Virginia House Bill 629 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: Introduced on January 9 2024 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2024-02-13 - Left in Privileges and Elections
Pending: House Privileges and Elections Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Prefiled) [HTML]

Campaign finance; prohibited personal use of campaign funds; complaints, hearings, civil penalty, and advisory opinions. Prohibits any person from converting contributions to a candidate or his campaign committee to personal use. Current law only prohibits such conversion of contributions with regard to disbursement of surplus funds at the dissolution of a campaign or political committee. The bill provides that a contribution is considered to have been converted to personal use if the contribution, in whole or in part, is used to fulfill any commitment, obligation, or expense that would exist irrespective of the person's seeking, holding, or maintaining public office but allows a contribution to be used for the ordinary and accepted expenses related to campaigning for or holding elective office, including the use of campaign funds to pay for the candidate's child care expenses that are incurred as a direct result of campaign activity. The bill provides that any person subject to the personal use ban may request an advisory opinion from the State Board of Elections on such matters. The bill directs the State Board of Elections to adopt emergency regulations to implement the provisions of the bill and to publish an updated summary of Virginia campaign finance law that reflects the State Board of Elections' and Attorney General's guidance on the provisions of such law that prohibit the personal use of campaign funds and any new regulations promulgated by the State Board of Elections. Campaign finance; prohibited personal use of campaign funds; complaints, hearings, civil penalty, and advisory opinions. Prohibits any person from converting contributions to a candidate or his campaign committee to personal use. Current law only prohibits such conversion of contributions with regard to disbursement of surplus funds at the dissolution of a campaign or political committee. The bill provides that a contribution is considered to have been converted to personal use if the contribution, in whole or in part, is used to fulfill any commitment, obligation, or expense that would exist irrespective of the person's seeking, holding, or maintaining public office but allows a contribution to be used for the ordinary and accepted expenses related to campaigning for or holding elective office, including the use of campaign funds to pay for the candidate's child care expenses that are incurred as a direct result of campaign activity. The bill provides that any person subject to the personal use ban may request an advisory opinion from the State Board of Elections on such matters. The bill directs the State Board of Elections to adopt emergency regulations to implement the provisions of the bill and to publish an updated summary of Virginia campaign finance law that reflects the State Board of Elections' and Attorney General's guidance on the provisions of such law that prohibit the personal use of campaign funds and any new regulations promulgated by the State Board of Elections.

Campaign finance; prohibited personal use of campaign funds, complaints, hearings, civil penalty.

Del. Mike Cherry [R]

2024-01-17 - House - House: Subcommittee recommends passing by indefinitely (8-Y 0-N) (Y: 8 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 0) [PASS]

Date	Chamber	Action
2024-02-13	House	Left in Privileges and Elections
2024-01-17	House	Subcommittee recommends passing by indefinitely (8-Y 0-N)
2024-01-16	House	Assigned P & E sub: Campaign Finance
2024-01-09	House	Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections
2024-01-09	House	Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24100569D

Chapter	Article	Section	Citation Type	Statute Text
2	2	3711	(n/a)	See Bill Text
24	2	946	(n/a)	See Bill Text
24	2	948.4	(n/a)	See Bill Text
24	2	948.6	(n/a)	See Bill Text
24	2	948.7	(n/a)	See Bill Text
24	2	948.8	(n/a)	See Bill Text

Type	Source
Summary	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+sum+HB629
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+HB629+hil
Supplement	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+oth+HB629F160+PDF
Supplement	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+oth+HB629F122+PDF
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+vot+H1803V0002+HB0629