A significantly watered-down bill to prevent companies from filling campaign coffers while seeking major state contracts passed unanimously in Virginia’s Senate on Monday.
The ethics legislation, proposed by Sen. Ralph Smith, R-Roanoke, would prohibit bidders on state contracts worth more than $5 million from donating to the governor’s campaign committee, his political action committee or inauguration until after a contract is awarded.
The bill originally applied to all Virginia campaign contributions, including those to senators and delegates. But Smith said that after broad opposition from lobbyists, the legislation was scaled back to include contributions only to the governor. And instead of applying to contracts of at least $1 million, it would deal with contracts five times that size.
“There was just outcry with enough lobbyists — the pullback — it was obvious that [the original bill] wasn’t going to go anywhere,” he said.
Smith’s bill would bar donations from contractors during the period between the submission of the bid and the award of the contract. Violators would face a civil penalty of up to twice the size of the contribution.
“Yes, I’d like [the bill] to be broader and apply to us as well, but that wasn’t to be,” Smith said. “We got the best bill out we thought we could. … It protects the citizens and taxpayers of Virginia.”
Padding candidates’ war chests is common practice among companies doing business with the state. Donors include Fluor Corp., which has a contract for high-occupancy toll lanes on the Capital Beltway; Bechtel Infrastructure, the lead contractor for the Metrorail extension to Washington Dulles International Airport; and Northrop Grumman, which has a massive and controversial information technology contract with the state’s technology agency.
The legislation passed the Democratic-led Senate with no debate. It still must pass the Republican-majority House of Delegates, where a similar bill was shot down Friday in the House Privileges and Elections Committee.
