Shapiro's Plans for Campaign Finance Reform

Rep. Josh Shapiro, of the Pennsylvania House's 153rd district, has sent out an email outlining his plans for campaign finance reform. Someone forwarded it to me. Shapiro co-chairs the Speakers Commission on Legislative Reform and also serves as Deputy Speaker of the House. Here are his suggestions:

During our Commission deliberations, I offered a campaign finance reform proposal that would limit campaign contributions and require more disclosure and transparency by:

· Capping contributions from individuals and political action committees (PACs) to candidates at $2,300 and $5,000 respectively. This would bring state races in line with the limits set for federal races like congress.

· Allowing candidates to exceed those caps by a factor of three only when their opponent spends more than $250,000 of his or her own money.

· Requiring that candidates file campaign finance reports to disclose the amount and who they receive contributions from at least quarterly in a non-election year and 9 times in an election year. Under current state law, candidates need to only file once in a non-election year and a minimum of 5 times in an election year. This will make sure the public knows who gives what to whom, when they give it and how much is contributed.

· Mandating disclosure of all contributions greater than $50 within 24 hours of receiving the contribution during the 30 days before the primary or general election.

This common-sense, bipartisan proposal will improve our politics in Pennsylvania , clean up elections, limit the possibility and appearance of corruption in our system and level the playing field so there is more competition.