Al Jaeger: Anti-Measure 7 Activists Haven't Been Disclosing Spending

Here’s an interesting update to my post from earlier today about the anti-Measure 7 groups and their lack of campaign disclosure.

I emailed Secretary of State Al Jaeger about the issue, and he told me the North Dakota Prescription Service Corporation didn’t disclose their more than $334,000 in spending until yesterday after I tried to contact the anti-Measure 7 people about it.

The deadline for that sort of filing was October 3rd. We’re almost two weeks past that date.

He also told me that many of the independent groups that have been spending in opposition to the measure haven’t even bothered to report any sort of disclosures.

“As of yesterday, the North Dakota Pharmacy Service Corporation filed a report as an independent expenditure filer,” Jaeger told me via email. “They also plan on filing a separate independent statement for each of the over 90 entities that have contributed funds to the parent organization that has been deposited into the North Dakotans for Prescription Facts fund.  This will probably take a few days because of the number.  All of these reports will be available for viewing on the website.”

So, more days of waiting for campaign disclosures when we’re just a couple of weeks out from election day.

This is in sharp contrast to the pro-Measure 7 side which has reported hundreds of thousands in spending by their measure committee, and about $1.3 million more in independent expenditures by Walmart.

So, what sort of consequences are there for flouting the state’s campaign transparency laws?

“At this point, our goal is compliance,” Jaeger told me.

No consequences then, I guess.

What’s the point of having these transparency laws if there aren’t consequences for abiding by them?