Subject: AB 1430

September 25, 2007

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
1st Floor, State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:

The League of Women Voters believes that the methods of financing political campaigns should ensure the public’s right to know, combat corruption and undue influence, enable candidates to compete more  equitably for public office and allow maximum citizen participation in the political process.  Therefore we ask that you veto AB 1430.  This bill would gut local campaign finance regulations and preempt them with more lax state regulations.

Furthermore, AB 1430 would:

1. Make it essentially impossible for a local jurisdiction to regulate campaign communications from organizations, including political parties, to their members.  Cities and counties are concerned that large contributions to political parties for such communications can be used to circumvent contribution limits.  This bill would prohibit a local government from limiting such payments or placing restrictions on their source, and would leave the door open for even broader prohibitions.

2. Restrict a municipality’s ability to require reporting of certain expenditures, lessening the information available to the public and interfering with existing campaign finance regulatory procedures.

3. Restrict the ability of local governments to regulate their own elections.  Contributions to parties for spending on candidates to elective state office are limited in state law.  There is no reason why similar limitations at the local level should not be allowed, should a municipality choose to do so.

AB 1430 imposes one-size-fits-all disclosure laws for local elections and it covers not only contribution limits, but disclosures as well.  If a veto is ever warranted it is for this bad bill.

Thank you for considering our request.

Sincerely,

Janet Brennan, President
LWV of the Monterey Peninsula