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Texas campaign finance requirements govern the following:
- how much money candidates may receive from individuals and organizations,
- how much and how often they must report those contributions, and
- how much individuals, organizations and political parties may contribute to campaigns.
In addition to direct campaign contributions, campaign finance laws also apply to third-party organizations and nonprofit organizations that seek to influence elections through independent expenditures or issue advocacy.
| As of May 2015, individuals could make unlimited donations to individual candidates. Corporations and unions could not directly contribute to candidates for office but could make unlimited contributions to ballot measure campaigns. |
Background
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is the independent regulatory agency that administers and enforces federal campaign election laws. The FEC is responsible for disclosing campaign finance information, enforcing limits and prohibitions on contributions, and overseeing public funding of presidential elections.[1] According to the FEC, an individual becomes a federal candidate and must begin reporting campaign finances once he or she has either raised or spent $5,000 in his or her campaign. Within fifteen days of this benchmark, the candidate must register with the FEC and designate an official campaign committee, which is responsible for the funds and expenditures of the campaign. This committee must have an official treasurer and cannot support any candidate but the one who registered it. Detailed financial reports are then made to the FEC every financial quarter after the individual is registered. Reports are also made before primaries and before the general election.[2]
The Supreme Court of the United States has issued a number of rulings pertaining to federal election campaign finance regulations. In the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, the court held that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited. The court's decision also overturned the ban on for-profit and not-for-profit corporations and unions broadcasting electioneering communications in the 30 days before a presidential primary and in the 60 days before a general election.[3] In the SpeechNOW.org v. Federal Election Commission decision, the first application of the Citizens United decision, the court held that contribution limits on what individuals could give to independent expenditure-only groups, and the amount these organizations could receive, were unconstitutional. Contribution limits on donations directly to candidates, however, remained unchanged.[4][5] In 2014's McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission decision, the court overturned biennial aggregate campaign contribution limits, and held that individuals may contribute to as many federal candidates as they want, but may only contribute up to the federal limit in each case.[6]
While the FEC governs federal election campaigns and contribution limits, individual states enforce their own regulation and reporting requirements. Regulations vary by state, as do limits on campaign contributions and third-party activities to influence elections.
Contribution limits
The table below details contribution limits as they applied to various types of individuals and groups in Texas as of May 2015. The uppermost row of the table indicates the contributor, while the leftmost column indicates the recipient.
Candidate requirements
See statutes: Title 15 of the Texas Election Code
A candidate for statewide office, the state legislature, State Board of Education, or district attorney must file campaign finance reports with the Texas Ethics Commission. The candidate must file an Appointment of a Campaign Treasurer by a Candidate Form (Form CTA) with the Texas Ethics Commission when he or she becomes a candidate even if he or she does not intend to accept campaign contributions or make campaign expenditures.[7]
After a candidate has filed a form appointing a campaign treasurer, the candidate is responsible for filing periodic reports of contributions and expenditures. Filing reports is the responsibility of the candidate, not the campaign treasurer. A candidate may not accept a campaign contribution or make a campaign expenditure unless he or she has a campaign treasurer appointment on file with the Texas Ethics Commission.[7]
A report must disclose all political contributions accepted and expenditures made during the reporting period.[7]
- If a contributor contributes $50 or less during the reporting period, contributions from that contributor may be disclosed as part of a lump sum. For other contributions, the candidate must disclose the name and address of the contributor, the date of the contribution, and, for in-kind contributions, the nature and value of the contribution.[7]
- A candidate must report any campaign expenditure (regardless of whether it is made from political contributions or from personal funds) and any political expenditure (campaign or officeholder) from political contributions (regardless of whether the expenditure is a political expenditure).[7]
Required reports
The candidate must file the following reports with the Texas Ethics Commission electronically unless the filer is entitled to claim the exemption from electronic filing.
- Report After Appointment of a Campaign Treasurer: The candidate must file a report after filing a campaign treasurer appointment. This report of contributions and expenditures is due no later than 15 days after the campaign treasurer appointment was filed. This report is required even if there is no activity to report.[7]
- Personal Financial Statement: A candidate must file a financial statement within 40 days after the regular deadline for filing an application for a place on the ballot in the March primary election.
- Semiannual Reports: Every candidate and every officeholder is required to file reports of contributions and expenditures by January 15 and July 15 of each year. The candidate must file semiannual reports even if there is no activity to report for the period covered.[7]
- Final Report: If a filer expects to accept no further political contributions and to make no further political expenditures and if the filer expects to take no further action to get elected to a public office, the filer may file a final report. Filing a final report terminates a filer’s campaign treasurer appointment and relieves the filer from any additional filing obligations as a candidate.[7]
Campaign finance legislation
The following is a list of recent campaign finance bills that have been introduced in or passed by the Texas state legislature. To learn more about each of these bills, click the bill title. This information is provided by BillTrack50 and LegiScan.
Note: Due to the nature of the sorting process used to generate this list, some results may not be relevant to the topic. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation pertaining to this topic has been introduced in the legislature recently.
Election and campaign ballot measures
- See also: Elections and campaigns on the ballot and List of Texas ballot measures
Ballotpedia has tracked 18 statewide ballot measures relating to elections and campaigns.
- Texas Proposition 15, Elections for County Surveyors Amendment (1993)
- Texas Proposition 18, Local Elections With Unopposed Candidates Amendment (September 2003)
- Texas Proposition 9, Legislative Vacancies Amendment (2001)
- Texas Proposition 6, Appointment of Presidential Electors Amendment (2001)
- Texas Proposition 8, State and Local Elections with Unopposed Candidates Amendment (September 2003)
- Texas Proposition 8, Voting Requirements Amendment (1966)
- Texas Proposition 2, Election of Railroad Commissioners Amendment (1894)
- Texas Proposition 2, Citizenship Voting Requirements Amendment (1896)
- Texas Proposition 1, Poll Tax Payment Amendment (1902)
- Texas Proposition 7, Qualifications to Vote on Bond Issues Amendment (1932)
- Texas Proposition 1, Military Poll Tax Exemption Amendment (August 1945)
- Texas Proposition 4, Poll Tax and Voter Registration Amendment (1949)
- Texas Proposition 1, Poll Tax Repeal Amendment (1963)
- Texas Proposition 7, Poll Tax Repeal Amendment (1966)
- Texas Proposition 14, Voting in the Armed Forces Amendment (1966)
- Texas Proposition 3, Voter and Election Constitutional Provisions Amendment (1975)
- Texas Proposition 8, State Debt Ballot Questions Amendment (1991)
- Texas Proposition 1, Voting in Different Precincts Amendment (July 1915)
Election-related agencies
- See also: Campaign finance agencies in Texas and State election agencies
Candidates running for office will require some form of interaction with the following agencies:
- Texas Secretary of State-Elections Division
- Why: This agency provides and processes nominating petitions, declarations of candidacy and other candidate forms. This agency also accepts payment for requisite filing fees.
- 208 East 10th Street
- Rusk Building, Third Floor
- Austin, Texas 78701-2407
- Toll-free: 1.800.252.VOTE (8683)
- Phone: 512-463-5650
- Fax: 512-475-2811
- Email: elections@sos.state.tx.us
- Main website: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/index.shtml
- Complaint website: http://www.sos.ga.gov/cgi-bin/emailelectionscomplaint.asp
- Why: This agency processes campaign finance reports.
- 201 East 14th St., 10th Floor
- Austin, TX 78701
- Phone: 512-463-5800
- Website: http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/tec
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Texas campaign finance. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "About the FEC," accessed June 27, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Candidate Registration Brochure," accessed December 7, 2012
- ↑ New York Times, "Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit," January 21, 2010
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Speechnow.org v. FEC," April 7, 2014
- ↑ OpenSecrets, "Two Federal Court Rulings Could Change Campaign Finance Landscape," March 26, 2010
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Ongoing Litigation," accessed March 18, 2015
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Texas Ethics Commission, "Campaign Finance Guide for Candidates and Officeholders," accessed December 11, 2013
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