The Political Reform Act of 1974 (PRA) regulates the use of campaign funds held by candidates for elective office, elected officers, and campaign committees. The PRA authorizes a candidate or elected officer to use campaign funds to pay or reimburse the state for the costs of installing and monitoring a home or office electronic security system, if specified conditions are met. These conditions include that the candidate or elected officer has received threats to physical safety that have been verified by law enforcement and that no more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) in campaign funds be used for this purpose.
Assembly Bill 2041 (AB 2041) eliminates this framework of conditions, authorizing a candidate or elected officer to use campaign funds to pay or reimburse the state for the reasonable costs of installing and monitoring a home or office electronic security system or for another tangible item related to security. Furthermore, a candidate or elected officer may use campaign funds for the reasonable costs of providing personal security themselves or their immediate family or staff, provided that the threat or potential threat to safety arises from any of their duties, status or position.
AB 2041 permits a maximum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) of campaign funds to be expended for the above security purposes during the candidate’s or elected officer’s lifetime but does not allow campaign funds to be used to pay, or reimburse the state, for firearms. AB 2041 requires candidate, elected officer, immediate family member or staffer to return the security system or other item to the committee that paid for the security system or other item or reimburse the campaign fund account of the committee that paid for the security system or other item. The candidate’s or elected officer’s campaign statement must include a reporting of the reimbursement or expenditure.
(AB 2041 repeals section 89517.5 of, adds section 89517.5 to, and amends section 89519 of the Government Code.)