Jason Snead, Executive Director of Honest Elections Project Action, released the following statement:
“Thanks to the hard work of Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry, the state legislature, and Governor Landry, Louisiana has taken a major step towards outlawing foreign influence in ballot issue campaigns. Foreign nationals like Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss have been exploiting a loophole in our laws to influence ballot issue campaigns across the country. Wyss alone has pumped at least $280 million into a progressive dark money group called the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has in turn spent $130 million on liberal ballot issue campaigns across the country. Louisiana is the seventh state this year to take action. Banning foreign funding will ensure Louisianans are protected from foreign influence when they head to the ballot box to make decisions about their laws and changes to their state constitution.”
Snead provided testimony in support of legislation to ban the foreign funding of ballot issue campaigns in the Senate Government Affairs Committee. His written testimony can be found here.