Senate Bill No. 141
(By Senators Rowe and Hunter)
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[Introduced January 13, 2003; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend article nine, chapter three of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated section twenty-five,
relating to elections; requiring that campaign advertising and
communications disclose the party affiliation of the candidate
or committee authorizing same; and providing criminal
penalties.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article nine, chapter three of the code of West Virginia,
one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by
adding thereto a new section, designated section twenty-five, to
read as follows:
ARTICLE 9. OFFENSES AND PENALTIES.
§3-9-25. Disclosure of party affiliation required on campaign
advertising or communications; penalties.
(a) Notwithstanding any provision of this code to the
contrary, any campaign advertising or communication authorized or
used by a candidate for public office or a candidate's committee or
political action committee, for the purpose of advocating the
nomination, election or defeat of a candidate, which refers to
another candidate or political party which is not the candidate or
the political party of the person or committee authorizing or using
the advertising shall disclose the political party affiliation of
the candidate or committee so authorizing or using the advertising
or communication.
(b) The name of the candidate or committee authorizing or
using the advertising or communication shall appear with the name
of the candidate, both in letters of the same type and shape, but
of a greater size than the letters of the other political party or
candidate.
(c) The name of any political campaign committee referring to
a political party or registered voters of a political party, other
than the political party of the candidate, shall also contain the
name of the political party of the candidate immediately after the
name of the candidate.
(e) Any person violating any of the provisions of this section
is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be
fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred
dollars.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require that campaign
advertising and communications disclose the party affiliation of
the candidate or political campaign committee authorizing the
advertising or communication.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.