Effective: August 29, 2005

• Increases penalty for prohibited personal use of campaign funds from $250 to $1,000 plus the amount converted to personal use for each violation. Violation penalties must be paid from personal funds and not from contributions received by candidate or candidate’s principal campaign committee.
• Prohibits candidate or candidate;s principal campaign committee from making payments to candidate for professional services performed by candidate.
• Adds the term “controlled committee” and defines it as a political action committee that for purposes of contributions and expenditures, is controlled directly or indirectly or acts jointly with a candidate or controlled committee. Specifies that a candidate controls a political committee if: the candidate, candidate’s agent, member of the candidate’s immediate family or other committee in the candidate’s control has a significant influence on the political committee’s actions or decisions; or if both the political committee and the candidate’s campaign committee have designated the candidate or a member of the candidate’s immediate family as a treasurer or director. Political action committee statements of organization will be required to indicate whether the committee is a “controlled committee” or not.
• Expands definition of “occupation” to include not only nature of individual’s principal business but employer’s name and address (city and state).
• Requires contributions received by candidates or political action committee treasurers to be deposited into campaign accounts no later than seven calendar days after receipt date.
• Requires campaign account statements produced by banking institutions to be retained for at least two years after the date the statement is issued.
• Requires that loans by or to a candidate or political committee be made by written agreement. A copy of the agreement must be kept until the loan is repaid.
• Requires statement of organization forms to include name of financial institution in which the account is established, name and number of the account, name of account holder, and names of all persons with signature authority on the account. *Note: statements of organization are not required for candidates who spend or receive less than $300 in a calendar year.
• Increases the threshold required to file an independent expenditure from $50 to $100.

• Requires all state and local political action committees (excluding candidates who neither raise nor spend more than $300 per election) to establish an exclusive campaign bank account that may only contain contributions received by the political committee.
• Requires state and local candidates who have previously filed statements of organization to file an amended statement of organization that includes the name of financial institution in which the account is established, name and number of the account, name of account holder, and names of all persons with signature authority on the account. *Note: statements of organization are not required for candidates who spend or receive less than $300 in a calendar year.
• Increases threshold for which details about contributor must be reported from more than $50 to more than $100.
• Increases threshold for which details about expenditure must be reported from any sum to more than $100 and requires reporting of business name and location of payees.
• Adds loan reporting requirements to include name of lender holding loan, terms of loan, and interest rate and repayment schedule.

• Directs Secretary of State to create web-based electronic filing system for state and local candidates and committees. Filing system must be operative on January 1, 2007.
• Requires transactions to be filed within seven days during a primary, general or special election cycle and within 30 days in other cases. Seven day reporting requirement applies to contributions and expenditures made and received beginning on the 42nd day before the date of any primary, general or special election and ending on Election Day. *Note: seven day reporting requirement does not apply to candidates who spend less than $2,000 in a calendar year and run in a special district and a school district election.
• Requires all new candidates and committees to establish dedicated bank accounts (exempts candidates with less than $300 activity per calendar year). *Note: previous requirement was per election; new requirement defines as calendar year.
• Allows cities and counties to adopt additional provisions regarding contribution and expenditure statements or independent expenditure statements in addition to requirements set by state statute. *Note: additional provisions do not apply to special districts and school districts.
• Expands Secretary of State’s role of filing officer for campaign finance reports to include local public offices and measures and respective political committees.
• Requires independent expenditures to be reported to the Secretary of State within seven calendar days.