Changes coming

Because of ambiguity in the amendment, Zwonitzer and the other co-chair of the committee, Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, will meet with the Legislative Service Office sometime in the next week to clarify the committee’s intent.

Zwonitzer said the amendment will likely be changed. Independent groups will still be exempt from reporting on political advertisements that don’t explicitly support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure. But the existing requirements on other political spending by those groups will be put back into the bill. He said he will seek to create a new amendment allowing the committee or full Legislature to remove those existing requirements as well, if it turns out that was the original intent.

Agar did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Regardless of the committee’s recommendations, the full Legislature must still approve any changes to Wyoming’s campaign finance laws when it meets in February.

Stoner said that she had spoken with the Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees elections in Wyoming, and was told that even with Agar’s amendment independent groups may still be required to report explicit political spending due to language elsewhere in state law.

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