WRITTEN OPINION - 2006-08-24. WRITTEN OPINIONS

STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS

6400 Mail Service Center · Raleigh, NC 27699-6400

 

GARY O. BARTLETT                                                                                                                        Mailing Address

Executive Director                                                                                                                               PO Box 27255

Raleigh, NC  27611-7255

 

August 24, 2006

 

The Honorable Bill Daughtridge

340B Legislative Office Building

Raleigh, NC  27603-5925

 

Dear Representative Daughtridge:

 

This is to formalize our conversation yesterday in which you requested an advisory opinion pursuant to G.S. 163-278.23 regarding permissible uses of campaign funds from a candidate's campaign committee.  You want to ensure that your committee complies with current law as well as changes in the law which become effective October 1, 2006.

 

It is my understanding that your committee would like to make expenditures to a charitable organization.  More specifically, your committee would like to purchase a gas grill and donate it to a non-profit organization which would use it for fund raising purposes.

 

This is a legitimate use of campaign funds under our current campaign finance laws.  Under Session Law 2006-161, which becomes effective October 1, 2006, the law is more specific about permissible committee expenditures.  Campaign committees may make "[c]ontributions to an organization described in section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. 170(c)), provided that the candidate or the candidate's spouse, children, parents, brothers, or organizations will be permitted subject to the restriction that the candidate or the candidate's listed family members may not be employed by the organization."  Under both current law and Session Law 2006-161, any expenditures by a campaign committee would need to be disclosed on campaign finance reports filed with this office.

 

This opinion is based upon the facts as stated in our conversation on August 23, 2006.  If those facts should change, you should evaluate whether this opinion is still applicable and binding.  Finally, this opinion will be filed with the Codifier of Rules to be published unedited in the North Carolina Register and the North Carolina Administrative code.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Gary O. Bartlett

Executive Director

 

cc:           Julian Mann III, Codifier of Rules