the Political Reform Act was written when nonprofit corporations did charitable work. It needs to be updated to deal with nonprofit shells that are used to hide the sources of campaign money. That became apparent once more last week when the California Fair Political Practices Commission and California Attorney General Kamala Harris concluded a yearlong effort to trace $15 million spent to promote Proposition 32, rejected last November. The initiative was intended to block unions from raising money, though its promoters claimed it would have taken special-interest money out of the system. The investigation shed light on a network of nonprofit corporations led by David and Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialists who fund many conservative and libertarian causes and campaigns. The commission levied separate $500,000 fines on two Arizona entities, the Center to Protect Patient Rights and Americans for Responsible Leadership. A $1 million penalty is not chump change. But because of holes in the 1974 law, the commission could not discover the identities of the individual donors.
Editorial: FPPC opens a window into how dark campaign money travels - Editorials - The Sacramento Bee
