As
its rank at number three reflects, Massachusetts has one of
the best campaign finance disclosure programs in the country. Unfortunately,
its weak campaign finance disclosure law significantly
brings down its overall grade.
Under
Massachusetts law, candidates must file once in non-election
years and once before each election. Detailed information
must be provided for all contributions of $50 or more, with occupation
and employer disclosed for contributions greater than $200. Information
about all expenditures of $50 or more must be disclosed, but
subvendor information does not have to be reported. Independent
expenditures must be disclosed but not last-minute independent
expenditures, and last-minute contributions are not reported
prior to an election. Electronic filing is mandatory for
statewide and legislative candidates.
Massachusetts
does a very good job of making campaign finance information
accessible to the public. The state posts
campaign finance data on its site as soon as it has been filed. It
has nearly comprehensive databases of contributions and expenditures
that are searchable on a number of fields, but not expenditure
description. In addition, the databases allow users to
sort search results on up to seven different fields simultaneously. Site
visitors are also offered many different choices for viewing
itemized campaign finance information by browsing, searching
or downloading all of the files.
Massachusetts
could make some small changes to improve the usability
of its web site. The state does a very good job of providing
an overview of campaign financing trends for statewide and legislative
candidates and also does an excellent job of explaining which
filers' reports are available online and which are not. The
state could improve its list of candidates, which does not include
information about the offices being sought, the districts or
party affiliation. Unfortunately, the lack of information
about candidates makes it difficult to conduct a search of either
database because the site user needs to know the office being
sought. The state could also improve the terminology on
its site and list the reporting periods in candidates'
filings.
