson said. “There’s just a low appetite to do that.”

In addition to HB 1552, Anderson is looking to push for more campaign finance reform with HB 1648, which would prohibit foreign-influenced corporations from donating to political candidates and campaign committees.

HB 1552 would also expand the scope of Class 5 felonies to include those who file false complaints against a candidate or campaign, as outlined in 24.2-1016 of the Code of Virginia, according to the bill’s fiscal impact statement.

“It’s just hard to tell a group of people we need to increase the policing of our behavior and create penalties for people messing up,” Simon said.

State law now prohibits the conversion of contributions with regard to disbursement of surplus funds at the end of a campaign or political committee. It also prohibits the conversion of inaugural contributions for personal use.