Senate panel votes to strip SOS of campaign finance duties

LANSING, MI – A series of bills that strip campaign finance oversight from the Secretary of State and hand it to a new commission passed the Senate Elections and Government Reform Committee along partisan lines Wednesday.

As introduced, Senate Bills 1248 to 1252 take campaign finance oversight out of the purview of the Secretary of State, where it’s historically been, and put it in the hands of a newly-created “Fair Political Practices Commission.” The bipartisan commission would be populated by Republicans and Democrats whose names are submitted by political parties. The governor then makes the final selection of who will be on the commission.

Sponsor and Committee Chair Sen. Dave Robertson, R-Grand Blanc, introduced a substitute to one of the bills that changed it. The new version was not made available publicly at the meeting, but he described changes to how the governor would appoint a commissioner in the event of a vacancy and how commissioners are compensated.

Robertson said the idea of putting a commission in charge of campaign finance had been discussed among lawmakers for a long time.

Read more: https://www.mlive.com/news/2018/12/senate-panel-votes-to-strip-sos-of-campaign-finance-duties.html