Panel approves bill letting candidates destroy campaign reports after four years

The House Campaigns, Constitutions and Elections Committee on Thursday reported favorably on Senate Bill 166, which would let candidates destroy campaign reports and related campaign paperwork four years after the filing date.

Senator King, the bill sponsor, said the measure is aimed at simplifying long-term record-keeping for campaigns. "This bill says that after 4 years when you file that particular report, that you only keep it for 4 years, and then you can destroy it," King said, describing long boxes of old campaign materials and noting that federal campaign practice and prior settlements informed the proposal.

Committee members asked whether the four-year window would prevent later questions or investigations into campaign activity. Senator King and others said the ethics commission retains authority where applicable and that counsel had reviewed statute-of-limitations concerns; King noted that items subject to ethics inquiries or legal holds would remain available per those processes.

A member asked what the prior retention period had been; answers in the hearing were not definitive — responses included uncertainty that it had been "3 or 4" years or not specified in statute. A member confirmed that destruction under the bill would be the candidate's decision; King said the ethics commission would still retain records when required.

The committee moved and seconded to give the bill a favorable report; after a voice vote the chair declared "the ayes have it" and the bill was reported favorably. The transcript does not include a roll-call tally for the vote or the names of the mover and seconder.