A 21-year-old Louisiana Board of Ethics advisory opinion limiting when campaign contributions can be received and solicited for the general election strays from federal law and some want that to change.
The Shreveport Times reports Bobby Jelks, president and CEO of Franks Management Company, has asked the ethics board to reverse the 1994 ruling interpreting provisions in the state’s Campaign Finance Disclosure Act to forbid donors from prepaying for general elections.
The ruling has been used to prevent excessive contributions to political candidates. But Jelks’ attorneys say it undermines transparency in local elections.
The ethics board is standing by the interpretation of the state law, which explicitly says the primary and general elections are separate elections.
“A contribution must be reported during the reporting period in which it was received,” the board said in its response to Jelks’ request for a declaratory opinion.
Jelks’ Baton Rouge-based attorneys, Gray Sexton and Alesia Ardoin, say they are not backing down and intend to appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeal to change how the state law is applied.
In his original request for the board to reconsider the two-decade-old ruling, Jelks and his attorneys argue reporting delays encourage “deals” to be made where a candidate knows who’s supporting him in the general election while the public remains in the dark.
“The primary goal of the Campaign Finance Disclosure Law is to provide a fully informed electorate,” Sexton says. “It’s unfortunate that the ethics board has in effect discouraged the reporting of contributions in a timely manner for use during a general election.”
Under Louisiana law, money cannot be contributed or solicited for a general election until the day following the primary election—despite the months candidates spend collecting funds for their primary race. Promises to donate for a general election prior to the actual election also are prohibited, the Board of Ethics board has ruled.
Sexton, the state’s former ethics administrator, says the way Louisiana currently handles the situation encourages a mad dash for cash by candidates who typically have less than 30 days to raise money for the general election. It also deprives the state’s electorate of having full knowledge of money being received and spent during the general election before voters cast ballots, he says.
