Newsletter Signup
The Austin Monitor thanks its sponsors. Become one.
Most Popular Stories
- For the first time in 20 years, more people are leaving Travis County than moving in
- Austin’s giant troll is finally finished. Here’s where you can find her.
- Travis County approves ambitious ‘Marshall Plan’ for northeast planning district
- Environmental commissioners air concerns about waterfront district plan
- Council hears plan for another South Congress PUD
-
Discover News By District
Ethics commission supportive, but skeptical of dark money resolution
Thursday, November 19, 2015 by Jack Craver
Commissioners on the Ethics Review Commission are enthusiastic about a proposal from Mayor Steve Adler that aims to force groups involved in local elections to disclose their spending and donors. After only a few minutes of discussion at a meeting last week, the commission voted quickly to recommend the resolution, which directs city staff to craft an ordinance to prevent “dark money” groups from evading the disclosure requirements that other political groups are subject to. The vote was unanimous, save for an abstention from Commissioner Matthew Lamon, who expressed support for the goal but said he didn’t know enough about the resolution yet to vote on it. But the commissioners’ enthusiasm for the proposed ordinance was tempered with a fair bit of skepticism of the city’s ability to enforce such a new law in the long-term. Commission Chair Austin Kaplan said he worried that any meaningful changes would be struck down by courts, in light of a spate of court decisions in recent years upending campaign finance regulations. “It’s very difficult, given the Supreme Court’s position on these things,” he said. Vice Chair Peter Einhorn concurred: “We don’t have a very favorable judiciary at this point.”
Join Your Friends and Neighbors
We're a nonprofit news organization, and we put our service to you above all else. That will never change. But public-service journalism requires community support from readers like you. Will you join your friends and neighbors to support our work and mission?