AUGUSTA — Nonprofit organizations that spend money on political campaigns in Maine could have to disclose their donors under a bill being offered by state Sen. Tom Saviello, R-Wilton.

Saviello’s bill targets what many consider a flaw in the state’s campaign finance disclosure laws and also looks to tackle the issue of so-called “dark money” in politics.

On Monday, Saviello presented his bill to the Legislature’s Committee on Legal and Veterans Affairs, which has jurisdiction over campaign finance law in Maine.

Often, those who donate to nonprofit organizations have no idea their donations will be used, in part, to fund political action committees.

Under Maine law, those political action committees, often set up by the nonprofits, are required to disclose their funding sources, but don’t have to specifically name the donors who provide money to the nonprofit in the first place.

The PACs then spend money supporting or opposing candidates on ballot questions without voters ever being able to find out who bankrolled the campaign.

“I think people should know where that money is coming from,” Saviello said.

One recent example, according to Saviello, was the failed 2014 statewide ballot effort to ban bear hunting with bait, dogs and traps in Maine.

That campaign was largely bankrolled by the Humane Society, a national nonprofit that funded a ballot question committee, a kind of political action committee for a ballot measure in Maine that spent the money to sway voters against bear hunting.

But Saviello said many voters he spoke to during the course of the campaign, even those who said they supported the Humane Society, had no idea their donations would fuel a political campaign. 

He said other nonprofits, including the Environment Health Strategy Center, used their nonprofit status to filter money to PACs that attacked specific candidates for the Legislature in 2014.

Saviello’s bill, LD 189, would impact all types of nonprofits when they funnel money to political organizations and campaigns, requiring them to disclose all of their donors for two years prior to donating to a PAC.

He said he was open to changes to the bill, including ones that would establish “threshold” amounts for spending and donations so that small donations to nonprofits would not necessarily be subjected to disclosure. He also said he did not intend the bill to require union members who pay regular union dues to have those dues become part of a political disclosure reporting.

Jonathan Wayne, the executive director of the Maine Ethics Commission, which is tasked with enforcing state campaign finance and disclosure laws, offered testimony on the bill neither for nor against. But Wayne warned that the committee should proceed carefully so it does not run into constitutional issues around the First Amendment right to free speech.

Wayne said Saviello’s bill was a good idea in theory and the commission’s staff agreed with him to a point.

“This is an area in which our disclosure law should be strengthened, but our perspective differs a little bit because we think it has to be done carefully because of the constitutional issues involved,” Wayne said.

Wayne said several other states had also passed legislation to increase transparency around nonprofit involvement in political campaigns and suggested the committee look to some of those states for examples.

Former state Sen. Edward Youngblood, a Republican from Brewer who works to support Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, also offered his support to the bill, noting nonprofits that are participating in political activity should not be treated any differently than other organizations that seek to influence voters.

Youngblood closed his statements with a quote from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the court’s most conservative jurists.

“Requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage without which democracy is doomed,” Youngblood said, quoting Scalia. “For my part, I do not look forward to a society which campaigns anonymously, hidden from public scrutiny and protected from the accountability of criticism. This does not resemble the home of the brave.”

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine offered testimony against the bill. 

 “This bill unneccessarily imposes an onerous burden on constitutionally protected speech,” Oamshri Amarasingham, an attorney with the ACLU of Maine, said.

sthistle@sunjournal.com