State House News
July 7, 2010 at 12:40 pm

Sen. Cynthia Creem, locked in a reelection primary battle, urged a legislative panel Wednesday to support a late-filed bill toughening campaign finance reporting requirements for legislative candidates. Creem said existing laws require candidates for the Legislature, in election years, to file finance reports eight days before their primaries and year-end reports in the January after the election. In contrast, she said, candidates for statewide office and the Governor’s Council must report twice a month on their contributions and expenditures. Under her proposal, legislative candidates would have to file at the same rate as candidates for constitutional offices. “We’re in a new world now,” said Creem, describing instant access to information on the web, as well as her own “tweeting” on Twitter. Creem, who served in the Governor’s Council before joining the Legislature 10 years ago, said she remembered “filing consistently.” “More frequent reporting not only gives citizens more information, it also helps candidates from that end of the year crazy morass,” said Pam Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause, a good government advocate. “It really makes it a much easier process.”  Creem filed her bill April 20 and testified on it Wednesday during a hearing before the Election Laws Committee