Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill to allow PACs to give state Senate candidates $25,400 over a four-year election period.

Senate Bill 1120 requires the PAC limits for Senate candidates to reset every two years in the same manner as they do for House candidates.

This will double the previous PAC limit of $12,700 because Senate candidates may receive the entire $25,400 at one time.

The bill is effective immediately.

On February 25, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) approved an advisory opinion allowing certain PACs to use aggregated data collected from the PAC’s contributors to advance the PAC’s political interests.

Advisory Opinion 2021-02 holds an independent expenditure-only PAC may inform a member of Congress or congressional candidate of the number of its contributors who live in the relevant state or district and the collective dollar amount that they give to the PAC. The request for the opinion was made by FEN-PAC, an independent expenditure-only political committee engaging lawmakers and candidates to advocate on certain legislative and policy issues. FEN-PAC, in its request, said it would not disclose any contributor’s contact information, nor would FEN-PAC or any third parties use any individual contributor information to solicit contributions or to sell other products or services.

The FEC held such use of aggregate data does not violate the Federal Election Campaign Act or any FEC regulations because it is not being sold or used for either soliciting contributions or commercial purposes.

The FEC specifically did not address any other federal laws or regulations could be affected by the PAC’s use of the aggregated data.

A bill has been introduced in the Senate setting new limits on political contributions.

Senate Bill 566 would reduce current limits on contributions to candidates from $2,800 to $1,000 per election.

Additionally, contributions to a PAC related to a particular election reduce from $5,000 to $1,000.

The bill would also reduce contributions limits to state party executive committees from $10,000 to $1,000 per calendar year.

Campaign contribution limits increased following an every other year adjustment to match inflation required by state law.

The amount an individual or PAC may give to a campaign for governor rose from $680 to $710 per election.

The aggregate amount a PAC may give to a candidate for state Senate rose from $2,850 to $3,050.

Additionally, the same amount rose from $1,750 to $1,850 for a candidate for state House.

The Commissioner of Political Practices is in charge of calculating the increase by multiplying last cycle’s limits by an inflation factor provided by statute.

The new contribution limits took effect September 21. Contributions made before that date are subject to the old limits.

However, those who have already given money may contribute again up to the new limits.

Missouri corporations may not make direct contributions to their own PACs, the Court of Appeals for the Western District affirmed on April 9.

The appeals court ruling upheld a similar 2018 finding in the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s lawsuit against the Missouri Ethics Commission.

There, the chamber challenged two of the commission’s ethics opinions that prohibited corporations from contributing directly to the PACs they form.

The Cole County Circuit Court issued a judgment in favor of the commission, determining corporations that serve as connected organizations cannot contribute corporate funds to their connected PACs.

Last week, Gov. Gary Herbert signed six bills amending the state’s campaign finance laws.

Updates include amended registration and reporting requirements for political action committees (PACs) and political issues committees (PICs).

Additionally, updates modify provisions relating to the statement of organization and naming requirements of a PAC.

Other changes include a provision banning PICs from contributing to PACs and clarifications on how to dissolve a PAC.

Regarding electioneering communications, House Bill 319 requires a person making an expenditure for certain advertisements relating to a ballot proposition to disclose the person’s identity in the advertisement.

All bills take effect on May 13, 2019.

The Oklahoma Ethics Commission chose not to vote on Proposed Rule 2019-02 after hearing public comments that the proposal would affect free speech and political activity.

The proposed rule would have required disclosure of the names of organizations involved in indirect or grassroots lobbying via radio, phone, internet or other broadcast media if those groups spent more than $500 on campaigns for or against specific pieces of legislation.

Those groups would also have been required to file reports with the Ethics Commission if expenditures exceeded $5,000.

The Ethics Commission passed other proposals for consideration, including a revolving door provision prohibiting elected state officers and chief administrative officers from lobbying for two years following their terms of office or service, new rules regarding the due dates of electronic filings, and revised reporting periods for candidate election reports and independent expenditure reports.

Additionally, the Ethics Commission submitted a proposal to prohibit state legislators from operating or becoming an officer of a PAC.

If the Legislature chooses not to reject the proposed rule changes again, all passed amendments will be effective upon adjournment sine die of the regular legislative session on May 31.

The Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance released draft regulations this week that would reduce the amount of money a union can contribute to a candidate annually from $15,000 to $1,000.

A state law banning corporate contributions was upheld by the high court this year, but the ruling noted Massachusetts law was unclear regarding contributions from unions.

The draft regulation would also cap union contributions at $500 to a PAC, and $5,000 to a political party.

A public hearing on the draft regulations will be held on March 15 with the final regulations expected by May.

Today, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) published its price index adjustments for expenditure limitations and the federal lobbyist bundling disclosure threshold.

The lobbyist bundling disclosure threshold has increased for 2019 from $18,200 to $18,700. This threshold amount is adjusted annually.

Federal law requires authorized committees of federal candidates, leadership political action committees (PACs), and political party committees to disclose contributions bundled by lobbyists and lobbyists’ PACs.

Additionally, the FEC published its adjusted Coordinated Party Expenditure Limits for political parties for 2019.

Today, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) published the 2019-2020 election cycle contribution limits, which have been indexed for inflation.

As required by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, the FEC must adjust certain contribution limits every two years.

The individual and nonmulticandidate PAC contribution limit to federal candidates has increased from $2,700 to $2,800 for both primary and general elections, allowing for a total of $5,600 for a federal candidate.

The limits on contributions by individuals to national party committees has increased from $33,900 to $35,500 per calendar year.

Individuals may now contribute $106,500 per calendar year to committees of a national political party for presidential nominating conventions, to committees of a national political party for preparation for and the conduct of election recounts and contests and other legal proceedings, and to committees of a national political party for the construction, purchase, renovation, operation, and furnishing of one or more buildings for party headquarters.

Beginning Monday, February 4, through five calendar days following sine die adjournment, several actions regarding campaign contributions by lobbyist principals are prohibited in Oklahoma.

A lobbyist or lobbyist principal must not make a campaign contribution to a member of the legislature or a candidate for state legislative office; promise to make a campaign contribution for a member of the legislature or candidate for state legislative office; or solicit a campaign contribution for a member of the legislature or candidate for state legislative office.

A member of the Legislature or a candidate for state legislative office must not intentionally solicit a campaign contribution from a lobbyist or lobbyist principal; or intentionally accept a campaign contribution from a lobbyist or lobbyist principal.

A contribution from a lobbyist or lobbyist principal to a member of the legislature or a candidate for legislative office that has not been deposited before February 4 must be returned to the contributor.

This statutory blackout period does not prevent a limited Political Action Committee (PAC) from making one or more contributions to a candidate committee up to the limits allowed under the ethics rules provided the PAC is not represented by a lobbyist.

New Mexico law states on the day after each general election, campaign contribution limits increase in accordance with a formula based on the consumer price index.

Starting November 7, the limits per election cycle are:

• From an individual (person or entity): $2,600 to a non-statewide candidate; $5,700 to a statewide candidate; and $5,700 to a PAC.
• From a PAC: $5,700 to a non-statewide candidate; $5,700 to a statewide candidate; and $5,700 to a PAC.

These limits do not apply to the candidate’s own personal contributions to the candidate’s campaign fund.

Can I use my company’s federal PAC to make contributions to candidates for state office?

With the exception of Massachusetts, contributions from a federal PAC to non-federal state candidates are permissible.  However, the challenging aspect of making these types of contributions is that every jurisdiction has different rules regarding how to register and report such contributions.  To make this a little easier to digest, we have broken down the states into five categories.  Please note:  regardless of the registration and reporting process, in all jurisdictions the federal PAC is subject to the contribution limits according to the law of that jurisdiction.

Category #1:  You do not have to do anything.  Simply make the contribution to the state candidate as you would any other contribution from your federal PAC.  This option is usually only available if your FEC filings are current and complete.  Examples of these jurisdictions include Alabama, Delaware, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

Category #2:  You must register and report as a state PAC.  In these instances, your federal PAC is treated no differently than any other out-of-state PAC.  You must register your federal PAC using that jurisdiction’s registration forms.  You must report your contributions using state forms and file your reports according to that jurisdiction’s filing deadlines.  Examples of these jurisdictions include Connecticut, Georgia, and Tennessee.

Category #3:  You may file your FEC registration and reports in lieu of state registrations and reports. The tricky thing about these jurisdictions is keeping track of whether you file your reports according to the jurisdiction’s reporting schedule or the FEC’s reporting schedule.  Examples of these jurisdictions include Kentucky, New Mexico, and North Dakota.

Category #4:  You have to register using state form and report using your FEC filings, or vice versa. Examples of these jurisdictions include Illinois, South Carolina, and Virginia.

Category #5:  You have a choice regarding how to register and report.  These two jurisdictions include Iowa and Kansas.

As was mentioned, in Massachusetts, federal PACs may not contribute to campaigns in that state.  Federal PACs must establish a separate segregated fund for contributions in Massachusetts and comply with the same requirements as in-state committees.  The separate segregated fund must be established as a depository account in a financial institution authorized to transact business in Massachusetts and having its main office, or a branch office, in Massachusetts.

We have not listed PAC rules for all the states, only examples of some states. If you have a question on a state not listed here, please contact us at 330-761-9960

The Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance released a draft version of updates to the agency’s regulations taking affect at the end of the month.

The changes were subject to a public hearing last month and aim to make the regulations consistent with changes to campaign finance law and agency practices of the last few years.

Some changes include updated due dates for electronically filed reports, clarifications on when an organization must register as a political committee, and explanations of the circumstances in which an independent expenditure political action committee (PAC) becomes a traditional PAC.

The official effective date of the updated regulations has not yet been announced, and a final copy of the changes will not be publicly available until later this month.