DOVER, VT — Representative Laura Sibilia (I-Dover) has filed a complaint asking the Vermont Attorney General’s Office to review paid advertisements by Americans for Prosperity during the 2026 election cycle.
The advertisements criticize legislators and their voting records. One asks Vermonters to contact their legislators in support of AFP’s policy positions.
“This is not a complaint about whether AFP has a right to speak. It does,” Sibilia said. “Even though I disagree with quite a bit of what AFP says, that does not matter. The question is did/is AFP spending money to influence an election or legislative action, and if so, is it following Vermont’s disclosure laws?”
Act 70, enacted in 2025,strengthened Vermont’s campaign-finance registration and reporting requirements, including requirements affecting political committees and independent expenditures. Act 154, enacted in 2026, expanded disclosure requirements for certain paid advertisements intended to influence legislative action or encourage others to do so.
Sibilia sponsored the language enacted in both laws raised by the complaint.
Before filing the complaint, Sibilia sent the advertisements to the Secretary of State’s Elections Division. Elections Administrators responded that the communications “certainly appear” intended to influence an election, and that one could reasonably argue that the “Tell your legislators” language is a solicitation to influence legislative action.
“Vermont’s laws apply to everyone,” Sibilia said. “If a progressive organization spends money attacking Republican legislators during an election, it must follow the same campaign-finance laws. The same is true for environmental groups, labor organizations, corporations or conservative organizations. Disclosure cannot depend on whether we like the message or who benefits from it.”
The National Fight Over Political Spending and Disclosure.
The Vermont complaint is one small part of a much larger national debate over money, political speech and what voters have a right to know.
Americans for Prosperity grew out of the political network built by Charles and David Koch. Their family company, Koch Industries, grew from oil refining into one of the country’s largest privately held companies, with interests that now include energy, manufacturing, agriculture and technology.
AFP itself does not publicly disclose its donors. This means public records don’t specify who funded the Vermont advertisements. Its related political organization, AFP Action, does disclose its donors. Koch Industries and the Koch-connected Stand Together organization are its two largest disclosed donors in the 2026 election cycle.
That makes the question of disclosure increasingly important. Voters may disagree on policies, but they should all be able to understand who is spending money to influence their elections and government when the law requires that spending to be disclosed.
The current system of unlimited outside political spending grew in large part from two court decisions in 2010. In the Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations and unions can spend without limit independently to influence elections. But, it also upheld disclosure and reporting requirements for election-related spending.
This continues to beg question: if outside groups can spend enormous amounts influencing our elections, what are voters entitled to know about that money?
AFP has been active in that fight nationally.
In 2021, AFP Foundation won a U.S. Supreme Court case involving California. The Court struck down California’s requirement that charities routinely provide the state with confidential information identifying major donors. That case involved charitable donor information, not campaign spending.
AFP and its foundation are now challenging a different law in Delaware that requires donor disclosure for certain election-related advertising. So far the Courts have not agreed to suspend Delaware’s law for the 2026 election, while the underlying constitutional challenge is ongoing.
Vermont’s laws at issue here focus on reporting political spending and certain lobbying activity when that activity meets requirements set in state law.
Sibilia’s complaint is not asking Vermont to obtain AFP’s donor list. It asks whether specific paid advertisements triggered Vermont’s existing campaign-finance or lobbying disclosure laws and, if they did, whether those laws were followed.
“This is a national organization that has repeatedly gone to court over state disclosure requirements,” Sibilia said. “They have every right to challenge laws they believe are unconstitutional. Vermont has every right to enforce our laws.”
Vermont legislators have also been looking at the larger impact of Citizens United. This year, lawmakers introduced H.793 and S.322, which proposed using Vermont’s authority over corporations to restrict corporate spending on election activities. Sibilia cosponsored the House bill. Neither bill became law.
“The amount of outside and dark money money in American politics is obscene, and Vermont is clearly not immune from that spending,” Sibilia said.
AFP META ad buy links: AFP1 AFP2 AFP3
Laura Sibilia is an independent state representative serving the Windham-2 District and Dover, Jamaica, Somerset, Stratton and Wardsboro
Discover more from Vermont State Representative Laura Sibilia
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.