Litigation

IA Governor Signs Disclosure Bill into Law

By Peter Hardin

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver signed into law a bill requiring new disclosure requirements for corporate spending on political advertising, making his state one of the first to respond to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.

The new law mandates that corporations and unions must disclose their political spending to state regulators, and they must identify themselves in the political advertising, according to articles by the Muscatine Journal and the Associated Press.

In Citizens United, the Supreme Court removed key restraints on corporate spending for advertising that supports or opposes political candidates, effectively permitting unlimited corporate political spending.

Culver indicated he disagreed with the decision, according to IowaPolitics.com, although he respects the high court’s role.

?As a former government teacher, I know and we all know that the Supreme Court decides what the law of the land means,? he said. ?But as governor, I believe we must continue to do all that we can to make sure that our election process is clean and transparent and that all Iowans can clearly and easily know which companies are donating to elections.?

Under the law, a corporate board must vote affirmatively before the political advertising may be run. The advertising must have information about who funded it, the corporation’s name and address and the name of its chief executive officer.

To learn more about how states are responding to Citizens United with new disclosure requirements, check out Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on April 09, 2010 (boomark / email).