Latinnews.com ($) reports that the deal among leftwing parties to support a single mayoral candidate for Sao Paolo, Marta Suplicy, was in part to give her more of the state subsidized airtime:
The electoral accord will give Suplicy almost seven minutes of free air time on television for electoral broadcasts, second only to the incumbent mayor Gilberto Kassab, of the opposition Democratas. This should help her to consolidate her current poll lead in São Paulo.
The BBC reports:
Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander has resigned “with deep regret” after breaking rules on declaring donations.
It came as she faced a one-day ban from Holyrood after failing to register donations to her leadership campaign.
It seems she failed to declare about £10,000:
She later updated her register with details of 10 donors, who each gave about £1,000 to her campaign.
Jeff Zeleny at the NYTimes Blog reports:
Senator Barack Obama, as he becomes his party’s presumptive presidential nominee, is starting to exert his authority over the Democratic National Committee. A first step? New fund-raising guidelines.
Mr. Obama is announcing today that the D.N.C. will no longer accept contributions from federal lobbyists or political action committees, which follows the rules he established for his own campaign last year.
WZTV in Tennessee reports:
A campaign finance reform bill to make it harder for candidates to hide the source of their campaign finances appeared to be dead as the 2008 regular session of the Legislature neared an end.
From The Salt Lake Tribune in Utah, a report begins:
The state’s 8-year-old electronic campaign finance reporting system is getting an overhaul, but for now, candidates can change or delete entries to their online documents without explanation or a visible trail.
Pinto-Duschinsky’s report done for Policy Exchange makes several headlines, including: Public subsidies to MPs ‘rising’, Low-level party funding ‘a myth’ and Parties ’spend less fighting elections than 40 years ago’.
Mexico: IFE declares ads illegal
Latinnews.com($) reports: “On 21 April the Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) ordered two TV ads to be taken off the air.” PAN and a group were alleged to have gone too far in their depiction of former presidential candidate Lopez Obrador, and that the latter “had broken the law which bans unregistered groups from attacking political parties.”
From Honolulu Advisor:
A pilot program to publicly finance Big Island County Council elections could be in danger after the state Senate amended the proposal yesterday to also soften restrictions on corporate campaign contributions.
Linking the conflicting ideas in the same bill could poison negotiations if the bill moves to a state House and Senate conference committee. State Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), and other Senate leaders said they are not trying to jeopardize the pilot program but want to give the House another chance to clarify the state’s campaign-finance law on corporate contributions.
Report at Radio NZ.
The Globe and Mail reports:
TORONTO — Ontario’s two opposition parties went heavily into debt during last fall’s election campaign in an unsuccessful attempt to oust the governing Liberals, documents show.
The Progressive Conservative Party spent nearly twice as much as it raised, leaving it with a deficit of $2.9-million, according to election finance records released yesterday.
All three parties emerged from the Oct. 10 election campaign in the red.
But the New Democrats racked up the largest deficit of $3.9-million, after spending more than five times what they raised.
Hoy.com (spanish) reports that the President of the Central Electoral Committee (JCE) in the Dominican Republic wants a reduction in the public financing given to the largest parties to achieve a more equitable distribution.
Boston.com reports:
MONTPELIER, Vt.—Gov. Jim Douglas on Friday vetoed the Legislature’s latest effort to limit the influence of big money in politics, as well as an instant-runoff voting bill.
Vote buying in Argentina
A ”puntero” folding ballots and collecting money. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-jPHuYlyls
US: More on Kansas reforms
Hutchinson News Online has more on the reforms passed by the Kansas House:
The chamber overwhelmingly approved four bills making modest changes to state laws governing the handling of political money.
One of the bigger shifts involves shortening a blackout period shortly before an election. The loophole has kept the public from learning about last-minute campaign finance transactions.
However, the House handily defeated, on a 75-46 vote, a Democrat-backed proposal that would’ve required more groups to report information by requiring “issue” advertisers to reveal their backers and spending information.
Campaign finance reform efforts have stalled in the House in recent years, in part because the chamber’s leaders have been reluctant to open the issue for contentious and lengthy floor debates.
Nicaragua is among the Central American countries that have not lived up to the promises made in November 2006 to increase transparency in the finance of campaigns, according to Transparency International’s report, writes El Nuevo Diario (spanish) last week.
The NYTimes reports today:
Taking advantage of his financial edge, Senator Barack Obama is buying large amounts of advertising and building extensive get-out-the-vote operations in an effort to end Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s candidacy with twin defeats Tuesday in Ohio and Texas.
The intensity of Mr. Obama’s drive is especially apparent on television, where he has outspent Mrs. Clinton by nearly two to one in the two states.
Spain v. Latin America
Mentioning short campaign periods and limits on expenditures in privately-owned media, LatioMadrid writes that the rules governing political campaigns are more “clear” and “strict” in Spain than in Latin America, and thus that campaigns are less expensive. They fail to mention that information about campaign donations and expenditures are far more forthcoming in several Latin American countries (e.g. Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, and perhaps even Mexico).
Clarín (spanish) writes that the cross-province fragmentation of parties - which serve as “collectors” and resource supporters for the national candidates - mask the expenditures spent by each coalition. It also recognizes the huge disparity in expenditures for November’s election between the government and opposition coalitions ($17M for Cristina Fernandez’s Frente para Victoria versus $5.7M for Elisa Carrió’s Coalición Cívica).
The Kansas City Star’s David Klepper writes:
The Kansas House on Friday passed campaign finance bills to require political action committees to give more details about how they spend money and to clarify spending rules for candidates.
All four bills passed easily and now go to the Senate for consideration.
The most significant bill, HB 2408, would require political action committees and political parties to disclose more about how they spend money on behalf of candidates. Currently, candidates must disclose money they receive and spend, but loopholes allow PACs to keep some of their spending under wraps.
“Last election, 13 PACs spent over $1 million on campaigns that wasn’t disclosed,” said Rep. Pat Colloton, a Leawood Republican.
“This gives voters more information about who is funding the candidate.”
Yesterday, the BBC reported:
Tory leader David Cameron and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg are among 14 MPs facing a reprimand for declaring donations too late.
The Electoral Commission notes a £7,285 helicopter flight donated to Mr Cameron in 2005 and six donations worth £14,490 to Mr Clegg, dating back to 2006.
MPs have to register donations over £1,000 within 30 days.
Last week, the BBC also wrote:
Political parties received £16.7m in donations in the final quarter of last year, the Electoral Commission says.
This is the third-highest amount ever, beaten only in the periods leading up to the 2001 and 2005 general elections.
The Conservative Party was given £9.8m between 1 October and 31 December 2007, while Labour received £5.5m.
The Liberal Democrats received £947,000, followed by the Scottish National Party on £144,000, the commission reported.
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