The Elections Committee discussed several bills today, and of particular concern is the HB 710 which would create a new, consolidated board that will review every case in the state that deals with ethical, lobbying, and campaign finance violations. The bill’s sponsor, Representative David Lewis, affirmed that this board would be a one-stop-shop for election violations and it will maintain oversight over this broad arena. The board would have 6 members, with no more than 3 members being of the same party. The Governor, Speaker of the House, and President Pro Tempore of the Senate would all select two candidates, one being Republican and the other Democrat.
Representative Lewis affirmed that this would provide one board the opportunity to rid the system of duplicate misdeeds and a more uniform way of offering advice on certain election issues. However, Democrats such as Representative Fisher, Weiss, and Ross opposed the bill because of questions surrounding the funding of the new board and that they had not received enough time to consider the bill in its entirety. Representative Ross proposed an amendment which would have yet again turned the bill into a study. However, the amendment failed and the bill eventually received a favorable report after a 15 to 11 decision within the committee.
