Plain English Breakdown
The official text mentions that a violation of the Political Reform Act is punishable as a misdemeanor and that this bill creates a new crime, but it does not specify if criminal penalties apply directly to the missing disclaimer or generally under the act.
Campaign Disclosure Rules and Dental Outreach Program
This law removes penalty exemptions for missing disclaimers on paid online political posts, making posters and committees jointly liable, and requires the state dental board to create a program recruiting students from underserved communities.
What This Bill Does
- Removes the exemption that previously protected people or committees from administrative, civil, and criminal penalties if they miss required labels on paid online political posts.
- Makes both the person posting content and the committee paying them jointly and severally liable for any administrative or civil penalties if a disclaimer is missing.
- Requires campaign committees to tell paid posters that failing to include a label could lead to legal penalties under the Political Reform Act of 1974.
- Mandates that committees list payments made for third-party online posts on their official campaign reports.
- Orders the Dental Board of California to create, run, and maintain an outreach program to recruit students from underserved areas into dentistry education and licensure.
- Requires the dental board to hold at least two outreach events each year focused on these students.
Who It Names or Affects
- Campaign committees that pay others to post political content online.
- People or groups paid by committees to share posts supporting or opposing candidates and ballot measures.
- The Dental Board of California within the Department of Consumer Affairs.
- Students from underserved communities who may be recruited for dental education.
Terms To Know
- Disclaimer
- A statement that says a post was paid for by a specific committee.
- Jointly and severally liable
- Both the poster and the paying committee can be held responsible for the full amount of any fine or penalty.
Limits and Unknowns
- The text does not list specific dollar amounts for fines or penalties.
- The bill states no reimbursement is required from the state but only mentions it is 'for a specified reason' without detailing that reason in this summary.
- The exact start date for when these new rules take effect is not provided.