CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Legislators reached the milestone 50th day of the 2015 regular session with a flurry of more than 50 bills on the House and Senate calendars on “crossover day,” the last day this session for the House and Senate to pass bills originating in their houses.
In the Senate, one of the final bills taken up before the deadline was compromise legislation (SB541) that would change state campaign finance law.
The version that passed on a 28-6 vote Wednesday evening raises maximum candidate campaign contributions per election cycle from the current $1,000 to $2,700 – matching the federal maximum.
As originally drafted, however, the bill had no limits, and in a later version, would have allowed individual contributions of as much as $25,000 for statewide elected offices.
Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, who co-authored the compromise, told senators he held the original draft of the bill in “great disdain,” but said the revised legislation would allow sunshine into an increasingly gray world of campaign finance.
“We have seen in the last few election cycles, more and more and more money put into the elections by folks who won’t identify who they are,” he said of gray money independent expenditure campaigns.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Trump, R-Morgan, said the compromise not only puts reasonable caps on campaign contributions, but also expands disclosure on campaign contributions and expenditures, both for candidates and political action committees and other organizations.
“The idea is to give the voters, citizens as much information as we can…