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

PACs can also finance independent advertising to support candidates without facing a limit in almost every instance I know.
 
malkusm said:
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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I'm going to try to get my mom to run when she gets back from her honeymoon. She is connected (she knows Governor McDonnell and Attorney General Kuccinelli) and is one of us. Her senate district is also really competitive, being decided by a few hundred votes in the past couple of elections, which includes a recent special to replace Kuccinelli. I am just wondering if my stepdad's working for a Federal contractor might cause some snafus.
 
nate895 said:
I'm going to try to get my mom to run when she gets back from her honeymoon. She is connected (she knows Governor McDonnell and Attorney General Kuccinelli) and is one of us. Her senate district is also really competitive, being decided by a few hundred votes in the past couple of elections, which includes a recent special to replace Kuccinelli. I am just wondering if my stepdad's working for a Federal contractor might cause some snafus.
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Awesome! Definitely keep us posted.

Some things that we have to consider:

1) Name of the PAC? (I kind of like the idea of naming it after Samuel Adams for various reasons....but I don't want to deal with the beer company if they decide they want to sue us over it.)

2) Website? We probably want to get something done professionally.

3) ...There are plenty others, but I think I have the answers pinned down to most of them.
 
Other things to consider (thanks to RPF member forsmant for pointing these out):

We need to look in residency requirements for the chairperson and/or treasurer in each state that we file in. My impression has been that most states don't really care, but Nebraska apparently has a law that the Treasurer must be a registered voter in the state. We also need to look at what the filing fees are in each state. I'd imagine $100 or something is pretty standard.

I think our initial battle plan should be to set up shop in the four states where elections for state legislators are being held in 2011: Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia. We can work in those 4 states through next November, and really get our legs under us as we move forward....we can increase our exposure and name recognition in preparation for 2012 by working in these 4 states and being active.
 
Do you have a rough date for the conference call? If it is going to be within the next week, I'd like to request it not be Tuesday night because I will probably have to pick my mom and stepdad up from the airport in Richmond, VA.
 
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I would like to see the PAC as a for profit, or if non-profit, somehow able to pay for administration expenses. There will be quite a bit of work necessary ongoing for a lot of people, and whoever makes this happen should get paid something for their time and effort. There are a lot of questions to be answered.
 
Travlyr said:
I would like to see the PAC as a for profit, or if non-profit, somehow able to pay for administration expenses. There will be quite a bit of work necessary ongoing for a lot of people, and whoever makes this happen should get paid something for their time and effort. There are a lot of questions to be answered.
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We definitely need the "brass" of large organizations such as these to be paid when they start becoming successful. That way, it can be their job to focus on politics and winning elections. Without that, we will always be at a disadvantage to the professionals in other organizations.
 
Some states don't require you to even file until you have breached a certain level of contributions. $5000 in Nebraska and $200 in Virginia. Perhaps we should focus on states who are less restrictive on contributions to begin with?
 
forsmant said:
Some states don't require you to even file until you have breached a certain level of contributions. $5000 in Nebraska and $200 in Virginia. Perhaps we should focus on states who are less restrictive on contributions to begin with?
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Yeah, Nebraska is an anomaly in that respect. $5,000 is a really high threshold. But for those states, we can have whatever activity we want without filing until reaching the thresholds. So, I think it's fine for us to focus on the 2011 states for now.
 
malkusm said:
We need to look in residency requirements for the chairperson and/or treasurer in each state that we file in. My impression has been that most states don't really care, but Nebraska apparently has a law that the Treasurer must be a registered voter in the state. We also need to look at what the filing fees are in each state. I'd imagine $100 or something is pretty standard.
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I think you're starting to get confused, but I'll admit I just stumbled into this. It sounds like what you want to do is file for a Federal PAC with the FEC, with the sole purpose of making contributions to, or electioneering on behalf of, state-level candidates. What you seem to be referring to above is the protocol for incorporating PACs at the state-level.

If you are serious about doing this, you are definitely going to need to hire a good lawyer who specializes in this stuff to help you through the Byzantine process of filing and reporting.
 
AuH2O said:
I think you're starting to get confused, but I'll admit I just stumbled into this. It sounds like what you want to do is file for a Federal PAC with the FEC, with the sole purpose of making contributions to, or electioneering on behalf of, state-level candidates. What you seem to be referring to above is the protocol for incorporating PACs at the state-level.

If you are serious about doing this, you are definitely going to need to hire a good lawyer who specializes in this stuff to help you through the Byzantine process of filing and reporting.
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Federal PACs are really limited in the state candidates that they can support. State-level PACs are a lot less limited in doing so.
 
nate895 said:
Federal PACs are really limited in the state candidates that they can support. State-level PACs are a lot less limited in doing so.
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I realize this, but in order to have a cohesive organization with effective fundraising, it would be virtually impossible to operate 50 state PACs.
 
I don't believe the goal is 50. Right now we are trying to start four. It would follow the model of a lot of other organizations with a national level and state chapters. I don't believe anyone attempting to start this has found a way for one federal PAC to donate to state legislative candidates, which is malkusm's goal.
 
AuH2O said:
I realize this, but in order to have a cohesive organization with effective fundraising, it would be virtually impossible to operate 50 state PACs.
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That is my concern, but they are moving forward anyway. I am developing my own proposal for the conference call to incorporate this project with a larger "Liberty HQ"-type site with all the grassroots tools you need, and some sort of Google shopping cart type thing to help with one-stop donating to a bunch of different organizations.
 
PACs that do not donate or get involved in federal races do not need to file with the FEC. Most PACs that donate to state candidates are huge groups which also donate to federal candidates
 
It seems some people are looking for this PAC to be something to fight near-impossible high-profile races. I don't think this is the goal, is it? One of the major advantages of local/state elections is that they're very low-profile, relatively. When attention by organized grassroots is paid - like we did with Glen Bradley - we can see big results with relatively little organization. It should be a behind-the-scenes organization quietly offering financial support to candidates the PAC leadership deems viable, where a $10k donation would make a major shift in the vote #s, I would think.

On another tangent - who is the target audience in asking for donations? Is it supposed to be us - forum members, primarily? Aren't we generally well-educated enough to have no use for a PAC when we research each candidate individually and spend enough time here to know the liberty candidates we're interested in?
 
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