Press Room

Senate Passes Campaign Finance Transparency Act on initial vote

Thursday, May 6 2010

DENVER-   Citizens United opened up the floodgates to corporate and union spending on elections through independent expenditures that was previously prohibited. In response to Citizens United, the Senate passed SB 203 on initial vote today.  The Campaign Finance Transparency Act, Senate Bill 203, is sponsored by Senator Morgan Carroll (D-Aurora) and House Majority Leader Representative Paul Weissmann (D-Longmont)  and will bring transparency to Colorado’s campaign finance laws and defend fair elections in Colorado. 

 “We need to ensure that our democracy is really represented ‘by the people’ and not simply bought by the highest bidder,” said Sen. Morgan Carroll. “It should be one person one vote not one dollar one vote."

The purpose of the Campaign Finance Transparency Act is to address the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, in which the United States Supreme Court held that corporations may spend money to influence candidate elections through the use of Independent Expenditures (“IE”).  Without this legislation, corporations and labor unions will be able to spend an unlimited amount of money in Colorado elections this year, without disclosure or needing to identify themselves as the funders of an ad.

As a result of the higher court ruling, Colorado Supreme Court declared portions of our own campaign finance laws invalid – which creates the need to close the loophole and enhance transparency and accountability in our campaign laws. 

“Colorado voters have consistently voted for regulation and accountability in election spending,” said Sen. Carroll. “Clearly, we cannot allow corporations, unions and individuals to spend millions of dollars to influence elections without any accountability or transparency. It’s against the Colorado-way.”

What the bill does:

• Closes disclosure loopholes for independent expenditures and ads that can now be funded by corporations and labor unions.
• Extends the current prohibition against contributions from foreign persons to foreign corporations and labor unions.

Click Here to view the full text of the bill.