The state board that oversees campaign finance laws plans to take its show on the road.
The Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board will conduct workshops around the state for city council or schoolboard candidates to get one-on-one training on how to file a campaign finance report.
Director Megan Tooker says many people running for local office are new to the game.
“If you're in the smaller forms of government,” Tooker says, “that’s where most of the novices are that have never run before, never been involved in races. So campaign disclosure can be intimidating to these people."
Tooker says candidates can always call her agency for help.
“We do that all the time,” Tooker says, “but we thought, let's have some regional candidate schools for people to meet us in person and walk them through what to expect.”
Tooker says the workshops should make the rules easier to follow and make reports easier to audit once they arrive at the board.
The board received money from the state to expand staff to conduct the workshops ahead of next year’s municipal and schoolboard elections. Tooker says the training sessions may encourage more people to run for local office.
Tooker briefed the governor on the project at the ethics board’s annual budget hearing.