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MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Republican leaders today denounced a federal lawsuit filed by the Alabama Democratic Conference challenging last year’s ban on transferring campaign money between political action committees.

Alabama House of Representatives Speaker Mike Hubbard and Alabama Senate President Del Marsh issued the joint statement stating that the PAC-to-PAC transfer ban was a critical component of a series of anti-corruption reforms passed in special session and signed into law by then-Gov. Bob Riley in December.

The statement notes that the bill passed without opposition in both houses of the Legislature.

“This has never been a partisan issue,” Hubbard said.

“Alabamians should question the motives of a group seeking to overturn one of the state’s most significant campaign finance reforms, especially since the bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support,” Marsh said.

The lawsuit claims that last year’s amendment to Alabama’s Fair Campaign Practices Act is a violation of ADC’s First Amendment rights and of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. The lawsuit asks that a federal judge bar Attorney General Luther Strange and others from enforcing the amendments.

The lawsuit contends the act will interfere with funding for the get-out-the-vote efforts of ADC, and as a result “a number of black voters will be unable to get to the polls to vote, and thus will be effectively barred from access to the franchise. Black citizens will be disproportionately disadvantaged by such interference.”

The act also “disproportionately reduces and forecloses the access of minority candidates to amassing the resources necessary to run an effective campaign against their majority-race opponents,” the lawsuit claims.

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