Democracy 21 Applauds Efforts by New York State Attorney General to End Secret Money in New York State and Local Races
Democracy 21 Applauds Efforts by New York State Attorney General to End Secret Money in New York State and Local Races
Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer
Democracy 21 applauds the effort begun yesterday by New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman to establish new rules in New York state to require nonprofits registered in New York to disclose their political spending and the donors funding these expenditures as they relate to New York state and local elections.
Attorney General Schneiderman’s effort represents a direct challenge to the secret money being spent to influence New York state and local elections and also complements the efforts taking place in Washington to enact legislation to close campaign finance disclosure loopholes being exploited by “social welfare” organizations and other groups.
Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent by these groups in the 2012 federal elections without disclosing the donors who funded these expenditures.
Attorney General Schneiderman’s effort also stand in stark contrast to the continuing failure of the IRS to take steps to stop the misuse and abuse of the tax laws by groups claiming nonprofit status in order to hide the donors financing their campaign activities.
On July 27, 2011, Democracy 21, joined by the Campaign legal Center, submitted a petition for rulemaking in which we requested the IRS to initiate a proceeding to clarify and bring into compliance with the law the IRS regulations that govern campaign activity by groups claiming status as “social welfare” organizations.
On July 17, 2012, almost one year later, we received a letter from IRS which acknowledged that “the IRS is aware of the current public interest in this issue,” recognized that the existing regulations were more than a half-century old and stated that the IRS would “consider proposed changes in this area.”
Despite this response from the IRS, the agency has taken no action to begin the process of revising its regulations.
Democracy 21 appreciates the fact that Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman is undertaking a serious effort to end the secret money problem in New York state and local elections. We strongly urge the IRS to promptly begin a similar effort to end the misuse of nonprofit groups to launder secret money into federal elections.
