SB 644 California Senate · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Political Reform Act of 1974: contribution limits.

Summary

The Political Reform Act of 1974 prohibits a person, other than a small contributor committee or political party committee, from making to a candidate for elective state, county, or city office, and prohibits those candidates from accepting, a contribution totaling more than $3,000 per election, as that amount is adjusted by the Fair Political Practices Commission in January of every odd-numbered year to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. The amount of that contribution limit for an election occurring from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2026, inclusive, is $5,900. This bill would apply that contribution limit and certain related provisions to candidates for judicial, school district, and community college district office. The bill would authorize the Judicial Council, school districts, and community college districts to impose more restrictive contribution limits on candidates for judicial, school district, and community college district office, respectively. The bill's provisions would become operative on January 1, 2027. Any person who knowingly or willfully violates the Political Reform Act of 1974 is guilty of a misdemeanor. By adding new contribution limits to the act, the bill would expand the scope of an existing crime and thereby 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. 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 of the Legislature and compliance with specified procedural requirements. This bill would declare that it furthers the purposes of the act.

Bill status failed 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 20, 2025 Last action Feb 2, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

03/25/25 - Amended Senate → 05/01/25 - Amended Senate · 5 edits · May 1, 2025

MODERATE

The May 1 amendment to SB 644 removes the bill's amendment to Section 4 of the Elections Code, narrowing its scope to only the Education Code and Government Code provisions related to campaign contribution limits under the Political Reform Act. It also corrects several technical errors in the prior version, including removing erroneous 'January 1, 2021' operative dates that appeared alongside the correct January 1, 2027 sunset dates, and fixing duplicate subdivision lettering. The fiscal committee and state-mandated local program determinations were changed from 'no' to 'yes.'

SCOPE

The bill no longer amends Section 4 of the Elections Code (relating to elections interpretation). This removes a nonsubstantive change to Elections Code construction rules that was included in the prior version.

TECHNICAL

Multiple erroneous 'January 1, 2021' operative dates were removed from Sections 85301(d), 85305(b), 85306(e), 85307(c), 85315(d), and 85316(d). These appeared to be leftover text that conflicted with the correct January 1, 2027 sunset provisions already present in those sections.

Duplicate subdivision lettering was corrected. For example, Section 85306 previously had two subdivisions labeled (e), and Sections 85307, 85315, and 85316 each had duplicate (c) or (d) lettering. The May 1 version consolidates these into single properly-sequenced subdivisions.

The vote requirement language was simplified from 'majority 2/3' to '2/3.'

FISCAL

The fiscal committee determination changed from 'no' to 'yes,' indicating the bill now requires fiscal committee review. The state-mandated local program determination also changed from 'no' to 'yes,' acknowledging that the bill imposes a state-mandated local program.

02/20/25 - Introduced → 03/25/25 - Amended Senate · 6 edits · Mar 25, 2025

MODERATE

The bill was dramatically expanded from a minor nonsubstantive fix to the Elections Code into a major campaign finance reform that extends state contribution limits (currently $5,900 per election, CPI-adjusted) to candidates for judicial, school district, and community college district office. It also authorizes those local entities to impose more restrictive limits of their own. All new provisions take effect January 1, 2027.

Scope change

Expanded from a purely technical amendment to the Elections Code into a substantive campaign finance law extending state contribution limits and related rules to judicial, school district, and community college district candidates, effective January 1, 2027.

SCOPE

Contribution limits under the Political Reform Act now apply to candidates for elective judicial, school district, and community college district office, not just state, county, and city office. The limit is the same amount as for non-statewide state offices (currently $5,900 for 2025-2026 elections), adjusted annually by CPI.

Multiple Government Code sections (85301, 85305, 85306, 85307, 85315, 85316, 85317, 85318) are added to extend the full suite of campaign finance rules - including candidate-to-candidate contribution limits, fund transfer rules, loan limits ($100,000 cap), recall committee provisions, post-election contribution rules, carryover rules, and pre-primary fundraising rules - to judicial, school district, and community college district candidates.

REQUIREMENT

New Government Code Section 85702.7 authorizes the Judicial Council to impose contribution limits on judicial candidates that are more restrictive than the state default, and allows school districts and community college districts to do the same via resolution or initiative measure. These local limits take precedence over the state default.

TIMELINE

All new provisions become operative on January 1, 2027. The existing versions of the corresponding sections are set to expire and be repealed on that same date, creating a clean transition.

ENFORCEMENT

The bill now requires a two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature because it amends the Political Reform Act of 1974 (an initiative measure). It also declares that no state reimbursement is required for local agencies because the only new costs stem from creating or expanding a crime.

FISCAL

Education Code sections 35177 and 72029 are amended to explicitly authorize school district and community college district governing boards to limit campaign expenditures or contributions by resolution, with any such limit required to comply with the new Government Code Section 85702.7.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

May 23, 2025

Upper · Passed

May 23 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.

upper

May 1, 2025

Upper · Passed

Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

upper

Apr 30, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 1. Page 962.) (April 30).

upper

Apr 29, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on ED. (Ayes 4. Noes 1. Page 934.) (April 29). Re-referred to Com. on ED.

upper

Apr 2, 2025

Committee

Re-referred to Coms. on E. & C.A. and ED.

upper

Mar 25, 2025

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Mar 5, 2025

Committee

Referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Feb 20, 2025

Introduced

Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors