[EL] account of how the c4 situation became what it is?

[Tobin, Donald]

Part of the story is that very few entities that avoided express advocacy had any disclosure requirement.  The only Federal disclosure requirements were in FECA or those required by the FCC when placing an ad on TV.

Congress then added disclosure provisions to 527 of the IRC.  This required political organizations organized under 527 to disclose.   It did not impose a similar requirement on 501(c)(4)s.

Congress then passed the broader electioneering communication rules in McCain-Feingold.

Because of the disclosure requirements, 527 political organizations were no longer a preferred vehicle.  Organizations that wished to avoid disclosure organized as 501(c)(4) organizations instead of 527 organizations.

So while (c)(4)s were not required to disclose, they usually were social welfare organizations that also engaged in some advocacy.

In my view, the big change is the use of (c)(4)s as political campaign type vehicles absent any real social welfare purpose.

There is a big difference between the NAACP or the NRA, having a social welfare purpose and also engaging in some political advocacy than an organization that is allegedly social welfare but really has its primary purpose being election activity.

So I agree with Brad that (c)(4)s have not had the burden to disclose (except if they engaged in express advocacy, and now electioneering communication), but the type of organization now claiming to be a (c)(4) has changed.

Donald

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Justin Elliott
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 12:30 PM
To: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: [EL] account of how the c4 situation became what it is?

Hi --

To briefly introduce myself since I'm new to the list: I'm a reporter at Salon who covers campaign finance from time to time. People may have read my recent inteview with Floyd Abrams and Rick's response http://bit.ly/AnZlbK  http://bit.ly/yRXw55

Quick question for the group. I'm looking for a narrative account or just good explanation of how we got to the current point of c4s running ads etc and not disclosing donors. My sense is this is a relatively new phenomenon, but I'd like to be more clear on the legal/regulatory background....

Thanks!
Justin Elliott
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