Senate Assistant Majority Leader Joan B. Lovely (D-Salem) announced that the Massachusetts Senate passed bipartisan legislation to require ballot campaigns to routinely report to the public who is funding their campaigns and how the money is being used.
The measure increases transparency in campaign finance, gives voters access to the information they need to make informed choices, and guards against a rise in special interests paying millions to put their own priorities on the ballot.
“Voters deserve to know who is behind efforts to change policy via the ballot box, and it is critical that residents understand the true impacts of their vote,” Lovely said. “With the passage of this legislation, the Senate is ensuring that all decisions in the voting booth are held to the same standard of transparency and accountability. Thank you to President Spilka for your leadership in passing this landmark transparency measure.”
Senate President Karen E. Spilka (D-Ashland) said, “When you go to the ballot box, you deserve to know who is behind each initiative and to make your own judgment about whether those efforts serve the greater good of our Commonwealth or the personal interests of special interest groups. As elected leaders, we hold ourselves to this standard of transparency and accountability, and this legislation ensures that every measure on the ballot is held to that same standard.”
The transparency bill — S.2898, “An Act improving campaign finance reporting by state ballot question committees” — brings accountability to ballot question campaigns and holds them to the same standard of disclosure already followed by candidates for office. The legislation would remedy a current void of nearly a year leading up to an election during which the ballot question campaigns are not required to report any financial data in a timely manner.
This month marks the start of the current eight-month period when ballot question committees are not required to regularly disclose any financial updates. From now until September, voters will be hit with campaign ads and mail without knowing who is funding them. On Jan. 16, senators voted to close that gap, requiring ballot campaigns to report at least monthly on their donors.
The legislation was advanced to the full Senate on Jan. 8 by a 15-0 vote of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, after a previous draft was reviewed and advanced in November by the Joint Committee on Election Laws. All committee votes are publicly available on the Legislature’s website.
The Senate passed the bill on a bipartisan 38-0 roll call vote, sending it to the House for further consideration.
