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Campaign finance requirements in West Virginia

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West Virginia 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 and unions could contribute no more than $1,000 to individual candidates and could make unlimited contributions to ballot measure campaigns. Corporations could not directly contribute to candidates for office but could make unlimited contributions to ballot measure campaigns.

Background

Seal of the United States Federal Election Commission

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 rules governing federal election campaigns and contributions have evolved over the past generation as result of a number of Supreme Court decisions. 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 West Virginia as of May 2015. The uppermost row of the table indicates the contributor, while the leftmost column indicates the recipient.

West Virginia contribution limits as of May 2015
Individuals Single candidates committees Fed PAC/Fed candidate committee PACs Political party Super PACs Corporations Unions
Statewide candidate (incl. Governor) $1,000 $0 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $0 $0 $1,000
Senate $1,000 $0 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $0 $0 $1,000
House $1,000 $0 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $0 $0 $1,000
PAC $1,000 $0 $1,000 surplus funds up to $1000 $0 $0 $0 $1,000
Party committees $1,000 $1000/surplus funds up to $15,000 $1,000 $1000/surplus funds up to $15,000 $1,000 $0 $0 $1,000
Ballot measures unlimited unlimited unlimited unlimited unlimited 0 unlimited unlimited
Sources: West Virginia Secretary of State, "West Virginia Election Code," accessed May 22, 2015
West Virginia Secretary of State, "Allowable Political Contributions," accessed May 22, 2015

Candidate requirements

Seal of West Virginia

DocumentIcon.jpg See statutes: Chapter 3, Article 8 of the West Virginia Code

Each candidate must file a Candidate Financial Disclosure Statement with the West Virginia Ethics Commission within 10 days of filing the Certificate of Announcement.[7]

Each candidate campaign committee "shall keep detailed accounts of every sum of money or other thing of value received by him or her, including all loans of money or things of value and of all expenditures and disbursements made, liabilities incurred, by the candidate, financial agent, person, association or organization or committee, for political purposes or by any officers or members of the committee, or any person acting under its authority or on its behalf."[8]

Candidates and "all persons supporting, aiding or opposing the nomination, election or defeat of any candidate shall keep for a period of six months records of receipts and expenditures which are made for political purposes."[9]

The candidate committee should keep the receipts of all financial transactions for accounting purposes. The West Virginia Secretary of State or county clerk may conduct an audit, and the receipts would need to be presented for review.[10]

Campaign financial statement requirements

Each financial statement required by the reporting schedule, other than a disclosure of electioneering communications, must contain the following information:[11]

  • the name, residence and mailing address and telephone number of each candidate, financial agent, treasurer or person and the name, address and telephone number of each association, organization or committee filing a financial statement
  • the balance of cash and any other sum of money on hand at the beginning and the end of the period covered by the financial statement
  • the name of any person making a contribution and the amount of the contribution
  • the name, residence and mailing address of any individual or the name and mailing address of each lending institution making a loan
  • the name, residence and mailing address of any individual or the name and mailing address of each partnership, firm, association, committee, organization or group having previously made or cosigned a loan for which payment is made or a balance is outstanding at the end of the period, together with the amount of repayment on the loan made during the period and the balance at the end of the period
  • the total outstanding balance of all loans at the end of the period
  • the name, residence and mailing address of any person to whom each expenditure was made or liability incurred
  • the total expenditure for the nomination, election or defeat of a candidate or any person supporting, aiding or opposing the nomination, election or defeat of any candidate in whose behalf an expenditure was made or a contribution was given for the primary or other election
  • the total amount of expenditures made during the period covered by the financial statement

Campaign finance reporting

Each candidate is required to file campaign finance reports until the candidate's campaign committee is closed. The transaction period is the specific time period during which the committee must track all contributions and expenditures for campaign finance reports. Financial activity tracked during each transaction period must be recorded on the campaign financial statement and submitted during the appropriate time period in which the report is due.[7]

Campaign finance legislation

The following is a list of recent campaign finance bills that have been introduced in or passed by the West Virginia 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 West Virginia ballot measures


Election-related agencies

See also: Campaign finance agencies in West Virginia and State election agencies

Candidates running for office will require some form of interaction with the following agencies:

  • West Virginia Secretary of State, Elections Division
Why: This agency provides and processes nominating petitions and candidate announcement forms.
Bldg. 1, Suite 157-K
1900 Kanawha Blvd. East
Charleston, WV 25305-0770
Phone: 304-558-6000 or 866-SOS-VOTE
Election fraud hotline: 877-FRAUD-WV
Fax: 304-558-8386
Website: http://www.wvsos.com/elections/main.htm
Email: http://www.sos.wv.gov/Pages/contact-elections.aspx
  • West Virginia Ethics Commission
Why: This agency provides and processes campaign financial disclosure forms.
210 Brooks St
Charleston, WV 25301
Phone: 304-558-0664
Website: http://www.ethics.wv.gov/Pages/default.aspx

Counties

An independent candidate must receive official credentials from the county clerk in each county in which he or she wishes to gather signatures. If a website is not provided in the table, it is because one does not exist for this municipality. To provide a link or information for the table below, please email us.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms West Virginia finance. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Campaign finance requirements in West Virginia - Google News

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Federal Election Commission, "About the FEC," accessed June 27, 2012
  2. ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Candidate Registration Brochure," accessed December 7, 2012
  3. ↑ New York Times, "Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit," January 21, 2010
  4. ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Speechnow.org v. FEC," April 7, 2014
  5. ↑ OpenSecrets, "Two Federal Court Rulings Could Change Campaign Finance Landscape," March 26, 2010
  6. ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Ongoing Litigation," accessed March 18, 2015
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 West Virginia Secretary of State, "Running for Office in West Virginia," accessed December 10, 2013 (dead link)
  8. ↑ West Virginia Code, "Chapter 3-8-5," accessed December 20, 2013
  9. ↑ West Virginia Code, "Chapter 3-8-2," accessed December 10, 2013
  10. ↑ West Virginia Code, "Chapter 3-8-7," accessed December 10, 2013
  11. ↑ West Virginia Code, "Chapter 3-8-5(a)," accessed December 19, 2013
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