By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – A House-passed bill to ban PAC-to-PAC transfers of campaign funds got assigned to a fresh committee in the state Senate yesterday (Tuesday) by two leaders pushing for its passage.
Lieutenant Governor Jim Folsom Junior and Senate President Pro Tem Hinton Mitchem teamed up to assign the bill to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, where they said it will have the best chance of winning approval.
In recent years, the House has passed the bill and watched it die in a Senate committee or get approved so late in the legislative session that it never came up for a vote in the Senate.
Current Alabama law allows a person to donate to a political action committee, which can transfer money to another political action committee. The transfers can continue indefinitely before the money is given to a candidate. At that point, there is no paper trail to indicate the original source of the contribution. The transfers are often used to disguise controversial contributions.
The chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, Luverne Senator Wendell Mitchell, said his committee will take quick action on the legislation.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)