BILL REQ. #:  S-3482.1 

Read first time 01/12/10.   Referred to Committee on Government Operations & Elections.

     AN ACT Relating to city council campaign contribution limits; and adding a new section to chapter 42.17 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 42.17 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) No person may make contributions to a candidate for city council that in the aggregate exceed eight hundred dollars for each election in which the candidate is on the ballot or appears as a write-in candidate.
     (2) No person may make contributions to a city councilmember against whom charges have been filed during a recall campaign that in the aggregate exceed eight hundred dollars if for a city council office.
     (3) A contribution received within the twelve-month period after a recall election concerning a city council office is considered to be a contribution during that recall campaign if the contribution is used to pay a debt or obligation incurred to influence the outcome of that recall campaign.
     (4) The contributions made to a candidate or received by a candidate for a primary or special election conducted to fill a city council vacancy shall not be counted toward any of the limitations that apply to the candidate or to contributions made to the candidate for any other primary or election.
     (5) A corporation or business entity not doing business in Washington state, and a labor union with fewer than ten members who reside in Washington state, may not make contributions reportable under this chapter to a candidate having the expectation of making expenditures in support of the recall of the official. This subsection does not apply to loans made in the ordinary course of business.
     (6) No person may accept contributions that exceed the contribution limitations provided in this section.
     (7) A local district with contribution limits already established for city council campaigns may continue to practice such standards so long as the contribution limit does not exceed eight hundred dollars.
     (8) An expenditure or contribution earmarked for voter registration, for absentee ballot information, for precinct caucuses, for get-out-the-vote campaigns, for precinct judges or inspectors, for sample ballots, or for ballot counting, all without promotion of or political advertising for individual candidates, is exempt from the contribution limits of this section.