Campaign finance audits survive House-Senate budget
The compromise budget deal released tonight does not include a House of Delegates proposal that would have ended a state law that helps ensure the integrity of campaign finance disclosures
State audits of the campaign finance reports filed by 2025 political candidates, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger and House Speaker Don Scott, will continue as planned.
A House-Senate compromise budget released Friday evening removed language that sought to abolish a 2022 law that authorizes the Department of Elections to verify the accuracy of campaign finance disclosures.
No one stepped forward to take responsibility for inserting the eight-word sentence, which appeared in a recent House of Delegates spending plan.
The House-Senate compromise ends a 97-day budget impasse centered around changes to a $1.9 billion annual state tax break for data centers.
The deal also clears the way for the Department of Elections to continue work to determine if campaign finance reports filed by candidates last November match their bank statements, invoices and other documentation.
While Virginia is among the most transparent states when it comes to campaign finance, the system operated entirely on the honor system. There was no way for the public to verify the accuracy of information that candidates provided.
In 2022, the General Assembly approved a bill that for the first time put candidates on notice that they could be called on to provide documentation.
The law requires all candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general to turn over campaign financial records to the elections department. The review also includes a random sample of 10% of General Assembly candidates and 1% of candidates for local office. The review provision exempts candidates who raised less than $25,000.
In January, the Department of Elections held a random drawing to choose 28 House candidates for review.
The Department has until the end of the year to complete the audits.
But on June 12 the House released a budget proposal that included an eight-word sentence that would have abolished the audit law. If approved, the language would have forced the election agency to abandon the review currently underway.
