Share your thoughts with him on

Thursday, March 4th from 3-5 PM

over a cup of coffee at Java Hus in Petersburg

For more information, email andy@frenchforgovernor.com

Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and candidate for governor, has led the charge in a fast state response. He noted a “great sense of urgency” to get a bill in place to deal with what he expects to be an onslaught of corporate spending in elections.

“Disclose your expenses and put disclaimers in your ads so we can understand who is speaking to us,” said French, summarizing the intent.

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PLEASE JOIN
Elvi Gray-Jackson and friends
for a discussion with
Senator Hollis French – Candidate for Governor

Saturday, February 27th from 1 – 3 PM
at Elvi Gray-Jackson’s home
2096 Crataegus Ave – Anchorage, AK – Click Here For Map

For more information: Email andy@frenchforgovernor.com

State Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he’s asking legislative attorneys to check the opinion against his committee’s campaign reform measure, Senate Bill 284.

“From what I could read, we’ve taken care of the issues they’ve raised but we’re going to make double sure,” French said by phone from Sitka, where he was stuck on Monday. Fog in Juneau kept Alaska Airlines flights from landing in the capital city’s airport much of the day.

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Sen. Hollis French and Reps. Scott Kawasaki and Les Gara, all Democrats, introduced the four related bills. Two of the measures directly challenge the legal notion that corporations are people and therefore have political free speech rights — a key argument in the court’s decision. The bills state that for-profit corporations are not people with regard to influencing elections.

“Here in Alaska, we’ve have seen far too clearly the corrupting influence corporations can have when they decide to get too closely involved in the political process,” French said, referring to the case of an oil services executive who was sentenced to federal prison last year for bribing state lawmakers.

The bills won’t have an immediate practical effect but should send a message to the Supreme Court and set up the legal framework to have it consider reversing its decision in future years, French said. That message will get louder as more states follow suit, Kawasaki said.

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Sen. Hollis French, Rep. Scott Kawasaki and Rep. Les Gara, all Democrats, introduced a measure which would require ads to include the phrase “paid for by” and it would list the top five contributors to the cause.

The other bill is more long-term and would make it clear that companies are not people; in other words, they should not have the same rights as citizens.

Since it’s the law of the land and since the Supreme Court decided that companies should be treated as individuals, the second bill would have no effect on policy, but sponsors say it would send a message that the state disagrees with the Supreme Court.

This is a joint effort with identical bills in the House and Senate.

“If this Legislature does nothing, you can bank on the fact that the major corporations that do business in this state will try and buy a better Legislature next year,” said Gara, D-Anchorage.

“We felt that it was imperative to act. It’s as clear as daylight that unless we act, corporations would probably not even have to report to APOC the spending they did,” French, D-Anchorage, said.

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The campaign has recently started a series of weekend house meetings around Alaska, when Hollis isn’t occupied with legislative business in Juneau.  While these events are often small to facilitate better group discussion, this weekend one host has expressed her desire to host a larger event.  We are all for it!

PLEASE JOIN
Sue Johnson and friends
for a discussion with
Senator Hollis French – Candidate for Governor

Saturday, February 6th from 2 – 3:30 PM
at Sue Johnson’s home
2131 Belmont Drive – Anchorage, AK – Click Here For Map

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Hollis French said he wants the panel to do just that, by putting forth a bill that would “contain” the effects of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared third-party corporate spending on such things as campaign ads as a form of protected free speech.

State attorneys testifying before the panel Wednesday said they believe the decision voids an existing state law that bans corporate spending on ads for a specific candidate.

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Committee Chairman Hollis French, D-Anchorage, asked when an opinion from the attorney general might be forthcoming. He noted the Legislature has to finish making any changes to state laws before its session ends April 19.

“I couldn’t speculate, but given the time parameters it could be relatively quickly,” Ptacin answered.

Ptacin did suggest that corporations and unions might already be required to disclose campaign spending under Alaska law because they’re “persons.”

French, who is running for governor, said the judiciary committee isn’t going to wait for word from the attorney general and will start on a package of proposed changes to state law. That will include disclosure requirements and possibly an attempt to block corporations with a majority of foreign shareholders from advocating for Alaska candidates.

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“We’ve got to fall back and write a bill and get something on the books before this legislature gavels out in 75 days and so we’ve got to get busy,” said Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage.

French, who is also running for governor, says he thinks he can get something passed in time for the 2010 election.

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