---
type: "Bill"
title: "Election campaigns: candidate misrepresentation."
description: "Existing law provides that every person is guilty of a misdemeanor who, with intent to mislead the voters in connection with his or her campaign for nomination or election to a public office, or in connection with the campaign of another person for nomination or election to a public office, assumes, pretends, or implies, by his or her statements or conduct, that he or she is the incumbent of a public office, or has been acting in the capacity of a public officer, when that is not the case."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 370"
citation: "California AB 370 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Election campaigns: candidate misrepresentation."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Brown"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 17
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2015-02-17"
last_action: "2015-07-15"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/4235303c-990d-4e98-9179-59f5310010ad"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB370"
source_hash: "55e22d01c90fec8f9339e026fd038e4f7f0eee88fbf472846f6314656920dc12"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 370 (20152016) — Election campaigns: candidate misrepresentation.

Existing law provides that every person is guilty of a misdemeanor who, with intent to mislead the voters in connection with his or her campaign for nomination or election to a public office, or in connection with the campaign of another person for nomination or election to a public office, assumes, pretends, or implies, by his or her statements or conduct, that he or she is the incumbent of a public office, or has been acting in the capacity of a public officer, when that is not the case.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/17/15 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB370&version=20150AB37099INT)
2. **07/15/15 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB370&version=20150AB37097CHP)
3. **AB370** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB370)
4. **07/07/15 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB370&version=20150AB37098ENR)

## Votes

- Consent Calendar 2nd — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 370 BROWN Consent Calendar Second Day — **78–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **16–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **7–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Brown — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2015-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2015-02-18** From printer. May be heard in committee March 20.
- **2015-03-02** Referred to Com. on E. & R. `referral-committee`
- **2015-03-25** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (March 25). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-04-15** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (April 15). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-04-16** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-23** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 1108.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-23** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2015-05-07** Referred to Com. on E. & C.A. `referral-committee`
- **2015-06-16** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 16). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-06-29** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to consent calendar. `committee-passage`
- **2015-06-30** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-07-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 1755.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-07-02** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2015-07-09** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
- **2015-07-15** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2015-07-15** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 105, Statutes of 2015.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/4235303c-990d-4e98-9179-59f5310010ad`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).