LPM OnlineSeptember 14, 2004 |
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District 26 State Rep candidate, Sara Sjoberg, will be participating in a candidate debate on Tuesday, September 14, at 7:00pm. The debate will be held at:
Community Media Network Studio 1230 Souter Troy, MI 48083 South of Maple & East of Rochester Road Time is 7:00 to 8:00 PM. Seating is limited due to the confines of the studio, so they'll allow guests until capacity is reached. If you're available, let's all come out to support her. Sara is a great Libertarian candidate and very outspoken. But as we all know, it's that much easier when you have friendly faces in the audience supporting you and getting the crowd to join in on outrageously strong supportive applause.
Are you ready for your house payment to increase? If you pay your property taxes with your mortgage, that's exactly what will happen if the Michigan legislature passes House Bills 5786-5787, which will accelerate the collection of county property taxes. In any case, you will be paying more in property taxes if this bill passes, and landlords will almost certainly pass the cost on to renters too! Libertarians launched their SpeakOutMichigan web site today so that taxpayers can let their legislators know that they are opposed to this tax manipulation. Legislators won’t call it a tax increase, but when they collect future taxes to spend today, that’s exactly what it is. The senate versions of these bills have already been passed and the House is scheduled to vote on these bills this Wednesday, September 15. Please ACT NOW! Go to http://www.SpeakOutMichigan.org/ and use the site to send a message to your legislators. Then make sure you pass this information on to all your friends in Michigan. We can stop this if we SPEAK OUT now!
Campaign Finance Law and Generic Campaign Activity
"Generic campaign activity," under federal campaign finance law, means a public communication that promotes or opposes a political party and does not promote or oppose a clearly-identified federal or nonfederal candidate.
Before the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, state and local political parties could pay for generic campaign activity with general funds.
Now, during the period starting 12 weeks before the primary and ending on election day, generic campaigning cannot be paid with general funds. A party should use its federal campaign fund. Furthermore, it is illegal to transfer money from a party's general fund to its federal fund.
(A party can sometimes also use its state campaign fund to pay for generic campaigning. But this involves complicated bookkeeping rules. And Michigan law prohibits transfers from a party's general fund to its state campaign fund. So this doesn't solve LPM's problem.)
Like most Libertarians, I oppose these rules. But we must follow them. Penalties for violating federal campaign finance law are much harsher than those for violating Michigan law. Officers and other persons involved in violations could go to jail and are personally liable for large fines. Incorporating the Executive Committee would not protect the officers from prison or personal liability.
I was horrified when some state and local LP officers proposed that we violate the law. They proposed schemes such as (1) transferring money from the LPM general fund to someone who would then contribute the money to the LPM federal fund, pretending that the transfer was payment for services rendered, or (2) transferring money from the LPM general fund to local party general funds. They hoped that their schemes would avoid detection.
Keeping anything secret within LPM is difficult. Libertarians love to discuss things orally and online. We know that nonlibertarians monitor our online discussion groups. The Federal Election Commission would find out eventually.
Even if the officers don't mind going to jail and paying large fines, they still shouldn't violate the law. Violation of the law would greatly embarrass the Libertarian Party and thus would be a breach of their fiduciary duty.
LPM members who want the state party to spend money on generic campaign activity should contribute money to the LPM federal fund. Those who want their local party to spend money on generic campaign activity should help create a local federal fund and contribute money to it.
After the election, and until May 2006, LPM and each local party can use its general fund for generic campaign activity.
I don't want to receive any more e-mail or phone calls on schemes to evade the law. I won't provide free legal services to persons who disregard my advice and get in trouble for violating the law. |
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