Candidates for state office who choose to seek taxpayer funding for their campaigns will not be required to disclose on campaign advertisements that taxpayers are footing the bill.
Sen. Matt Harrington (R-York) was the sponsor of a bill (LD 790) that would have required any politician buying advertising with taxpayer funding to disclose as much.
The bill would also have required traditionally funded candidates to disclose on their advertising that their campaign funds came from private sources.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted strictly along party lines to reject the disclosure bill.
The House followed suit Thursday.
That means taxpayer-funded candidates will be allowed to continue to imply that their campaign advertisements are not paid for by taxpayers.
Harrington said part of the reason he introduced the bill was because some taxpayer funded candidates had misrepresented the funding source of campaign materials in the last election cycle.
He pointed specifically to a mailer from his 2022 Democratic State Senate opponent, Kendra Williams, that said at the bottom: “Paid for and Authorized by the Candidate.”
“The communication may have been authorized by the candidate, but it was paid for by the taxpayers,” he said.
