Key Campaign Finance Laws for the State of Texas - Paper Example

Since the last summer, the politicians seeking to be elected from the gubernatorial position in Texas have been raising millions of dollars to cater for their campaign expenses. The Tribune recognized their top donors, famous contributors together with other significant and famous givers. The Texas Ethics Commissions formulated and implemented the campaign finance guide that restricts the extent to which people will be making their campaign contributions. The following paper will seek to discuss the rules that govern the fundraising campaign funds.

Rule Description Impact

1. No contribution should exceed over $100 (Westlakehills.org, 2018).

The Texas regulation restricts the officeholder, candidate, or specific-purpose committee from receiving political donations in form of cash (except cheques) that its total amount surpasses $100 from a solitary contributor in a reporting period. This law will have an impact towards my candidates fundraising operation, because most of the people who he associates with, perceive that the amount from $100-$500 not a lot and hence no need to give them in form of the cheque.

2. No contributions will be allowed from the anonymous persons (Ethics.state.tx.us. 2018). The Texas rule demands the availing of the filers to identify the name of every contribution as well as the amount of every contribution, even for the insignificant amount of contribution. There is no use of the contribution jar or pass the hat technique. With regards to the filer as well as the amount of the contribution, it will be essential to provide additional information. This rule does not affect my candidates fundraising operation, since he like recognizing every individual who makes contribution to his fundraising operation so that he could know who are loyal to him, and those who support his bid to contest for gubernatorial position. Therefore, the use of contribution jar or pass the hat technique will not be of the essence.

3. No contribution is allowed from the labor organizations or commissions (Westlakehills.org, 2018). As per the Texas laws, the labor organizations together with the corporations are restricted from making political contributions to the officeholders, candidates as well as specific-purpose committees; this also includes the contributions to GPACs. Limited exceptions also happen. The prohibition also involves other organizations, like the limited liability and partnerships companies. This law will affect my candidates fundraising operation since perhaps he could be having sensible manifestos that attracts the attention of the labor organizations or commissions and who in response would like to support him through making of the contributions. In that case, he will lose most of the financial contribution regardless of the admiration and support he will be receiving from the labor organizations and commissions.

4. It is illegal to misuse the government resources for campaign purpose (Westlakehills.org, 2018). As per the Chapter 39 of the Penal Code a public servant is forbidden from using the government resources, personnel services or any valuable things that belong to the government to either gain a benefit or to defraud or harm another. The commission has maintained that even the preparation of the campaign finance report using the state resources, or even utilizing the state resources to collect information for the campaign fundraiser, creates a misuse of the government property. Obviously, this will not affect my candidates fundraising operation. He does not want to be accused of embezzlement of the public coffers, and he tries al the best not to use any public resources.

5. Prohibition of the use of the contribution for personal use (Ethics.state.tx.us. 2018). The Texas laws restrict the candidate who receives the political contribution in Texas from converting it for the personal use. My gubernatorial candidate will not be restrained by this law, because he does not want to ruin his reputation as a selfish person, using the contribution for personal gain it will mean that he is not honest and he is corrupt.

The Texas Ethics Commissions oversees how political candidates run their fundraising operations and ensures that the candidates do not take advantage of their bid for vying for a political sit, to extort and embezzle money from individuals organizations and other private and public commission. The rules are meant to regulate the amount of money an individual or organization can contribute and how contributions should be done. The law is significant and it will ensure that the state resources are not affected. Although some of the laws will affect the progress of the campaign, it has not made campaigns to be difficult to take off. All the candidates running for the gubernatorial seats will have equal opportunities to seek contributors for their fundraising campaign.

References

Ethics.state.tx.us. (2018). Retrieved 20 January 2018, from <https://www.ethics.state.tx.us/guides/pac_guide.pdf>

Westlakehills.org. (2018). Retrieved 20 January 2018, from <http://www.westlakehills.org/DocumentCenter/View/354>