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Mass. Lawmakers Try To Offset Campaign Finance Change

Massachusetts legislators are introducing a bill to offset changes in campaign finance laws.

The moves comes after the Supreme Court struck down legislation in January that limited corporate spending on election campaigns. In that case, Citizen United v. the Federal Election Commission, the court held that independent political broadcasts during elections cannot be limited under the First Amendment.

Massachusetts state Sen. Jamie Elridge will introduce legislation Monday that would require corporations to disclose what, how much and to whom they are giving their money.

"There is the chance that corporations can spend millions of dollars this fall to influence elections," Eldridge said. "And we want to at least to have that be disclosed to the public so that the public knows where all this money is being spent and how it might influence elections."

The proposed legislation would require a vote of corporate boards before money could be given to a candidate, ban foreign companies from giving and disclose what ads are paid for by which companies.

This program aired on June 21, 2010. The audio for this program is not available.

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