On February 14, the Federal Election Commission held a public discussion on whether to extend the campaign finance reporting exemption for the Socialist Workers Party. Apparently the Commission has not come to a conclusion. Here is a link to two proposed determinations, prepared by staff for the Commissioners.

Draft “A” is 21 pages and grants the exemption. Draft “B” is 23 pages and denies the exemption. Much of the material in each draft is the same, but Draft “A” finds harassment experienced by the party to be serious enough to justify an extension, while Draft “B” discusses the same harassment but downplays it. Draft “B”, on page 21, says the party should be required to disclose its contributors because possibly some insincere individuals will contribute massively to the party to “take votes away” from certain major candidates. This is a foolish fear, because if there were such insincere individuals, they would not contribute directly to the SWP; they would instead make independent expenditures, much as some Democrats made independent expenditures to help gain votes for the Montana Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate last year. Of course, independent expenditures have nothing to do with the kind of campaign reports that the SWP would be making if the party didn’t have an exemption. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.

West Virginia Delegate Mike Manypenny (D-Grafton) has introduced HB 2032, to make it easier for a party to become or remain ballot-qualified. Current law requires a party to have polled 1% for Governor to be a qualified party. The bill would say a party is a group that has polled at least 1% for any statewide office.

If this bill had been law in 1996, the Reform Party would have attained party status in West Virginia after the November 1996 election. The Reform Party never had qualified status in West Virginia, even though it was a qualified party immediately after the 1996 election in 32 states. Thanks to Jeff Becker for this news.