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General Assembly Committee Bill No. 640
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 4983
Referred to Committee on GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
AND ELECTIONS
Introduced by:
(GAE)
AN ACT CONCERNING ON LINE PLATFORMS AND C AMPAIGN
FINANCE.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 9-601 of the general statutes is amended by adding 1
subdivisions (32) and (33) as follows (Effective January 1, 2022): 2
(NEW) (32) "Online platform" means any public-facing Internet web 3
site or application or digital application, including, but not limited to, a 4
social network, advertisement network or search engine, that sells 5
qualified political advertisements and (A) has four hundred thousand 6
or more unique monthly visitors or users, which visitors or users have 7
an assigned Internet protocol address within the United States, for seven 8
of the preceding twelve months, or (B) has revenue from advertising in 9
excess of one thousand dollars per year. 10
(NEW) (33) "Qualified political advertisement" means any 11
advertisement, including, but not limited to, sponsorship and search 12
engine marketing, that is an expenditure, as defined in section 9-601b. 13
Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective January 1, 2022) For each sale of a qualified 14
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political advertisement on an online platform, as those terms are defined 15
in section 9-601 of the general statutes, as amended by this act, such 16
online platform shall: (1) Make available for online public inspection, 17
and in machine-readable format, a digital copy of the qualified political 18
advertisement; and (2) provide to the State Elections Enforcement 19
Commission the name, street address and phone number of a single 20
point of contact at such online platform who is responsible for the sale 21
and appearance of such qualified political advertisement on such online 22
platform. 23
Sec. 3. Subsection (b) of section 9-601c of the general statutes is 24
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective January 25
1, 2022): 26
(b) When the State Elections Enforcement Commission evaluates an 27
expenditure to determine whether such expenditure is an independent 28
expenditure, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the following 29
expenditures are not independent expenditures: 30
(1) An expenditure made by a person in cooperation, consultation or 31
in concert with, at the request, suggestion or direction of, or pursuant to 32
a general or particular understanding with (A) a candidate, candidate 33
committee, political committee or party committee, or (B) a consultant 34
or other agent acting on behalf of a candidate, candidate committee, 35
political committee or party committee; 36
(2) An expenditure made by a person for the production, 37
dissemination, distribution or publication, in whole or in substantial 38
part, of any broadcast or any written, graphic or other form of political 39
advertising or campaign communication prepared by (A) a candidate, 40
candidate committee, political committee or party committee, or (B) a 41
consultant or other agent acting on behalf of a candidate, candidate 42
committee, political committee or party committee; 43
(3) An expenditure made by a person based on information about a 44
candidate's, political committee's, or party committee's plans, projects 45
or needs, provided by (A) a candidate, candidate committee, political 46
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committee or party committee, or (B) a consultant or other agent acting 47
on behalf of a candidate, candidate committee, political committee or 48
party committee, with the intent that such expenditure be made; 49
(4) An expenditure made by an individual who, in the same election 50
cycle, is serving or has served as the campaign chairperson, treasurer or 51
deputy treasurer of a candidate committee, political committee or party 52
committee benefiting from such expenditure, or in any other executive 53
or policymaking position, including as a member, employee, fundraiser, 54
consultant or other agent, of a candidate committee, political committee 55
or party committee; 56
(5) An expenditure made by a person or an entity on or after January 57
first in the year of an election in which a candidate is seeking public 58
office that benefits such candidate when such person or entity has hired 59
an individual as an employee or consultant and such individual was an 60
employee of or consultant to such candidate's candidate committee or 61
such candidate's opponent's candidate committee during any part of the 62
eighteen-month period preceding such expenditure; 63
(6) An expenditure made by a person for fundraising activities (A) 64
for a candidate, candidate committee, political committee or party 65
committee, or a consultant or other agent acting on behalf of a candidate, 66
candidate committee, political committee or party committee, or (B) for 67
the solicitation or receipt of contributions on behalf of a candidate, 68
candidate committee, political committee or party committee, or a 69
consultant or other agent acting on behalf of a candidate, candidate 70
committee, political committee or party committee; 71
(7) An expenditure made by a person based on information about a 72
candidate's campaign plans, projects or needs, that is directly or 73
indirectly provided by a candidate, the candidate's candidate 74
committee, a political committee or a party committee, or a consultant 75
or other agent acting on behalf of such candidate, candidate committee, 76
political committee or party committee, to the person making the 77
expenditure or such person's agent, with an express or tacit 78
understanding that such person is considering making the expenditure; 79
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(8) An expenditure made by a person for a communication that 80
clearly identifies a candidate during an election campaign, if the person 81
making the expenditure, or such person's agent, has informed the 82
candidate who benefits from the expenditure, that candidate's candidate 83
committee, a political committee or a party committee, or a consultant 84
or other agent acting on behalf of the benefiting candidate or candidate 85
committee, political committee, or party committee, concerning the 86
communication's contents, or of the intended audience, timing, location 87
or mode or frequency of dissemination. As used in this subdivision, a 88
communication clearly identifies a candidate when that communication 89
contains the name, nickname, initials, photograph or drawing of the 90
candidate or an unambiguous reference to that candidate, which 91
includes, but is not limited to, a reference that can only mean that 92
candidate; [and] 93
(9) An expenditure made by a person or an entity for consultant or 94
creative services, including, but not limited to, services related to 95
communications strategy or design or campaign strategy or to engage a 96
campaign-related vendor, to be used to promote or oppose a candidate's 97
election to office if the provider of such services is or has provided 98
consultant or creative services to such candidate, such candidate's 99
candidate committee or an agent of such candidate committee, or to any 100
opposing candidate's candidate committee or an agent of such 101
candidate committee after January first of the year in which the 102
expenditure occurs. For the purposes of this subdivision, 103
[communications strategy or design] (A) "communications strategy or 104
design" does not include the costs of printing or costs for the use of a 105
medium for the purpose of communications, [. For purposes of this 106
subdivision, campaign-related vendor] and (B) "campaign-related 107
vendor" includes, but is not limited to, a vendor that provides the 108
following services: Polling, mail design, mail strategy, political strategy, 109
general campaign advice or telephone banking; and 110
(10) An expenditure made by an online platform, which expenditure 111
displays the name, face or voice of a candidate, ninety days or less before 112
the day of a primary or election if such expenditure was not made 113
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neutrally or evenly as to such candidate and each opponent of such 114
candidate. For the purposes of this subdivision, "expenditure made by 115
an online platform" includes, but is not limited to, any tool or feature 116
created by or for such online platform that appears on or is integrated 117
with such online platform. 118
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 January 1, 2022 9-601
Sec. 2 January 1, 2022 New section
Sec. 3 January 1, 2022 9-601c(b)
Statement of Purpose:
To define "online platform", require such platform to make publicly
available copies of electioneering communications and contact
information at such platform for such communications and impose a
rebuttable presumption that certain content created by or for such
platform is not an independent expenditure if displayed during the
ninety days prior to a primary or election.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]
Co-Sponsors: SEN. LESSER, 9th Dist.
S.B. 640