Project Description
The Campaign Disclosure
Project is designed to bring greater transparency and accountability to the
role of money in state and federal campaigns. For thirty years the states
have experimented with campaign disclosure, creating fifty sets of laws, regulations
and procedures to monitor and control the transfer of political money. Disclosure
under these systems is more timely than ever; but campaign data are rarely
provided in formats that allow for an understanding of broad national trends,
or for following the transfer of political money among states and between
state and federal campaigns. If voters are to take advantage of Madison's "popular information," timeliness
must be combined with uniformity.
The Campaign Disclosure Project brings together the UCLA School of Law, the Center
for Governmental Studies and the California Voter Foundation in a collaborative effort
to achieve three goals:
1. Classify and evaluate the campaign disclosure laws of the
50 states.
2. Design and promote a set of uniform standards and model laws for state reporting
and disclosure practices, based upon the findings of the evaluation above.
3. Encourage the adoption of these standards by grading the states according to their
disclosure laws and practices and by promoting the findings through publications,
conferences and websites.
The Project will achieve its goals in several steps, in which
each of the project partners will take a leading role.
The UCLA School of Law will conduct the basic research into state disclosure laws.
This will include developing a taxonomy of the disclosure laws, regulations and forms
of each state, evaluating their content and implications, and making these available
in a relational database for researchers and scholars. In addition, UCLA School of
Law will recruit campaign finance scholars to prepare a set of related working papers
to help inform the project. The purpose of these papers will be to assist the advisory
board in their deliberations, leading to recommendations for the Uniform State Disclosure
Standards.
The Center for Governmental Studies (CGS), working closely with the Advisory Board,
will develop and draft recommended Standards for collecting and reporting state campaign
finance contributions and expenditures. CGS will also draft these standards into
a Model Law for consideration by state and local jurisdictions. CGS will promote
the Standards and Model Law in several ways, including: the presentation of findings
at conferences of policy makers and academics; traditional media outreach efforts
(including opinion pieces, placement of broadcast and print stories and articles
in leading magazines and other publications); and the recruitment of key opinion
leaders to endorse the recommended Standards.
The California Voter Foundation (CVF) will assess, evaluate and grade
the 50 states on their campaign finance disclosure laws, electronic
filing and online disclosure practices. CVF will work with UCLA School of
Law, CGS and the Advisory Board to develop criteria that will be used to "grade" states'
performance over two years. The criteria and grades will be employed
to promote the need for uniform disclosure standards, and to provide a baseline
for measuring progress towards better disclosure and adoption of the Uniform
State Disclosure Standards.
All three project partners will be involved in publicizing and disseminating the
findings of the Campaign Disclosure Project. This will include recruiting campaign
finance scholars to write and present papers based on research in the field, the
latest developments in state disclosure projects, and legal and constitutional analyses
of the recommended Standards. The findings will be released at press conferences
in Washington, DC, and presented at conferences attended by secretaries of state,
state election administrators, scholars and journalists. The purpose of these events
will be to discuss the grades and grading methodology, to share lessons learned on
best practices in reporting and disclosure, and, if invited, to provide technical
assistance to states interested in adopting the recommended Standards.
The Project will consult with a bipartisan Advisory Board composed of leading scholars,
practitioners, journalists, elected officials and other experts representing a broad
spectrum of views on campaign disclosure. The Advisory Board will advise the project
partners on the goals and progress of their research, review research already completed,
and deliberate on issues of filing, disclosure and public access to campaign finance
information. The Advisory Board will meet three times. The first meeting will be
in September 2002 in San Francisco. The second meeting is scheduled for March 2003,
and the third for Winter 2004.
Project Partners
California Voter Foundation
Kim Alexander is
president and founder of the California Voter Foundation (CVF),
a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing the responsible
use of technology in the democratic process. She
has been a leader in numerous fields, including online voter education,
Internet access to campaign finance data and public verification of computer
voting systems. In 2004, Alexander received the Electronic Frontier
Foundation's Pioneer Award for her work spearheading and nurturing
the popular movement for integrity and transparency in modern elections. kimalex@calvoter.org
Will Barrett is
the California Voter Foundation's Program Manager, responsible
for Grading State Disclosure, a nationwide assessment of the 50 states'
campaign finance disclosure laws and practices. Prior to joining CVF,
Will coordinated the HIV Health Services Planning Council for Sacramento,
El Dorado and Placer Counties. He has also worked independently since
2003 as a campaign finance researcher. Will is a graduate of
The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. will@calvoter.org
Center for Governmental Studies
Tracy Westen is
Vice-Chairman and CEO of CGS, which he founded in 1983. He has authored,
co-authored or edited over 60 CGS reports and publications and helped
create important CGS projects, including PolicyArchive, Democracy Network,
Video Voter, ConnectLA, California Channel, California Citizens Budget
Commission, California Citizens Commission on Higher Education, California
Commission on Campaign Financing and National Resource Center on State
and Local Campaign Finance Reform.
Westen is also Adjunct
Professor (communications law and policy) at the USC Annenberg School
of Communication (since 1983) and Chairman of the Municipal Access Policy
Board for Los Angeles Channel 35. He was Deputy Director for Consumer
Protection at the Federal Trade Commission, Director of the Communications
Law Program at UCLA School of Law and Legal Assistant to Commissioner
Nicholas Johnson at the FCC. He has received national "public
service" awards from both Common Cause and the National League of Women
Voters for his work on campaign finance reform and online voter
information systems. twesten@cgs.org
Bob Stern was named CGS President in 2000. He has served
as General Counsel of CGS since its founding in 1983. He has co-authored
a number of CGS reports in the areas of campaign finance reform, the initiative
process, and electronic filing of disclosure statements. Before joining
CGS, he was General Counsel of the California Fair Political Practices Commission
for nine years. He has authored a number of statewide initiatives enacted
by California voters, including the Political Reform Act of 1974. stern@cgs.org
Jessica Levinson is
the Political Reform Director for CGS. Her work focuses on analyzing
and implementing solutions to campaign finance laws. Prior to joining
CGS, she practiced civil litigation at Russ August & Kabat, PC and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett,
LLP. Before entering private practice she clerked in the Central
District of California for the Honorable James V. Selna. She received
her J.D. from Loyola Law School, where she graduated cum laude and Order
of the Coif, and her B.A. in English and Economics from Loyola Marymount
University, where she graduated magna cum laude and as the class valedictorian. jlevinson@cgs.org
Molly Milligan is
the Campaign Disclosure Project Manager for CGS. She brings a legal background with her to CGS as well as
four years of experience as a professional staff member for the United States
Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. She has served as a panel
attorney for the California Appellate Project and was for many years a volunteer
in the Child Advocates Office of Superior Court. She received her
law degree from Loyola Law School and her B.A. from Colby College
with honors in Government. mmilligan@cgs.org
UCLA
Joseph Doherty, Ph.D is
the Director of the Empirical Research Group at the UCLA School
of Law. He holds a doctorate in political
science from UCLA, and his research includes studies of bankruptcy,
public opinion, administrative law and political consulting. He has
conducted public opinion research for ballot initiatives and for
candidates in congressional and state-level political campaigns. doherty@mail.law.ucla.edu
Daniel H. Lowenstein is Professor of Law at UCLA School
of Law, where he teaches election law and co-edits the Election Law
Journal. He is a nationally renowned expert in election law and has
a leading textbook and many journal articles on the topic. In the
early 1970s he and Robert Stern wrote the landmark California Political
Reform Act. He is the projected Director of the proposed UCLA Center
for the Liberal Arts and Free Institutions. lowenste@mail.law.ucla.edu
For technical questions or feedback about this web site, please contact Will Barrett.
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