Concerned about the public's mistrust of political fund raising, House of Delegates Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. yesterday called for major improvements to Maryland's campaign finance law.
Taylor told a House subcommittee that he supports more frequent reporting of campaign fund-raising activity and computerizing state files to make it easier for the public to track politicians' money.
"The public is increasingly skeptical about the influence that money plays in the life of each politician," the Allegany County Democrat said. "Far too many people still perceive the process as a behind-the-scenes, insider's game where money changes hands out of the public's view."
Over the years, the General Assembly has considered and rejected many of the ideas pushed yesterday by Taylor. But support from one of the legislature's leaders significantly improves chances for reform.
"This has made me extremely optimistic," said Risselle R. Fleisher, a member of the board of Common Cause/Maryland, a group that has pushed hard for campaign finance reform.
Taylor said he hopes the subcommittee can develop legislation before January, when the legislature will convene for its annual 90-day session.
The call for changes to Maryland's campaign financing laws was echoed by the state Republican Party, the executive director of the State Ethics Commission, and the Sierra Club, which wants a better accounting of money spent by companies opposed to stiffer environmental laws.
Yesterday's hearing came only a few days after a prominent political contributor -- racetrack owner Joseph A. De Francis -- was placed on probation for violating state limits on campaign gifts by funnelling $12,000 to the 1994 campaign of Gov. Parris N. Glendening through some of De Francis' out-of-state relatives.
The De Francis case was not mentioned yesterday as proponents of reform focused more on improving the system of public disclosure of campaign gifts.
Taylor and others called for computerizing campaign-finance records, which are now filed on paper forms and stored in file cabinets in a cramped former armory in Annapolis. Putting the records on a computer database would make it easier for the press and the public to analyze where a politician's campaign funds come from, they said.
Taylor said candidates could pay a user fee to absorb some of the cost of modernizing the elections office.
Glendening supports the computerization of campaign finance records, said spokeswoman Judi Scioli.
