HARRISBURG, PA (WENY) -- $1.3 billion dollars. That was how much was spent in the 2020 election on campaigns for state legislature candidates, according to the National Conference of State Legislators.
Campaign finance laws help voters track how candidates are spending money, but current standards have limits to revealing who is making donations.
House Bill 1472, sponsored by Representatives Jared Solomon (D-202) and Malcolm Kenyatta (D-181), would change part of that status quo.
The bill passed out of the House today with a 127-74 vote. The question remains if any of that bipartisan support will carry over to the Republican-held Senate.
The Current State Quo
Any candidate or political committee running for office needs to report who donates to their campaign and how they spend the money. But not all campaign spending goes through these monitored groups- and thus is not always tracked.
“Dark money is when corporations or wealthy special interests will spend money to influence an election, usually through those mailers or ads.”
It’s called ‘dark money’ because these special interests do not report who donates to them and how they spend money. This may be through a Political Action Committee that is registered as a non profit, or other groups and organizations that spend generously in campaigns.
Individuals, corporations, or industries may donate to the non-profit; who in turn pours money into the political campaigns favored by these groups.
The Change
“This simply allows for a basic level of transparency around organizations that are in the shadows that are not disclosing the amount of money they are contributing to candidates,” said Solomon on H.B. 1472.
Under the bill, any non profit that spends money on election campaigns must turn in an expense report detailing how they spent the money and which candidate/ballot item they supported with the expense.
Currently, these non profits have no oversight and there is no way to track where, what, and how much they spend on campaigns.
For some advocates though, this change brings minimal impact on Pennsylvania’s dark money habits.
More Needed?
“Just being able to see something bad doesn’t make it good, right?”
Michael Pollack is the executive director of March on Harrisburg; a group that advocates for anti-corruption laws in the Commonwealth. Pollack says H.B. 1472 does not address the cause of dark money- the bill does not require non profits to list who donates to them.
“Transparency is always good,” said Pollack. "But the core problem is that politicians needs to fund raise endless amounts of money from rich people who have business before the state.”
And that is where dark money holds potential for danger to voters.
Every year, the cost of running a successful campaign increases. According to the National Conference of State Legislators, who quoted research from Open Secrets, legislative candidates averaged raising $50,531 in 2000, $74,734 in 2012 and $100,071 in 2020.
With representatives facing re-election every two years; industries and wealthy individuals pay attention to voting records. If an elected official votes against the interests of those with money, they can pour that money into a race in favor of an opponent.
While there is a whole other topic in anti-corruption rhetoric dealing with limiting how MUCH is spent in campaigns (campaign contribution limits)— the danger of dark money is voters don’t know which industries/interests are using money to shape political races.
Who is a candidate beholden to during their term? Examining their donors reveals their loyalties; but if you can’t see those donors, you can’t confirm where loyalties lie.
“Every individual who wants sort of a claim on our democracy and that claim is being shown by a financial contribution, that person should be vetted by the voters of Pennsylvania,” said Solomon.
Arizona Paving Legal Ground
Rep. Solomon shared that the reason H.B. 1472 does not address having non profits identify their donors (thus taking those donors out of the ‘dark’ into the public’s sphere of knowledge) was due to legal concerns.
In 2022, Arizona citizens voted yes to Proposition 211. This required a person or entity that made a campaign contribution over $25,000 needed to disclose the original source of the money.
(click here for Ballotpedia article on the ballot initiative process and result)
Since passing in November of 2022, the statute has been challenged at least three times.
Solomon said that while he is in favor of requiring donor disclosure, bill writers in Pennsylvania did not want to include any measures while the Arizona law was still being legally contested.
That said, the statue was upheld by a federal judge just a few weeks ago in March, 2024.