[EL] “Court reopens door to ‘dark money’ in Arizona political races”

[sean at impactpolicymanagement.com]

One pedantic but important (IMO at least) clarification – the article reports that the ruling “overturned the ability of the voter-created Citizens Clean Elections Commission to determine whether the group was really a charity or only a thinly disguised political action committee.”

 

It's pretty unlikely that a charity (501(c)3 organization) could pull of being a “thinly disguised PAC,” as they are forbidden from engaging in campaign-related activity in support of or opposition to any candidate, and there are relatively few that violate this in anything other than a trivial way (say, a pastor endorsing from the pulpit – not saying that’s OK, just saying that’s a far cry from a church being a “thinly disguised PAC”). My guess is the reporter erroneously conflated “nonprofit” with “charity,” which really ought to be discouraged at least in this context.

 

Sean Parnell

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116059> “Court reopens door to ‘dark money’ in Arizona political races”


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116059> October 1, 2020 10:05 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 <https://tucson.com/news/local/court-reopens-door-to-dark-money-in-arizona-political-races/article_89a3773d-f533-5e6c-ba56-f5375baa2016.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share> Tuscon.com:

The Arizona Court of Appeals has reinstated a 2017 law that opens the door to “dark money” contributions to political races.

The judges said Tuesday that the Republican-controlled Legislature was within its rights to decide that any group the Internal Revenue Service classified as nonprofit does not have to disclose its donors, even if it uses the money to finance independent expenditures to elect or defeat candidates.

That legislative change overturned the ability of the voter-created Citizens Clean Elections Commission to determine whether the group was really a charity or only a thinly disguised political action committee. PACs have to disclose donors.

Tuesday’s unanimous ruling also allows political parties to spend unlimited dollars on behalf of their candidates without disclosure.

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D116059&title=%E2%80%9CCourt%20reopens%20door%20to%20%E2%80%98dark%20money%E2%80%99%20in%20Arizona%20political%20races%E2%80%9D> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10> campaign finance

 

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