The official "state legislative PAC thread" - OP will remain updated.

malkusm

malkusm

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This thread is an offshoot of an earlier idea to create a Political Action Committee (PAC) which would find, endorse, and donate exclusively to state legislative candidates, starting in the 2011 election cycle (YES, there are elections in 2011!) and beyond.

UPDATE: The laws for PAC-to-candidate contributions can be found here:
http://www.ncsl.org/Portals/1/documents/legismgt/limits_candidates.pdf
The laws for individual-to-PAC donations can be found here:
http://www.ncsl.org/Portals/1/documents/legismgt/limits_PACs.pdf
Other important rules that we will need to keep in mind can be found here:
http://www.ncsl.org/Default.aspx?TabId=16544

I've set the criteria for us to be active as: (1) being able to donate $1,000+ to any given candidate in that state, and (2) being able to accept a maximum $5,000 donation from any individual. We can tweak these and discuss what the best combination is, but this combination makes us active in 27 states.

The PAC will be active in the following states (contribution limits in parentheses - drastically oversimplified for convenience):

Alabama (Unlimited)
Illinois (Unlimited)
Indiana (Unlimited)
Iowa (Unlimited)
Mississippi (Unlimited)
Missouri (Unlimited)
Nebraska (Unlimited)
North Dakota (Unlimited)
Oregon (Unlimited)
Pennsylvania (Unlimited)
South Dakota (Unlimited)
Texas (Unlimited)
Utah (Unlimited)
Virginia (Unlimited)
Wyoming (Unlimited)
Ohio ($11,395/candidate)
New Jersey ($8,200/candidate)
Nevada ($5,000/candidate)
New Mexico ($5,000/candidate)
Oklahoma ($5,000/candidate)
Tennessee ($5,000/candidate)
California ($3,900/candidate)
Louisiana ($2,500/candidate)
Georgia ($2,400/candidate)
Arkansas ($2,000/candidate)
Idaho ($1,000/candidate)
New Hampshire ($1,000/candidate)

---------

We will need volunteers! Please shoot me a message if you're willing to help. Specifically, we'll likely need one person per state that we operate in to commit to being "treasurer" for the state. Each treasurer will be responsible for filing the campaign finance paperwork with the state elections office by the appropriate deadlines (typically, 28 days and 10 days before each primary and general election, and an annual report in January).

Stay updated on our progress here! Once we get rolling, we'd like to have the support of RPF to build an initial base of funds that can be used in future election cycles to help state sovereignty candidates get to their state houses.
:)
 
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Alternate title of this thread: Yes, we are really going to do this. :D
 
Wow, no one's all too interested, eh? Or maybe they are waiting for this to materialize further....
 
Love the idea! I'll do some digging around and see what I can find for laws in Ohio.
 
North Carolina $4000 per individual per cycle (ie - $4k for the primary plus $4k for the general)

ETA -- will need to explore further to see if there are any specific additional restrictions on PAC monies.
 
GunnyFreedom said:
North Carolina $4000 per individual per cycle (ie - $4k for the primary plus $4k for the general)

ETA -- will need to explore further to see if there are any specific additional restrictions on PAC monies.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Glen!

P.S. I find that, in my limited research, campaign finance seems to break down regionally. For example, limits tend to be higher in the south, and unlimited PAC contributions seem to be prevalent in the midwest (Illinois/Indiana/Iowa all being this way). Then you have the northeast and mountain west, which are more restrictive.... :confused:
 
Travlyr said:
What criteria would be used prior to supporting a candidate?
Click to expand...

Our focus will be 10th Amendment/state sovereignty issues, since we will be supporting state candidates exclusively. We haven't hammered out precisely what our rules would be, but there might be some sort of pledge involved. Grassroots support will also play a major role, of course.

I want to add that we will be discussing things like this in a conference call in the near future, and I'll post on our decisions and game plan going forward once that occurs.
 
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I have to say that I find this quite interesting. I will start doing some research concerning Texas law on this issue.

Slutter McGee
 
OP updated with the new info I've found since starting the thread.

UPDATE: The laws for PAC-to-candidate contributions can be found here:
http://www.ncsl.org/Portals/1/documents/legismgt/limits_candidates.pdf
The laws for individual-to-PAC donations can be found here:
http://www.ncsl.org/Portals/1/documents/legismgt/limits_PACs.pdf
Other important rules that we will need to keep in mind can be found here:
http://www.ncsl.org/Default.aspx?TabId=16544

I've set the criteria for us to be active as: (1) being able to donate $1,000+ to any given candidate in that state, and (2) being able to accept a maximum $5,000 donation from any individual. We can tweak these and discuss what the best combination is, but this combination makes us active in 27 states.

The PAC will be active in the following states (contribution limits in parentheses - drastically oversimplified for convenience):

Alabama (Unlimited)
Illinois (Unlimited)
Indiana (Unlimited)
Iowa (Unlimited)
Mississippi (Unlimited)
Missouri (Unlimited)
Nebraska (Unlimited)
North Dakota (Unlimited)
Oregon (Unlimited)
Pennsylvania (Unlimited)
South Dakota (Unlimited)
Texas (Unlimited)
Utah (Unlimited)
Virginia (Unlimited)
Wyoming (Unlimited)
Ohio ($11,395/candidate)
New Jersey ($8,200/candidate)
Nevada ($5,000/candidate)
New Mexico ($5,000/candidate)
Oklahoma ($5,000/candidate)
Tennessee ($5,000/candidate)
California ($3,900/candidate)
Louisiana ($2,500/candidate)
Georgia ($2,400/candidate)
Arkansas ($2,000/candidate)
Idaho ($1,000/candidate)
New Hampshire ($1,000/candidate)
 
Just confirmed data for NC

Individual contribution limits to State Legislative candidates are $4000 per candidate per election

State Party contributions to candidates are unlimited

PAC contributions to candidates are the same as individual contributions.

Corporate and Union contributions to candidates are prohibited.

SO, NC PAC contribution limits are $4000 per candidate per election (ie $4k primary plus $4k general is the maximum allowable PAC contribution by law)
 
GunnyFreedom said:
Just confirmed data for NC

Individual contribution limits to State Legislative candidates are $4000 per candidate per election

State Party contributions to candidates are unlimited

PAC contributions to candidates are the same as individual contributions.

Corporate and Union contributions to candidates are prohibited.

SO, NC PAC contribution limits are $4000 per candidate per election (ie $4k primary plus $4k general is the maximum allowable PAC contribution by law)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't have NC listed above since they limit individual contributions to PACs at $4,000 per election, which is really not bad at all, but my criteria was $5,000. We need to discuss things like this on the conference call that we'll have in the near future. NC and SC have almost identical campaign finance laws and are the next two states I would add to the list above based on the limitations.

Certainly with $4k per election we could do some damage. :p
 
I am willing to help in either Virginia or Washington. I am not sure where I will end up over the next few months, but I will definitely be able to contribute to Virginian efforts in any event.
 
Nebraska in 2010 allowed state legislative candidates to receive a maximum of $46,000 from a PAC, political party, other candidate committee, business, corporation, trade association, labor union, or other organization. That's an aggregate. So add up all those organizations contributions and they cannot exceed $46,000.
 
forsmant said:
Would this PAC be limited to state legislative races?
Click to expand...

Yep.

forsmant said:
Nebraska in 2010 allowed state legislative candidates to receive a maximum of $46,000 from a PAC, political party, other candidate committee, business, corporation, trade association, labor union, or other organization. That's an aggregate. So add up all those organizations contributions and they cannot exceed $46,000.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Nebraska is one of the most relaxed states. Most states have limits on how much a single candidate can get from a PAC. Nebraska, as you said, just has this aggregate (same as Illinois.
 
nate895 said:
I am willing to help in either Virginia or Washington. I am not sure where I will end up over the next few months, but I will definitely be able to contribute to Virginian efforts in any event.
Click to expand...

As you probably know, Virginia has legislature elections in 2011, which makes it somewhat of a priority. Keep your ear to the ground, we'll have a conference call shortly....if you know of any candidates or potential candidates for state legislature there, pass them along. :)
 
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