{"id":1680,"date":"2015-02-24T21:07:43","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T02:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1680"},"modified":"2015-02-24T21:07:43","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T02:07:43","slug":"west-virginia-legislation-would-eliminate-all-limits-on-campaign-contributions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1680","title":{"rendered":"West Virginia Legislation Would Remove Limits on Campaign Contributions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">West Virginia Republicans have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.legis.state.wv.us\/Bill_Status\/bills_history.cfm?INPUT=541&amp;year=2015&amp;sessiontype=RS\">introduced legislation &#8212; SB 541<\/a> &#8212; that would remove all limits on contributions to candidates running for office in West Virginia.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The legislation would also repeal the state ban on corporate contributions.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/jacket.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1681\" title=\"jacket\" src=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/jacket.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"251\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Under current law, individual contribution limits are $1,000 per candidate.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Corporations are prohibited from giving directly to candidates.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Under SB 541, both individuals and corporations can give unlimited amounts to candidates.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">One of the sponsors of the bill is Senator Craig Blair (R-Berkeley).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The bill was taken up tonight by the West Virginia Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator Charles Trump (R-Morgan).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, a number of Democratic Senators expressed disbelief that the Republicans would propose such legislation.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Senator Mike Woelfel (D-Cabell) said that, under the bill, any Chinese corporation could give unlimited amounts to West Virginia candidates.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI feel like I\u2019m in a parallel universe,\u201d Woelfel said. \u201cThis bill would allow foreign corporations to contribute unlimited amounts to our candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI guess I\u2019m operating in a state of shock here,\u201d Senator Ronald Miller (D-Greenbrier) said. \u00a0\u201cThe maximum I could receive from a corporation would be the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cUnder this legislation, we can take $100,000 from a foreign corporation,\u201d Miller said. \u201cSomewhere we need in this bill a piece of legislation requiring us to wear patches indicating who owns us &#8212; whether we are owned by General Motors or by whoever put the money in. I can\u2019t believe we are even thinking about doing this. Any corporation could give me any amount of money in an election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">West Virginia would join just four other states that allow corporations to give unlimited amounts to candidates for election.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Shortly after 8 pm, the Judiciary Committee hearing was adjourned. No vote was taken on the bill.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>West Virginia Republicans have introduced legislation &#8212; SB 541 &#8212; that would remove all limits on contributions to candidates running for office in West Virginia. The legislation would also repeal the state ban on corporate contributions. Under current law, individual &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1680\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}