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Who cares
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Sponsors
History
- Committed to rules
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.736
- Referred to elections
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the election law and the penal law, in relation to penalties for unlawful campaign contributions to county or town committees
Purpose
To enhance penalties for certain solicitations of political contributions for unlawful purposes.
Summary of provisions
Section one adds a new subdivision to the election law to make punishable as a class D felony any person who solicits a contribution to a county or town committee for the benefit of a candidate to whom a direct contribution of such amount is unlawful.
Section two adds this conduct to the definition of "transaction" under the penal code definition of money laundering.
Prior legislative history
New bill.
Justification
It is unlawful to contribute money to a county or town committee for the benefit of a specific candidate to whom one can't donate money directly, and it is further unlawful to attempt to hide the identity of a donor. This legislation will further criminalize this egregious behavior by punishing with a class D felony those individuals who solicit and direct these unlawful contributions in violation of contribution limits in the election law. Any "straw" contributions directed in this manner will also qualify as money laundering pursuant to this legislation.
In numerous Senate races in 2014, it has been reported that political operatives solicited campaign contributions and sought to circumvent existing contribution limits by directing donors to send funds to county committees in races where outside elected officials were attempting to affect the outcome. These funds could not legally be given to the candidates themselves, so the donors were directed to give them money to the county committees, who can legally transfer unlimited amounts of money to individual candidates, hiding the true source of the donations, and in a clear attempt to evade the limits. Enhancing the penalty for this conduct to a class D felony will further punish and deter individuals from attempting to circumvent legal contributions limits in this manner.
Fiscal implications for state
None.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.