Editorial: Faulty campaign finance laws

Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2005 | 6:56 a.m.

Nevada's campaign contribution laws remain among the worst in the nation, giving limited public access and few details about who is donating how much to political candidates, a new report says.

The report, a joint project of the UCLA School of Law and the California Voter Foundation, gave Nevada an F and rated it 46th nationally for campaign contribution-reporting laws alone and 40th overall when grades for electronic filing, disclosure content and public and online accessibility were included.

Nevada candidates are required to report contributions of $100 or more to the state, including the donors' names and how the money is spent. But the "Campaign Disclosure Project" study says that isn't enough information.

The state's laws fail to require information on the donors' occupations, employers and the cumulative amounts each has made. And finding the information is a complicated online treasure hunt.

Nevada "suffers from a lack of searchable data online, or even records that can be sorted or downloaded," the report states. The records are organized in such a way that to examine a candidate's filing history, a person must search through eight separate directories spanning the years 1998-2005.

Nevada's lawmakers have remained reluctant to tighten the laws. Legislators introduced about 10 bills regarding campaign finance reporting in the 2005 session, but fewer than five were approved, the Las Vegas Sun reported Tuesday.

A measure passed during the 2005 session requires limited liability companies to reveal more information about their investors when they make land deals with state or local governments. But it passed without an Assembly provision that would have revealed such investors' identities when the companies contributed to political campaigns.

Nevadans deserve to know the details when it comes to special interests and individuals who are bank-rolling political candidates.