As the clock ticks down on Floridas 2013 legislative session, state lawmakers are starting to wheel and deal.
The Senate Wednesday passed a campaign finance reform bill, and in exchange the House passed ethics reform legislation.
Senate President Don Gaetz pushed hard for the ethics bill, while House Speaker Will Weatherford considered campaign finance reform one of his top priorities.
The new campaign rules would raise the limit on political contributions from $500 per election to $3,000 for statewide candidates and $1,000 for state lawmakers and lower offices.
Bill sponsor Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, says the new contribution limits have been used in the past.
These are the levels that were in the statute up to 1991 and so were basically just returning to the level of contribution that we had 20-some-odd years ago.
Said Gov. Rick Scott, No ones showed me a rationale for raising these limits. So I dont know why wed be doing it ... I havent seen the rationale yet.
The campaign finance reform legislation also eliminates Floridas murky Committees of Continuous Existence, but replaces them with something similar: political committees would be able to take in unlimited amounts of donations.
Dave Heller is a Tallahassee freelance reporter/videographer.
