Charles County Commissioner Bobby Rucci (D: 4th) brought forth a motion to reconsider a campaign finance reform package that failed passage earlier this year. This time, Rucci tipped the scales in favor of moving forward to allow the public a chance to chime in. Commissioner Vice President Reuben Collins (D) and Commisioner Debra Davis (D: 2nd) voted against the measure.
Davis and Collins both said they were under the impression an additional paragraph saying commissioner does not have to take extraordinary measure to find out identities of donors. The proposed legislation says, “Each listing of campaign contributions shall include the name of the donor, the amount of the contribution and the date on which the contribution was made. If a contribution is made by a corporation, business, partnership, Limited Liability Company or other entity, the principals of such entity, if known by the candidate of commissioner must be reported.”
“This verbiage is straight forward,” Commissioner President Candice Quinn Kelly (D) said.
“Our campaigns are not so large that we don’t know who our donors are,” Commissioner Ken Robinson (D: 1st) said. “’If known’ kind of says it all… We can return a check if we don’t trust who it’s from, I did it two times during my campaign. We’ve heard about campaign finance since we were kids. Here we are having the opportunity to get it done.”
Davis opposed the bill, saying it was ill-advised and that it does not close any loopholes. Collins also voted against sending the bill to public hearing because he wanted the language about not having to take extraordinary measures added. The motion, however, did pass as Rucci voted in favor of it along with Robinson and Kelly.
The public hearing was set for Tuesday, March 20th at 5:30pm EST in the commissioners meeting room at the government building in La Plata.
