Political
contributions play a significant role in the
campaigning process, providing the dollars
necessary for candidates to reach out to voters
both in person and through a variety of media. Campaign
finance reporting enables voters to find out
which groups are backing those who seek their
votes. Even after politicians are elected
and begin serving in office, access to information
about money in politics is important. When
state governments are faced with tough regulatory
and budgetary decisions, the winners and losers
are often engaged in making campaign contributions,
and the public has a right to know about those
financial transactions.
While
many states have strong campaign finance disclosure
laws, information about campaign finance regulations
and disclosure requirements – and
the disclosure records themselves – are
not always disseminated in formats that are
useful to the public. More states are
offering campaign filings in online databases
that give the public quick access to the details
of candidates’ campaign finance activity,
but others still display campaign records in
a way that inhibits meaningful analysis of
the records or makes it difficult to inspect
them at all. Access to contextual information,
such as summary reports of total candidate
fundraising and thorough explanations of state
disclosure requirements, is just as important
and provides voters with the background necessary
to understand the implications of individual
campaign finance reports.
The
Campaign Disclosure Project seeks to bring greater
transparency and accountability to money in state
politics through assessments of state disclosure
programs as well as the development of a model
state campaign finance disclosure law. The
Campaign Disclosure Project is a collaborative
effort of the UCLA School of Law, the Center
for Governmental Studies and the California Voter
Foundation (CVF) and is supported by the Pew
Charitable Trusts. |
