[Lnc-business] From ballot-access.org re: larger legal political party contributions

[Daniel Wiener]

That's interesting news which could turn out to be very helpful to us.  I
wonder if it is related to this story:
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/dscc-debt-2014-elections-113453.html

Apparently the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is $20.4 million in
debt, of which $5.2 million is the result of purchasing a house in May
which they'd previously been leasing.  So depending on how the provision is
interpreted, it may be intended as a way for the DSCC to solicit larger
donations to pay off that debt.

Dan Wiener

On Wed, Dec 10, 2014 at 3:21 PM, William Redpath <wredpath2 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Congress Likely to Allow Much Larger Contributions to Political Parties
> <http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/12/congress-likely-to-allow-much-larger-contributions-to-political-parties/>
> Published on December 10, 2014
> <http://www.ballot-access.org/2014/12/congress-likely-to-allow-much-larger-contributions-to-political-parties/>
> ,
>
> On December 9, the text of the congressional bill that would fund the
> federal government was released. It contains a surprise provision
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=68995> that would make it possible for
> individuals to give substantially more money to national committees of
> political parties than the current law allows. Currently individuals cannot
> give more than $32,400 per year to the national committee of a political
> party.
>
> The budget rider would allow much larger contributions, but only if the
> money were donated for one of three purposes: (1) to defray expenses of
> national conventions; (2) to defray expenses incurred with respect to the
> construction, purchase, renovation, operation, and furnishing of one or
> more headquarters buildings of the party or to repay loans the proceeds of
> which were used to defray such expenses, or otherwise to restore funds used
> to defray such expenses (including expenses for obligations incurred during
> the 2-year period which ends on the date of the enactment of this
> paragraph); (3) to defray expenses incurred with respect to the preparation
> for and the conduct of election recounts and contests and other legal
> proceedings.
>
> Although many news stories about this bill imply that the bill only
> applies to the Democratic and Republican National Committees, the bill
> actually applies to all political parties recognized by the Federal
> Election Commission as “national committees.” They include the Libertarian,
> Green, Constitution, Socialist, Natural Law, and Reform Parties.
>
> The bill is expected to pass Congress this week. Thanks to Dan Tokaji for
> the link.
>
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>


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