Fundraising reports give early look at Arkansas ballot questions

Money is flowing in for potential Arkansas ballot measures.

Language for several of the major measures, including ones concerning abortion and the Freedom of Information Act, were approved January and signature gathering efforts are underway. Another, concerning public education, was approved just this month.

March 15 was the deadline to submit campaign finance reports for ballot question committees.

That means this is the first look under the hood of many of these efforts as some begin to hit their stride in the first phase of the campaign.

One of the biggest differences between fundraising is the scale and the type of donations. Some rely on major corporate contributions while others run mostly on amounts under $50, which don’t even show up on the reports.

Katie Clark, a leader of the Period Poverty Project, which is pushing to eliminate the sales tax on feminine hygiene products, said that, since all of their canvassers are volunteers, the greatest cost in her campaign’s budget is printing the petitions themselves. She said she imagines the same is true of other grassroots, volunteer-run campaigns.