The State Campaign Finance Index 2022 analyzes the laws of 50 states and the District of Columbia relating to the scope, independence, and powers of state agencies which regulate campaign finance, as well as each state's laws on campaign coordination, campaign contributions, disclosure of those contributions, requirements for transparency of funding of independent expenditures and political advertisements, and the availability of campaign finance information. The Index focuses on laws pertaining to state executive and legislative races.
This Index demonstrates the wide disparity among state campaign finance laws and the significant deficiencies in regulating the millions of dollars flowing to state level campaigns.
No state achieved a perfect score, but Washington scored 83.99, California scored 80.95, Maine scored 80.48, and Connecticut scored 79.52.
17 states scored below 60.
South Dakota (45.06), Utah (45.48), and Indiana (38.33) scored at the bottom.
Principle 1. All states should have an independent agency with jurisdiction over campaign finance with wide powers to investigate and sanction violations of campaign finance laws.
21 states have one or more agency with jurisdiction over campaign finance, with the powers necessary to conduct independent investigations and compel testimony and documents through subpoenas.
Nine states (Arizona, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia) have no power to sanction violations.
Principle 2. Sanctions should be meaningful in order to deter violations of campaign finance laws and not left to criminal proceedings.
Agencies in 35 states lack independent authority to enjoin, in any way, violators of campaign finance laws.
13 states only have the authority to issue minimal fines of $25 a day or less for late filing of campaign reports.
For fines with respect to other substantive violations, 27 states either have no authority to impose fines, can only impose fines for one or two kinds of violations or can impose only minimal fines.
Only California and Georgia received full credit with the ability to issue injunctions and substantive fines for late filing and other violations of campaign finance laws.
Principle 3. Members of the agency should be statutorily protected from removal without cause.
18 states do not statutorily protect the members of their agency or the Secretary of State from removal without cause.
Principle 4. States should limit contributions to political candidates by individuals and PACs to the Federal limit of $2,900 per election and prohibit corporations and unions from making contributions.
16 states have no limits on individual contributions or allow individuals to contribute more than $10,000 per election.
21 states have no limits on PAC contributions to candidates or permit PAC contributions in excess of $10,000.
Eight states have no limits on contributions by corporations/unions or permit contributions in excess of $10,000.
17 states follow Federal limits for individual contributions, 14 follow Federal limits for PAC contributions, and 19 follow Federal limits for corporations/unions.
Principle 5. States should limit contributions to political parties by individuals and PACs to the Federal limit of $36,500 and $15,000, per year respectively, and prohibit corporations and unions from making such contributions.
The majority of states (28) have no limits on individual or PAC contributions to a state political party or permit individuals and PACs to contribute in excess of $36,500.
Principle 6. States should clearly delineate conduct and types of spending that constitute coordination between campaigns and independent spenders and require the establishment of firewalls between campaigns and independent spenders to ensure that such spending is truly "independent."
19 states have detailed rules defining the types of conduct and campaign spending that count as "coordination."
Only nine states authorize the creation of firewalls as a means to prevent coordination.
Principle 7. States should mandate comprehensive disclosure about donors to independent political spenders, as well as information about the beneficial owners of LLCs and donors to 501(c) organizations which contribute to those independent spenders.
Currently, only Rhode Island requires reporting 1) name, address, date, and amount of contributions above a reasonable level by all contributors to independent spenders and 2) the underlying sources of funding for these contributions made by LLCs and 501(c) organizations.
Alaska, California, and Idaho received full credit for their reporting requirements for funders of 501(c) groups; Colorado received full credit for reporting the beneficial owners of contributing LLCs.
South Carolina and Indiana do not require independent spenders to report any information about their contributors.
Principle 8. Political advertisements across all forms of media - print, television/radio, and Internet - should be transparent about their underlying funding.
The majority of states (34) received full credit for each category of media.
Georgia is the only state that does not require the disclosure of payors of political advertisements across any media.
12 states received full credit for requiring disclosure on print and broadcast media but have no or limited disclosure requirements for political advertisement or other electioneering communications on Internet-based media.
Principle 9. States should require candidates and independent spenders to report contributions received and expenditures made within the last 30 days before an election in a timely manner so that voters can judge candidates and independent spenders more accurately.
Almost all states (47) require candidates to report contributions of $1,000 or more received within 30 days of an election. Those reports have to be filed within 24 to 48 hours of receipt in every state except Vermont, Massachusetts, Arizona and Arkansas. Only Nevada has no pre-election reporting requirement at all.
The majority of states (34 states) require reporting of expenditures by independent spenders of $5,000 or more within 30 days of an election within 24 to 48 hours of receipt and include contribution information. Five states (Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada, South Dakota, and Utah) do not require pre-election reports from independent spenders.
Principle 10. All campaign finance information should be filed electronically and be easily accessible and sortable on the agency's website.
Pennsylvania and South Dakota still allow campaign finance reports to be filed on paper. Every other state requires campaign finance information to be filed electronically.
With the exception of Virginia, Utah, South Dakota, Oregon, and Nebraska, all states have websites which can be searched and sorted with at least four of the variables below.
For candidates - by name, year, office, date and amount of contribution or expenditure, contributors.
For independent spenders - year, amount of expenditure and candidate supported or opposed.
The State Campaign Finance Index 2022 showcases the wide variation in state campaign finance laws across the country and highlights gaps that continue to exist. We hope that our Index will enable constituents to demand commitment from public officials to address the shortcomings of their state's campaign finance laws.
The Overall Scoring Chart provides the total score for each state, along with scoring for each question. Please note this document must be read side-by-side with our scoring rubric.
The scoring rubric serves as the answer key to the scoring chart, matching index scores to succinct descriptions of full credit, partial credit, and no credit answers to the research questions (and the corresponding scoring chart keywords). Please note this document must be read side-by-side with our scoring chart.
