S-3035

AN ACT Relating to campaign financing; adding new sections to chapter 42.17 RCW; creating a new section; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The campaign contribution limits of section 3 of this act apply only to the financing of election campaigns in primary, general, special, or recall elections for state executive offices and state legislative offices. The campaign contribution limits of section 3 of this act do not apply to a political committee established for the exclusive purpose of receiving contributions and making expenditures in support of or in opposition to a ballot proposition campaign, other than the recall of a state executive officer or state legislator.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. Unless the context clearly requires to the contrary, the definitions in this section apply throughout sections 1 through 3 of this act.

(1) "Campaign period" means:

(a) For a candidate, the time period beginning on the day an individual becomes a candidate or when a recall of the individual is demanded by filing a charge under RCW 29.82.015, and ending when the final report is filed under RCW 42.17.080(2)(c);

(b) For a political committee, the two-year period beginning January 1st of each odd-numbered year.

(2) "Candidate" means the individual seeking election or being recalled and a political committee that is under the direction or control of a candidate or an agent of the candidate.

(3) "State executive office" means the executive offices for which all electors in the state are eligible to vote, including governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state auditor, state treasurer, secretary of state, commissioner of public lands, insurance commissioner, and superintendent of public instruction.

(4) "State legislative office" means an elected office in the state senate or the state house of representatives.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. (1) No person may make to a candidate, and no candidate may accept from a person, contributions exceeding one thousand dollars in value for state legislative or state executive offices in a campaign period. For each year after 1992, the commission shall adjust this amount for cost-of-living changes, rounded to the nearest fifty dollars.

(2) The portion of a contribution that exceeds the limit prescribed under this section that is received by any candidate shall, within one week of receipt, be returned to the contributor or escheat to the state.

(3) Contributions and expenditures by a person controlled by another person are regarded as contributions and expenditures by the latter. A corporation is controlled by another person when the latter owns, directly or indirectly, more than fifty percent of the common stock of the corporation.

(4) A contribution to a political party committee or a political committee shall not be earmarked or designated, formally or informally, for a particular candidate or political committee nor may a committee solicit or accept any such contribution.

(5) The limitations imposed by this section do not apply to an individual's contributions of the individual's own personal resources to the individual's own campaign, or to surplus funds retained for use in a subsequent campaign of the individual.

(6) Contributions made by political committees established, financed, maintained, or controlled by a corporation, organization, or any other person, including a parent, subsidiary, branch, division, department, or local unit of that person, are considered to have been made by a single political committee.

(7) Nothing in this section limits transfers between candidates or political committees of funds raised through joint fund-raising efforts.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. Sections 1 through 3 of this act are intended to be remedial and shall be liberally construed to carry out the purposes described in RCW 42.17.010.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. Sections 1 through 3 of this act are each added to chapter 42.17 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. This act shall take effect January 1, 1993.