Senate balks at campaign disclosure bill
by Jan Moller - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

BATON ROUGE -- Despite changes designed to make it less onerous, a watered-down version of a bill that would require political candidates to solicit information about their campaign contributors was still too much for the Senate to swallow Monday.

Under Senate Bill 31, candidates would be required to make a "good faith" effort to identify the employer of anyone who gives their campaign more than $250.

The bill was returned to the Senate calendar over the objections of its sponsor, Sen. Bob Kostelka, R-Monroe, meaning it can be brought back again for more debate in the days ahead.

But the 22-15 vote to postpone debate -- coupled with last week's rejection of a similar bill by a House committee -- suggests legislators are less than eager to disclose more information about the people who finance campaigns.

The measure, a part of Gov. Bobby Jindal's ethics package, is designed to deter a process known as "bundling," whereby companies skirt contribution limits by laundering donations through their employees.