Image Credit: Tennessee Secretary of State / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
A six-page bill that would result in a variety of changes to campaign finance law that could be detrimental to already underfunded conservative political candidates in Tennessee has been scheduled for consideration by the Senate State and Local Government Committee for next week.
Senate Bill 229 (SB0229), sponsored by Sen. Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville-District 7), would “require certain officials in the executive branch to receive ethics training from the bureau of ethics and campaign finance; makes certain records of the bureau of ethics and campaign finance public; distributes 80 percent of the privilege tax collected from lobbyists to the bureau of ethics and campaign finance; makes other changes to the operation of the bureau of ethics and campaign finance.”
As Tennessee Conservative News Reporter Olivia Lupia noted previously, this legislation contains many provisions which appear to “subtly, yet extensively, shift many of the state’s already complex campaign finance processes” in a way that may not serve conservative candidates or conservative voters very well.
A few of the changes this bill would make include:
- Requiring a local candidate, whose jurisdiction covers more than one county, to register a political treasurer in each county the election occurs.
- Instituting an annual $150 fee to be paid by a political campaign to the registry of election finance, “to partially offset the costs incurred by the registry of election finance in regulating political campaign committees.” Candidates running for an elective office would be exempt from this fee.
- Allowing the registry of election finance to skip an audit or investigation of a complaint against the financial reports of a candidate for public office or a political campaign committee and “proceed directly to a show cause hearing on the sworn complaint.”
- Deleting an entire section of existing law and replacing it with exemptions for campaign contribution limits for certain political campaign committees, such as those controlled by a political party.
SB0229 has been placed on the calendar for consideration by the Senate State and Local Government Committee for Tuesday, Feb. 18th, 2025.
Contact information for committee members can be found below.
Sen.richard.briggs@capitol.tn.gov, sen.page.walley@capitol.tn.gov, sen.tom.hatcher@capitol.tn.gov, sen.todd.gardenhire@capitol.tn.gov, sen.ed.jackson@capitol.tn.gov, sen.sara.kyle@capitol.tn.gov, sen.adam.lowe@capitol.tn.gov, sen.kerry.roberts@capitol.tn.gov, sen.jeff.yarbro@capitol.tn.gov
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. Adelia is The Tennessee Conservative’s on-site reporter for the Tennessee General Assembly. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
2 Responses
THANX!!
Emailed them all at same time, no bounce backs.
I don’t understand why our Republican senators would want to make it more difficult for conservative candidates. What are they thinking? Or are they too comfortable in their position???