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Assembly committee hears AB 1984, a bid to bar corporate treasuries from California elections
Summary
Assemblymember Rogers presented AB 1984 to the California State Assembly Banking and Finance Committee, proposing to strip corporations and other "artificial persons" of the power to spend corporate treasuries in California elections; proponents said it would curb anonymous "dark money," while business groups called the measure unconstitutional. The committee took no final vote on AB 1984 and passed one unrelated consent-item to appropriations.
SACRAMENTO — Assemblymember Rogers introduced AB 1984 on behalf of a state-level effort to limit the role of corporate and organizational money in California elections, telling the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee the bill would remove the power of "artificial persons" to spend corporate treasuries on politics.
"This bill really is our attempt to try to neuter the impacts from Citizens United," Assemblymember Rogers said, arguing that unlimited spending has eroded public trust in democratic decisions and that removing certain corporate powers is a lawful state remedy. Rogers said the text uses a broad definition of "artificial persons" to cover business corporations, nonprofits, trusts and some unincorporated associations.
Tom Moore, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who described himself as the architect of the bill's legal theory, told the committee the measure focuses on corporate powers rather than individual speech. "What AB 1984 does is simple: it alters the law concerning corporations and no longer…
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