A Virginia legislative panel formed to study campaign finance reform failed to deliver its final report Wednesday in another setback for advocates who say the cost of elections in the commonwealth is unsustainable.
Virginia’s rules governing election spending are among the least restrictive in the country, with virtually no limits on the amount of money individuals and corporations can give to state politicians. The General Assembly created the subcommittee nearly two years ago to review potential reforms, including limits on political donations and new disclosure requirements.
The panel was originally scheduled to complete its work in 2021, but state lawmakers granted it a 12-month extension early last year, citing delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The subcommittee was scheduled to release a final report of its findings and recommendations at the start of the 2023 legislative session on Jan. 11.
That deadline has come and gone. Although the subcommittee issued a draft report in October 2021, it never held a vote, as required by law, to formalize the recommendations. Then 2022 passed without holding a single meeting.
Neither state Rep. Margaret Ransone (R-Westmoreland) nor state Sen. Lionell Spruill (D-Chesapeake), who co-chairs the body, responded to OpenSecrets’ requests for comment. But the Virginia Mercury reported last month that there was confusion within the subcommittee about who exactly its members were, as well as logistical challenges in finding a time for everyone involved to meet in the state capitol in Richmond.
“It was a missed opportunity,” Nancy Morgan, campaign reform advocate for the group BigMoneyOutVA, said of the subcommittee’s inaction. He noted that four out of five Virginians think there is too much money in politics.
The joint resolution establishing the subcommittee notes that the spiraling cost of state elections not only forces politicians to spend more time fundraising than governing, but also tests “the integrity of the candidates who seek money and donors who respond.”
The resolution asked the subcommittee to review the effectiveness of current state laws and consider reforms, including contribution limits, public funding programs and more detailed disclosure requirements, with the goal of promoting “public trust” in Virginia’s campaign finance system.
Big donors dominate state elections
Virginia is one of four states, along with Nebraska, Oregon and Utah, that do not limit the amount of money candidates and political action committees can receive from individual donors, corporations, unions, party committees or other candidates.
Under this system, the cost of Virginia’s legislative races more than tripled over the past two decades, from $38.9 million in 1999 to nearly $134.8 million in 2019, when adjusted for inflation , according to an OpenSecrets analysis of campaign finance reports. Similarly, the cost of gubernatorial races rose from $58.4 million in 2001 to nearly $188 million in 2021, when adjusted for inflation.
The races for governor and lieutenant governor set new fundraising records in 2021, which are among the commonwealth’s costliest election years. The race for attorney general was the second most expensive in state history. Twenty-three state House races attracted more than $1 million in political donations, and more than a quarter also hit all-time fundraising records.
As election costs have grown, so has the role of big donors, whose contributions make up a huge portion of a candidate’s total fundraising. In 2021, nearly two-thirds of the money raised by state candidates in Virginia came from major donors who contributed more than $50,000 in total to the campaigns, OpenSecrets found. Conversely, 8.4% of the money raised came from small donors who gave $200 or less. These numbers do not take into account the large sums of money that wealthy individuals, corporations and special interest groups also funnel to independent party committees and PACs, which collectively spend millions on state elections.
Del State Rep. Tim Anderson (R-Virginia Beach), a “campaign finance hawk,” said he is concerned about the level of influence that amount of money can buy and wants the state’s campaign finance laws tightened. they are more like those of the federal government.
“If I were to run for a federal position … the most a donor could give me is $2,900,” he told OpenSecrets. “But as a delegate, I can receive unlimited money. And some delegates have received $500,000 from donors, $100,000 from donors. This is just a… this is a broken system.”
Anderson’s 2021 state House race, against incumbent state Del. Nancy Guy (D-Virginia Beach), attracted more than $3 million in political donations between the two candidates.
“That’s a crazy concept to wrap your head around,” Anderson said. “Three million dollars. For a delegate seat. And, you know, this is repeated all over Virginia in the highest profile races.”
“If kids have access to candy, they want candy”
Public opinion polls suggest that a majority of voters in both parties support limiting the influence of money in elections. In 2021, a poll commissioned by BigMoneyOutVA and VaOurWay found that 75% of Virginians, including 82% of Democrats and 67% of Republicans, approved of contribution limits. More than half favored banning corporations from giving money directly to campaigns, and 59% expressed support for a state constitutional amendment that would give Virginia more flexibility to regulate election spending.
However, proposed campaign finance reforms rarely get far in the Virginia General Assembly. After the subcommittee released its draft report in late 2021, state lawmakers from both parties introduced nearly two dozen bills to improve transparency and limit political spending. Several of the bills adopted language from the draft and would have codified the subcommittee’s unofficial recommendations, which called for a ban on the personal use of campaign funds, changes to election disclosure laws and improvements to voting systems. electronic information of the state, among other transparency reforms.
Only two bills crossed the governor’s desk: House Bill 125, which increased the fine for political advertising violations to $25,000, and House Bill 492, which established a records retention policy and system for audit disclosure reports. House Bill 86, which sought to establish a searchable campaign finance database, passed the state House and Senate but fell short of the $147,200 in funding needed to move forward.
“You’re asking kids to save the candy store,” Anderson said of his colleagues’ resistance to reform. “If kids have access to candy, they want candy, and the system is set up so that the more powerful you are in politics, the more money you can raise.”
HB 86 was among a handful of campaign finance reforms the freshman lawmaker introduced or sponsored during his first term. Another of his bills would have put a federal-style cap on the amount of money candidates can accept from a single donor. Like many other reform bills, it died in committee.
In November, Anderson introduced a resolution to impose term limits on state lawmakers, which he said would pave the way for campaign finance reforms.
“These politicians become so powerful because they’ve done it for so long,” he said. “They can raise so much money that they insulate themselves from any potential challenge.”
Democratic and Republican lawmakers have also resurrected several reform proposals from the previous legislative session.
Morgan expects some of these bills to be voted on. While he acknowledged that the upcoming election in Virginia could present a challenge, he said the reform projects also give lawmakers a chance to show they care about good government.
The 2023 election is likely to attract more money
All 140 seats in Virginia’s state legislature are on the ballot in November. Also, this year’s primary election could be unusually contentious after a court-approved redistricting plan forced multiple incumbents from the same party into the same districts. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit that tracks elections in the state, 21 state delegates and 12 state senators will compete against another incumbent for their party’s nomination.
Although state law prohibits lawmakers from raising campaign money during the General Assembly’s legislative session, PACs are already collecting large contributions ahead of what is expected to be an expensive election cycle. Twenty-two committees have reported receiving one or more donations in excess of $10,000 since the New Year, according to records obtained by VPAP.
The largest donation was from Securiport LLC, a border security company that poured $1 million into a newly formed PAC, Renew Virginia, on Jan. 4. Juan Pablo Segura, whose father is the company’s president and CEO, is rumored to be a potential Republican candidate for a state Senate seat covering Loudoun County, according to Virginia Scope.
Meanwhile, hedge fund manager Michael Bills, the state’s top individual donor in 2021, has made sure his PAC starts the new year with full coffers. Shortly after the November 2022 midterm elections, Bills invested $2.5 million in the Clean Virginia Fund, a group he formed in 2018 to counter Dominion Energy’s political influence in the state. The PAC provides donations to state candidates that do not accept money from Virginia’s largest publicly regulated electric utilities, a spokesperson told OpenSecrets.
