Political Reform Act of 1974.

(1) Existing law, the Political Reform Act of 1974, provides for the comprehensive regulation of campaign financing, including requiring the reporting of campaign contributions and expenditures and imposing other reporting and recordkeeping requirements on campaign committees. The act also imposes administrative, civil, and criminal fines and penalties for violations of its provisions. This bill would increase certain administrative, civil, and criminal fines and penalties imposed by the act, as specified. (2) The act also regulates advertisements, which are defined as any general or public advertisement that is 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 or ballot measures. The act places certain disclosure requirements on advertisements. In addition to other penalties imposed by the act, a fine of up to triple the amount of the cost of an advertisement can be imposed on a person who violates the disclosure requirements for advertisements. This bill would require that television, video, or audio broadcast advertisements supporting or opposing a candidate or soliciting contributions in support of that purpose that are authorized by a candidate include a specified disclosure statement made by the candidate. The bill would increase the maximum penalty for a violation of these provisions to 6 times the amount of the costs of the advertisement. (3) The act regulates mass mailings, known as slate mailers, that support or oppose multiple candidates or ballot measures for an election. The act requires that each slate mailer identify the slate mailer organization or committee primarily formed to support or oppose one or more ballot measures that is sending the slate mailer, and to contain other specified information in specified formatting. The act requires that each candidate and each ballot measure that has paid to appear in the slate mailer be designated by an asterisk. This bill would additionally require that a candidate or ballot measure appearing in the slate mailer as a result of a payment made by a 3rd party be designated by an "**," and would require the notice to voters included on a slate mailer be revised to describe this new requirement. The bill would require that a slate mailer that is produced in a language other than English provide the notice to voters in that same language. The bill would require that a slate mailer provide the notice in both English and another language if a substantial portion of a slate mailer is produced in the other language. (4) The act requires a ballot measure committee, within 30 days of designating the numerical order of propositions appearing on the ballot, to identify itself as committee for or against that numbered proposition in all required references. This bill would reduce the amount of time in which a ballot measure committee must reference itself as a committee for or against a numbered proposition to within 10 days of designating the numerical order of propositions. (5) The act makes a knowing or willful violation of its provisions a misdemeanor and subjects offenders to criminal penalties. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. (6) The Political Reform Act of 1974, an initiative measure, provides that the Legislature may amend the act to further the act's purposes upon a 23 vote of each house and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.