An Act to Require Disclosure of Campaign Funding Sources
Maine Legislature, Session 131, LD 1590
Committee: Veterans and Legal Affairs
Sponsors: BENNETT, RIELLY
Amends: 21-A MRSA §1017-A, 21-A MRSA §1064

Legislative Document
No. 1590
S.P. 621
In Senate, April 11, 2023
An Act to Require Disclosure of Campaign Funding Sources
Reference to the Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs suggested and ordered printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator BENNETT of Oxford.
Cosponsored by Representative: RIELLY of Westbrook.
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Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  21-A MRSA §1017-A, sub-§1-A is enacted to read:
1-A.  Disclosure of sources of original funds.  A party committee shall comply with 
the requirements of section 1064.
Sec. 2.  21-A MRSA §1064 is enacted to read:
§1064.  Sources of campaign funds
1. Definitions.  As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the 
following terms have the following meanings.
A. "Covered committee" means a committee required to file a report under section 
1017-A or 1059 that makes, in one election cycle, more than $50,000 in expenditures 
and receives a contribution from a covered contributor.
B. "Covered contributor" means a person that contributes more than $10,000 to a 
covered committee in an election cycle.
C. "Election cycle" means the 2-year period beginning the day after a general election 
and ending the day of the next general election.
D. "Original funds" means an asset over which a covered contributor has legal control 
and to which the person holds title that the person received from:
(1) Salary, wages or other earned income from employment;
(2) Investment income, sale of assets or bequests;
(3) Distributions from a partnership, limited liability company or trust in which the 
person holds a legal interest;
(4) Commercial transactions; or
(5) Membership dues, union dues or other similar periodic payments to an 
organization, association or group as long as the payments do not exceed $10,000 
per year per person.
E. "Pass-through funds" means funds over which a covered contributor has legal 
control and to which the person holds title that are not original funds.
2. Notice to disclose or opt out.  Upon receipt of a contribution from a covered 
contributor, a covered committee shall notify the covered contributor in writing that the 
funds may be used to make expenditures to influence a campaign in this State and that 
information about the sources of pass-through funds may be required and reported under 
this section. The notice must provide that the covered contributor has 21 days in which the 
covered contributor may state that those funds are original funds; the funds are pass-
through funds or the covered contributor opts out of transferring the funds out to influence 
a campaign in this State.  If a covered contributor states that the funds include pass-through 
funds, the covered contributor shall provide the covered committee with the sources of the 
original funds totaling at least as much as the contribution as well as the identity of all 3rd 
parties that transferred the original funds from the origin of the funds until the funds were 
received by the covered contributor.  A covered contributor that received donations 
exceeding the amount of the covered contribution may choose which sources of original 
funds to report as long as the covered contributor reports a total amount of original funds 
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at least equal to the amount of the covered contribution and all persons that previously 
transferred those original funds from the origin of the funds.  A covered committee shall 
maintain records of this information for at least 5 years and provide the records to the 
commission upon request. Any covered contributor that has not confirmed the source of 
original funds within 21 days is presumed to have opted out of allowing the contribution to 
be used to influence a campaign in this State.  Notice provided pursuant to this subsection 
must be on a form prescribed by the commission.  The covered committee shall submit a 
copy of the notice sent to the covered contributor to the commission.
3. Restrictions.  A contribution from a covered contributor may be used or transferred 
by the covered committee immediately upon the covered committee's receipt of 
information required under subsection 2.  A covered committee may not use or transfer 
funds received from a covered contributor for the purpose of influencing a campaign in this 
State if the covered contributor has opted out or is presumed to have opted out pursuant to 
subsection 2.  Funds for which the covered contributor has opted out pursuant to subsection 
must be segregated from funds in the covered committee's campaign account described 
in section 1054.  This subsection may not be construed to prohibit the use or transfer of 
such funds for other purposes.
4. Disclosure of sources of original funds.  A covered committee shall disclose the 
following information received from a covered contributor pursuant to subsection 2 in an 
appropriate report required under section 1017-A or 1059:
A.  The name and mailing address of each covered contributor during the election 
cycle. For a covered contributor that has contributed more than $10,000 and that is an 
individual, the disclosure must also include the covered contributor's occupation and 
place of business;
B.  The date and amount of original funds received from each covered contributor 
described in paragraph A; and
C.  The identity of all 3rd parties that transferred the original funds from the origin of 
the original funds until the funds were received by the covered committee.
A covered committee is not responsible for reporting the information required by this 
subsection for any funds for which a covered contributor has opted out pursuant to 
subsection 2. In making the required reports under this subsection, a covered committee 
may rely upon the information it received pursuant to subsection 2, unless the covered 
committee knows or has reason to know that the information is false or incomplete.
5. Top 3 funders; original sources.  For a communication made by a covered 
committee that is an independent expenditure, as defined in section 1019-B, subsection 1, 
or a communication subject to section 1055-A, the communication must include the 
statement described in section 1014, subsection 2-B.  The top 3 funders included in the 
statement must be the funders that are the sources, since the day following the most recent 
general election day, of the highest dollar amounts of original funds directly or indirectly 
contributed to the covered committee making the communication.  Section 1014, 
subsection 2-B, paragraph E does not apply to the statement required by this subsection.
6. Prior funds.  For the purposes of disclosing original sources under this section, a 
covered contributor that received funds that are not its own original funds prior to January 
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1, 2024 or that has held an amount of funds at least equal to $10,000 without interruption 
for a period of 5 years, may consider those funds its own original funds.
7. Penalties.  Notwithstanding section 1004-A, subsections 4 and 5 and section 1014, 
subsection 4, the commission may assess a penalty for a violation of this section of not 
more than $20,000, in addition to any penalty assessed under sections 1020-A and 1062-
A.  When determining the amount of any penalty, the commission shall consider the amount 
of the original funds not disclosed, the harm suffered by the public from the lack of 
disclosure and the covered committee's compliance record.  If the commission determines 
that adjusting the statutory maximum penalty amount would serve the purposes of this 
section, it may recommend adjustments in a report to the joint standing committee of the 
Legislature having jurisdiction over campaign finance reporting matters.
8. Rules.  The commission shall adopt rules to implement this section, including the 
content and timing of the notice described in subsection 2 and report described in 
subsection 4.  Rules adopted under this subsection are routine technical rules as defined in 
Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.
Sec. 3.  Effective date.  That section of this Act that enacts the Maine Revised 
Statutes, Title 21-A, section 1064, subsection 7 takes effect January 1, 2025.
SUMMARY
This bill requires certain party committees, political action committees and ballot 
question committees to notify and seek consent from a contributor of more than $10,000 in 
writing that the contribution may be used to make expenditures to influence a political 
campaign in this State.  The bill requires the committee to report to the Commission on 
Governmental Ethics and Election Practices information about the identity of certain 
contributors and 3rd parties and the amount of the contribution used to make expenditures 
to influence a political campaign in this State.  The bill contains other requirements 
regarding the source of contributions, required reporting relating to the top 3 funders and 
penalties for violations.