Bill Description: House Bill 930 would require political candidates to open a separate bank account for campaign contributions and to transfer personal loans to the campaign over $1,000 into the separate campaign bank account.
Rating: -1
NOTE: House Bill 930 is related to House Bill 598 (2026).
Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the United States Constitution or the Idaho Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private property, or firearms. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in the US Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?
House Bill 598 would amend Section 67-6604, Idaho Code, to impose new requirements on political candidates. The first would require a political treasurer for a candidate or political committee to “maintain at least one (1) checking account with a financial institution.”
It would further require that “all moneys received by a candidate's campaign or a political committee shall be deposited in such account” and that “candidate campaign funds and political committee funds shall be segregated from, and may not be commingled with any other account.”
It would stipulate that the political treasurer shall “keep detailed accounts of all contributions received and all expenditures made by or on behalf of the candidate or political committee” and “keep the accounts current within seven (7) days after the date of receiving a contribution or making an expenditure.”
It would also prohibit investing this money in “stocks or other equity securities,” limiting any investment of campaign funds to “certificates of deposit, money market accounts, or other cash-equivalent accounts held in the name of the campaign or political committee.”
Finally, it would say that “a candidate who loans personal funds to such candidate's campaign in an amount exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) shall transfer such funds to the candidate campaign account.”
While these requirements might not significantly burden established or wealthy candidates, they are particularly restrictive for first-time candidates and those with limited funds. A personal loan from a candidate to his campaign does not necessarily represent cash on hand that can be immediately and fully transferred to a dedicated campaign account, rather it reflects the financial commitment a candidate is willing to make over the course of a campaign.
Idaho law already requires strict accounting and reporting of contributions and expenditures by candidates and campaigns. The restrictions in this bill would unduly burden first-time and self-funded candidates.
The right to participate in the political process, which includes the right to seek public office, should not be unduly burdened by government restrictions, nor should someone be required to do business with a particular class of private entities (such as a bank) in order to run for office.
(-1)
