CLINT MURPHY: Bringing campaign finance into the sunshine

Tens of thousands of Georgians face a nightmare scenario Tuesday when they go to cast ballots in local races for mayor and city council.

An obscure state law passed in 2013 has blocked their access to campaign finance information that would inform their decision-making about candidates in their communities. Because decisions that directly affect people’s lives are made by local governments, it’s critical that voters know who is funding the campaigns of incumbents and challengers.

Our organization, Common Cause Georgia, along with a diverse coalition including The League of Women Voters of Georgia, Better Georgia, and the Atlanta Tea Party Patriots, has discovered that a massive amount of personal financial disclosure information and campaign contribution disclosure reports, mandatory fillings for all candidates for office, are inaccessible.

We believe what we found is an unintended consequence of a well-intentioned bill. House Bill 143 aimed to permit municipal clerks and local election superintendents to assist incumbents and candidates in completing their required disclosure reports. The local clerks and election superintendents were to transmit the completed reports to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, commonly known as the ethics commission, which would publish the information online, available to everyone.

The reality is that this information is nearly impossible to find. In Dublin, for example, no member of city government has a report available since January 2014, when HB 143 took effect. Similar transparency issues exist in every corner of Georgia. While it should be easy for everyone to learn who is funding campaigns for these important positions in our communities, we found that the information would be close-to-impossible to obtain.

The bottom line is that an untold amount of money is being spent on local elections and, because of HB 143; there is a real lack of transparency and enforcement of our state’s campaign finance laws.

The ethics commission should use its full authority to ensure campaign finance reports filed at the local level are made available online for access by everyone. The Commission also needs to determine the most practical, realistic way to begin collecting the massive amount of fines and fees owed by local elected candidates and officials. Additionally, the commission needs to ensure a robust auditing system is in place, so candidates can be held accountable on a routine basis.

The 2016 legislative session is fast approaching and Common Cause Georgia and its allies are committed to closing these loopholes and bringing campaign finance information back into the sunshine. Every Georgian deserves unfettered access to information on who funds campaigns in their communities; 2015 needs to be the last year any Georgian goes to the polls without that knowledge.

Clint Murphy is chairman of Common Cause Georgia.