Title: Requires Political Advertisements to Disclose Funding Sources
Vote Smart's Synopsis:
Vote to pass a bill that requires political advertisements to disclose the identities of their top donors.
Highlights:
Requires all political advertisements that are authorized by a candidate to include a statement in which the candidate identifies himself or herself and states that he or she has approved the message (Secs. 9 & 10).
Requires all political advertisements that are not authorized by a candidate to disclose the names of the top 3 identifiable contributors who made the largest cumulative donations to the committee that paid for the advertisement (Secs. 9 & 11).
Defines “advertisement” as any public advertisement authorized and paid for by a person or committee for the purpose of supporting or opposing a candidate for elective office or a ballot measure (Sec. 3).
Defines “identifiable contributors” as donors who contributed $10,000 or more (Sec. 3).
Requires television and video advertisements to display the disclosure on a full screen without audio on a black background for a minimum of 3 seconds and to include the corporate logos of the contributors, if applicable (Sec. 11).
Specifies that if the committee funding the advertisement does not have any identifiable contributors but has received cumulative contributions totaling at least $10,000, the disclosure shall be adjusted to include the name of the committee instead of the names of identifiable contributors (Secs. 9 & 10).
Requires any committee funding a political advertisement to disclose its top 5 identifiable contributors on an Internet website (Sec. 12).
Requires the name of any candidate or ballot measure appearing in a slate mailer to be marked with an asterisk if the slate mailer organization has received payment for its inclusion (Sec. 1).