The Tennessee House of Representatives passed two pieces of Election Reform Legislation sponsored by Democratic representatives.

The legislation authored and sponsored by Majority Leader Kim McMillan seeks to place a limit on the amount of funds that can be donated to Political Action Committees (PACs) and Political Parties. Already in statute are laws regulating the amounts that can be given to a candidate, but there are no reasonable safeguards placed on donations to PACs or parties, Rep. McMillan said.

Under this bill, the limit for contributions would be $10,000 for PACs and $50,000 for parties per individual per calendar year.

“The Election Reform Legislation seeks to close large loopholes in current law that permit unlimited contributions from wealthy individuals," McMillan said. "No one person should have more influence over the legislative process than anyone other person simply because of their checkbook balance.

"These common-sense proposals will close an often-used loophole for funneling money to select candidates and will encourage fair, positive campaigning."

Both HB 1090 and HB 1098 were approved during Monday's session, though a number of attempts were made by Republicans to make amendments.

State Democratic leaders said, "The Republican move proved that Tennessee Republican legislators are more interested in protecting their revenue streams than true ethics reform.

"It is no coincidence that many of these legislators have received large checks from the Gregory family who made their millions in King Pharmaceuticals, a corporation that is under investigation for Medicaid Fraud and stock inflation. Protecting over a million dollars in dirty money that has flowed into GOP PACs and candidates seems to be the Republican Party’s priority when it comes to implementing any serious ethics reform."

"I am proud that our Democratic House Members were able to see through this Republican strategy," state Democratic Party Chairman Randy Button said. "These killer amendments would have allowed the existing loopholes to remain wide open so that wealthy drug manufacturers can continue to line the pockets of officials who oppose lower prescription drug prices for seniors. At a time when the state is working on healthcare initiatives and containing the high cost of prescription drugs, the Republican legislators are more interested in ensuring that they continue to get their large checks from pharmaceutical millionaires at the expense of valuable ethics reform."

House Republican Leader Tre Hargett (R-Bartlett) made the following statement regarding two votes taken during Monday evening’s session:

“Last evening, the House voted in favor of two bills that limit the amount of money an individual can give to a political party, a political caucus or a political action committee. I did not vote for this bill for several reasons, most importantly the fact that the limitation of individual contributions in the political process only increases the importance of contributions made by political actions committees (PACs).

"In an attempt to level the playing field between individual and PAC donations, members of our House Republican Caucus proposed several amendments to both bills that would have equally limited the amount of money PACs or candidates could contribute to any political parties, political campaigns or political caucuses. However, these amendments were struck down largely on party votes, resulting in final passage of the legislation as proposed by the sponsor.

"With more than 60 percent of Republican and Democrat campaign contributions coming from PACs during the 2004 election, it is clear that the individual’s influence already takes a second seat to that of the PACs’, and that as legislators, we must continue to work for equality when it comes to individuals’ and PACs’ abilities to influence the political process.”