2 weeks Ago
For the first time in years, a bill to rein in Virginia politicians’ wide open door for corporations’ contributions to their campaign funds made it to the floor of a General Assembly chamber – and died there in a minute, without a vote or debate. Instead, on Crossover, the last day for the state Senate and House of Delegates to act on their own bills, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, moved to postpone consideration of Senate Bill 1050, state Sen. Danica Roem’ s proposed ban on corporate donations.
The Senate approved the move, which effectively killed the bill, on a voice vote. Although senators can always call for a recorded vote if the question is uncertain, nobody did. There's no way of telling who voted to kill the bill.
Roem Roem campaign “I’m disappointed,” Roem said afterward. She declined to speculate on why senators decided to let the bill die. “What I can tell you is at a time when multi-billion and now even multi-trillion-dollar corporations exist in Virginia .
.. I think they shouldn’t be able to donate to politicians' campaigns,” Roem said.
She said she would try again next year. Surovell ALEXA WELCH EDLUND, TIMES-DISPATCH Corporations give millions of dollars to political campaigns in Virginia. In the 2024-2025 election cycle, for instance 36 companies, each giving $100,000 or more, contributed some $14.
5 million to campaign funds in Virginia, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch review of data compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project. Hundreds of firms give smaller amounts. Businesses also route funds through political action committees representing groups of firms.
For decades, critics have argued this money gives special interests an inside edge when arguing for or against legislation, though companies all deny this is their intent. Roem’s bill would have barred any corporation from making contributions to any candidate, campaign committee, political action committee, or political party committee. It added that committees would not be able to ask for or accept any contribution from any corporation.
In addition, it would ban any indirect contributions – that is, any individual contributions directed by a corporation or organized by a firm. The penalty for accepting a corporation’s contribution would have been a fine of twice the amount of the contribution that the politician or committee would have to pay. Nearly half the states – 21 in all – ban corporations from contributing to political campaigns, according to data from the National Council of State Legislatures.
Of the rest, Virginia and Nebraska are the only states that set no limits on what corporations can contribute. Legislators have long argued that Virginia’s approach, requiring disclosure of all contributions, works better. In some states, special interests have been able to keep contributions out of the public eye by routing them through law firms, lobbyists or by bundling contributions from individual employees.
The Senate also killed, again with a voice vote to delay consideration until after the final day senators could act on a Senate bill, a proposal from state Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, to limit the amounts anyone could donate to a political campaign. Deeds proposed a $5,000 cap for contributions to campaigns funds for candidates seeking to be governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general or state senator, and a $3,000 cap for candidates running for the House of Delegates.
Federal law limits individuals’ contributions to a candidate to $3,500. Political action committees, including those set up by corporations, are limited to $5,000. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he leaves the hangar deck of the USS Gerald R.
Ford at Newport News Shipbuilding Thursday, March 2, 2017. ALEXA WELCH EDLUND President Donald Trump speaks aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford at Newport News Shipbuilding Thursday, March 2, 2017.
ALEXA WELCH EDLUND President Donald Trump arrives on the USS Gerald R. Ford's hangar deck with Susan Ford Bales, former President Ford's daughter, at Newport News Shipbuilding Thursday, March 2, 2017. ALEXA WELCH EDLUND President Donald Trump speaks aboard the Gerald R.
Ford at Newport News Shipbuilding Thursday, March 2, 2017. ALEXA WELCH EDLUND Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at the Greater Richmond Convention Center on Saturday, March 2, 2024. MIKE KROPF Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at the Greater Richmond Convention Center on Saturday, March 2, 2024.
MIKE KROPF Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at the Greater Richmond Convention Center on Saturday, March 2, 2024. MIKE KROPF A customer picks up a beanie in support of presidential candidate Trump outside the Greater Richmond Convention Center prior Trump’s rally in Richmond, Va. March 2.
NICOLAS GALINDO, TIMES-DISPATCH Kathleen Shumate places a hat for presidential candidate Trump back on the rack outside the Greater Richmond Convention Center prior Trump’s rally in Richmond, Va. March 2. NICOLAS GALINDO, TIMES-DISPATCH A dog wearing a Trump hat passes by people waiting outside the Greater Richmond Convention Center on Saturday for former President Donald Trump’s rally.
NICOLAS GALINDO, TIMES-DISPATCH Supporters of presidential candidate Donald Trump hold signs mounted on squeegees outside the Greater Richmond Convention Center before the rally on Saturday. NICOLAS GALINDO, TIMES-DISPATCH President-elect Donald Trump, Melania Trump and family watch fireworks at Trump National Golf Club, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025, in Sterling, Va.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool) Alex Brandon President-elect Donald Trump, with Melania Trump, right, dances after watching fireworks at Trump National Golf Club, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025, in Sterling, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool) Alex Brandon.
