CULLMAN — New guidelines passed in last year’s special legislative session have made navigating the Fair Campaign Practices Act (FCPA) filing calendar a little more complicated for Alabama candidates seeking to qualify in next year’s primary elections.

The laws, which affect the manner and frequency with which candidates must report their contributions and expenditures — as well as how campaigns disclose backers of their paid broadcast advertising — were passed in the flurry of ethics reform legislation that followed the Republican landslide takeover of the State House last fall.

Among other changes, the new rules transformed the filing calendar used to advise candidates of deadlines from a straightforward, single-page document into a seven-page packet rife with explanatory fine print.

The laws also revise reporting practices for candidates who spend more than $1,000 on electioneering communications — such as television or radio advertising — and now require candidates to report the source of the advertising's financial backing.

Candidates have been filing under the newly-established guidelines since the campaign reporting season began in late September. Under the new law, financial reports must be submitted once a month from Sept. 30 until Jan. 31. Beginning Feb. 3, candidates must begin filing weekly reports until March 5, when they must then begin filing reports each day. During all of this, they must continue to file reports at the end of each month, as well as an annual report.

That differs significantly from the old FCPA filing calendar, which required candidates to file only at the time they qualified, and at intervals preceding the election by 45 days and 5 days, respectively.

The filing calendar will extend through 2012, following a similar pattern in the months and weeks leading up to the November general election.

Although candidates have legally been able to raise funds for the coming election since March 13 of this year, they have only recently begun the qualifying process. Local Democrats still will not officially begin qualifying until early December.

For municipal and county offices, candidates who exceed a cumulative contribution or spending threshold of $1,000 must report their campaign’s financial dealings under FCPA guidelines. However, single contributions and expenditures under $100 do not have to be itemized in candidates’ reports.

Probate judge Leah Patterson Lust, Cullman County’s chief election official, said it’s important for candidates and party chairs to remember what election-related services probate offices can — and can't — legally provide.

“As probate judge, I have the ministerial duty of receiving and recording many types of documents such as deeds, mortgages, and liens; during election years, my office and I receive and record campaign finance reports and other reports associated with elections,” said Lust. “Both of the party chairs — Ken Brown and Ronald Dillashaw — have been doing a terrific job of working with their candidates to inform them of what the filing process involves. That's important, because, as a probate judge, I do not provide legal advice or verify the validity of any report.

“I am fortunate to have friends in both parties, and I will do my best to help anyone and answer any specific question that he or she might have, regardless of party affiliation. But it would be unfair of me to offer detailed advice or instruction to any one candidate and not offer the same advice to all candidates.”

Thanks to a federal law dating from the civil rights era, when national government intervened to ensure equitable voting laws at the state level, both of Alabama's new laws weren't allowed to take effect until they were 'pre-cleared' by the U.S. Department of Justice in late September — only days before the monthly filing deadlines were set to begin.

The federal law, which comprises a portion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, is being challenged on several fronts — including a federal court case waged by a Shelby County interest group — as antiquated and unfair; a relic of the civil rights period that continues to make some states' election laws needlessly cumbersome and costly.

Lust said she expects the current election season to create significantly more paperwork and activity centered around the probate office, but she noted that most of the new FCPA guidelines ask candidates only to file their reports more frequently — and not to alter the actual content of what perennial candidates have become accustomed to filing in previous years.

“All paperwork having to do with elections can be considered confusing, even for seasoned politicians,” she said. “It's going to increase the traffic in and out of our office, especially near election time. The filings are extremely more recurrent than it was before — but essentially, it's just more-frequent reporting. And it definitely is providing more transparency in the election process.”



* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 270.