Tagged: Campaign Finance

The political ad barrage is here. Watch a TV show or check out a YouTube video and you’re likely to see the commercials. Same goes for fliers in the mail or yard signs on street corners.

Those ads and signs mean campaign money is flowing into the state, and this past Wednesday, New Hampshire candidates filed their latest campaign finance reports. 

NHPR correspondent Brian Wallstin joins All Things Considered host Brady Carlson with a little of what’s in those reports.

In the days leading up to the Sept. 11 primary, a Manchester-based political action committee called New Hampshire Republicans for Freedom and Equality launched a direct-mail campaign to support the re-election of 40 Republican House members who helped turn back efforts to repeal the state's same-sex marriage law.

After the U.S. Supreme Court's "Citizens United" decision two years ago, state campaign finance laws have come under scrutiny. Now, the N.H. Attorney General has weighed in saying state restrictions on certain political donation no longer apply. We get reaction to this change, and what it means for future elections.

Guests

Larry Noble – CEO and president of Americans for Campaign Reform, working to enact public funding of all federal elections

No candidate in the  2012 gubernatorial race benefited more from a major loophole in New Hampshire's political-finance regulations than Republican Kevin Smith. 

State election law limits corporate campaign contributions to $7,000 per election cycle, the same as individual donors. But nothing in the law prohibits multiple limited-liability companies controlled by the same individual to donate on behalf of each LLC, making it easy for wealthy donors to exceed the statutory limits.

Campaign finance disclosures are a bedrock principle of open government, which assumes that citizens have the right to know who is paying, and how much, to affect the outcome of an election.

The candidates for governor are touting their fundraising ahead of Wednesday's midnight deadline to submit campaign finance.

What we know so far: Republican Ovide Lamontagne says his campaign raised about $1.2 million dollars. Democrat Maggie Hassan, $930,000; Democrat Jackie Cilley about $281 thousand dollars. No word as of Wednesday afternoon from Republican Kevin Smith.

That's what we know; but there’s a lot we don’t know about campaign money. And many election observers say a lot of campaign money won’t ever show up in candidate reports anyway.

With the 2012 primary less than three weeks away, candidates for state office in New Hampshire have until midnight Wednesday to file their first campaign finance reports with the Secretary of State's office.