Controversial Tennessee Campaign Finance Bill Passes Both Senate & House 

Image Credit: TN General Assembly

The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –

A controversial campaign finance bill making several changes to campaign finance law which critics have warned may prove detrimental to underfunded conservative candidates in Tennessee officially passed both chambers of the state legislature on Tuesday.

House Bill 653 (HB0653)/Senate Bill 229 (SB0229) was sponsored by Rep. Tim Hicks (R-Gray-District 6) and Sen. Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville-District 7).

According to the bill sponsors, this six-page bill was brought forward to them by the Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance.

The legislation reportedly funnels more money toward the Bureau and makes other subtle but extensive shifts to the already complicated laws surrounding campaign and political finance. 

Changes proposed by this legislation include:

• Requiring certain executive branch officials to receive ethics training from the bureau.
• Allowing the Registry of Election Finance to skip audits or investigations of complaints against financial reports and instead go straight to show cause hearings.
• Requiring a local candidate whose jurisdiction covers more than one county to register a political treasurer in each county the election occurs.
• 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.

Earlier this month, the legislation was “placed behind the budget” by House Finance. 

A bill is placed “behind the budget” in the House when there is a cost associated with the bill that has not been covered by the governor’s proposed budget for the year.

However, legislation can come back out from behind the budget if the bill sponsors are able to find funding for it within the budget, which was ultimately the case for HB0653/SB0229.

The Senate passed this legislation by a 28-3 vote with Republicans Bailey, Bowling, Briggs, Crowe, Gardenhire, Haile, Harshbarger, Hatcher, Hensley, Jackson, Johnson, Lowe, Massey, Pody, Powers, Reeves, Roberts, Rose, Seal, Southerland, Stevens, Taylor, Walley, Watson, White, Yager and Lt. Gov. McNally voting in favor.

Democrats Campbell, Kyle and Yarbro voted against the bill.

Both chambers of the legislatures could not agree on a final version of the legislation, each chamber adopting different amendments, so the legislation was sent to conference committee.

Ultimately, the House voted to adopt the conference committee report by a 78-13 vote.

Republicans Alexander, Atchley, Baum, Boyd, Bricken, Bulso, Burkhart, Butler, Capley, Carringer, Cepicky, Cochran, Crawford, Darby, Davis, Doggett, Eldridge, Faison, Farmer, Gant, Garrett, Gillespie, Grills, Hale, Haston, Hawk, Helton-Haynes, Hicks G, Hicks T, Hill, Howell, Hulsey, Hurt, Jones R, Keisling, Kumar, Lafferty, Lamberth, Leatherwood, Littleton, Lynn, Maberry, Marsh, Martin B, Martin G, McCalmon, Moody, Moon, Powers, Raper, Reeves, Reneau, Rudder, Russell, Scarbrough, Sherrell, Slater, Sparks, Stevens, Stinnett, Terry, Todd, Vaughan, Vital, White, Williams, Wright, Zachary and Speaker Sexton voted in favor.

So did Democrats Chism, Clemmons, Hakeem, Harris, Hemmer, Miller, Mitchell, Parkinson and Shaw.

Republicans Jody Barrett, Monty Fritts and Todd Warner voted against the legislation as amended.

So did Democrats Brooks, Dixie, Glynn, Hardaway, Johnson, Jones J, McKenzie, Powell, Salinas and Towns.

The Senate also adopted the conference committee report by a 24-6 vote.

Now that HB0653/SB0229 has been passed by both chambers of the legislature, it will soon be sent to the desk of Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) for his signature.

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.