Campaign law shortchanges voters

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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Iowa has strict rules requiring political candidates to disclose where their campaign funding comes from, and how it is spent.

But those rules don't necessarily apply to groups waging issue-based campaigns, rather than for or against a particular candidate.

The relative anonymity of independent expenditures means big-time donors can bankroll bitter battles with little accountability for their message. That's led to excessively negative campaigning that plays fast and loose with the facts.

It perverts the process, especially in low-profile, local elections most easily influenced by a bolus of anonymous spending by outside interest groups.

Take the recent hijacking of the Iowa Supreme Court judicial retention votes, which drew national fire - and nearly $1 million in outside spending - because of the court's 2009 ruling paving the way for same-sex marriage.

Voters deserve to know who is trying to influence issues and candidates; donors should be held accountable for their messages.

But as it stands, independent expenditures allow unlimited contributions from people and corporations to groups that can spend it for political purposes if they don't officially coordinate with a candidate's campaign. They also don't have to disclose contributors.

Iowa's recent F grade from a national organization that evaluates states' disclosures of political spending is a wake-up call for our state to bring more transparency to donations from these independent groups. We see no reason the state shouldn't at least match federal standards for reporting such expenditures.

Iowa is one of 26 states that fail to meet those standards, according to a review of campaign disclosure laws conducted by the non-profit Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism and the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

Iowa's regulations do not require all organizations to disclose spending. Nor do they require organizations to report the position they took in ads or campaign literature.

Requiring more disclosure could help bring restraint to over-the-top interest-group ads that can sour political races or entire elections, with no accountability.

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