MANCHIN WILL SIGN ATTACK AD DISCLOSURE BILL

(07/01/2008)

Governor Joe Manchin will sign a bill passed by the Legislature that requires groups that advertise ahead of elections to disclose their large donors. The legislature had passed a law that mandates disclosure of who financed the production of ads, but a judge said the law was illegal. This is round two with the measure. "This is nothing about limiting what people can spend in elections. This is about disclosing who spends it and how much that is," says House Judiciary Committee Chair Carrie Webster. The public should know who is financing these ads, indicating they are generally attack ads. The state's Republicans voted against the measure. "The public sees all these ads coming in. They get all these mailings where they don't know who it's from and it chills the speech, quite frankly, of the people on the other end of that because they're less likely to speak out," says Delegate Webster. Berkeley County Delegate Jonathan Miller says "It's not about disclosure. It's about eliminating free speech rights of issue groups that liberals in the Legislature do not agree with." Webster said candidates and the public need to know the source of attack ads.

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