“Complete betrayal” scarcely captures the extent of the cynicism and corruption in the legislature’s gutting of the campaign finance compromise passed two years ago.

House Bill 4018 has nothing to do with “allowing more time to implement reporting”. It is politics at its worst, a brazenly dishonest effort to undo the reforms of two years ago and once again open the floodgates of special interest money.

The way this bill was written, behind closed doors and not involving any of the good government groups with whom special interests negotiated the 2024 bill, is disgusting. It underscores how thoroughly beholden to special interests the legislature has become and makes the best argument yet for the need to limit big money’s influence.

But lawmakers and specials interest should be careful what they wish for. If this bill passes, I have no doubt that the Honest Elections people will immediately launch a ballot measure to undo it. The ballot measure will likely be in the form of a constitutional amendment, immune from legislative meddling. And this time, they won’t make the mistake of involving the other side, who we know now never had any intention of letting the 2024 law go into effect. You can expect that ballot measure to pass overwhelmingly.

So my message to special interests is this: Enjoy your victory while you can if this bill passes. It will be short-lived and its replacement will hand you probably the strictest campaign finance laws in the nation.