[EL] ELB News and Commentary 8/4/11

[Steve Gold]

With regard to the pro-Romney donation, the Internal Revenue Code defines a
political organization as, ". . . a party, committee, association, fund, or
other organization (whether or not incorporated) organized and operated
primarily for the purpose of directly or indirectly accepting contributions
or making expenditures, or both . . ." for the purpose of attempting to
influence an election.  That describes the LLC which contributed to the
pro-Romney group to a T.  I'm not aware of any instance in which the IRS has
declared an organization to be a political organization, as opposed to the
organization self-identifying, but there could be existing reporting
requirements in the law (527s must report contributions and expenditures to
the IRS) which this LLC has violated.

--
Steven Gold
General Counsel
ActBlue
steve at actblue.com
617.517.7636
www.actblue.com


On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 1:07 PM, Daniel Tokaji <tokaji.1 at osu.edu> wrote:

> **
>
> *“Firm gives $1 million to pro-Romney group, then dissolves”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=21372>
> *
>
> Posted on August 4, 2011 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=21372> by Dan
> Tokaji <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=5> ****
>
> Michael Isikoff has this report<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44011308/#.TjqEEYKwVnw> on MSNBC.com.
> “Mysterious, very mysterious,” as the Backyardigans might say<http://backyardiganslyrics.blogspot.com/2009/12/mysterious-very-mysterious.html>(sorry, but this is what happens to your pop culture references when you
> have a two-year old).****
>
> [image: Description: Share]<http://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D21372&title=%E2%80%9CFirm%20gives%20%241%20million%20to%20pro-Romney%20group%2C%20then%20dissolves%E2%80%9D&description=>
> ****
>
> Posted in campaign finance <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10> | Comments
> Off ****
>
> * *
>
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