|
September 1, 2010
Michael Delaney
Attorney General
Department of Justice
25 Capitol St.
Concord, NH 03301
Dear Attorney General Delaney:
We write to ask for clarification from the Department of Justice on whether contributions received by the Friends of John Stephen exceed the contribution limits expressed in RSA 664 and as interpreted in guidance the Attorney General's office has issued to previous gubernatorial campaigns.
In particular, we ask you to review the Statements of Receipts and Expenditures for Political Committees filed by Friends of John Stephen on June 24, 2010 and August 25, 2010. For the reasons explained below, the Stephen campaign's filings appear to contradict the state's contribution limits established by RSA 664:4-V, as well as previous clarifications of that law by the Department of Justice.
Based on RSA 664:4-V and previous Attorney General opinions, previous candidates for governor - and this campaign - have operated on the understanding that if candidates have officially filed for office and opted not to voluntarily limit their expenditures, their campaigns thereafter are subject to contribution limits of $1,000 for the primary and $1,000 for the general election.
The Attorney General has made clear that this contribution limitation does not apply to a campaign prior to a candidate's filing for office (hereafter, "pre-declaration"). See Letter to Rich Killion, Regarding WhyBenson.com.
However, under RSA 664, any contributions, whether received pre- or post-declaration, must be attributed to either the primary or the general elections.
In the post-declaration period, a campaign that has not voluntarily agreed to limit expenditures may accept from a donor up to $1,000 for the primary and $1,000 for the general, unless the campaign has already attributed $1,000 or more from that donor to either the primary or general election (including donations made in the pre-declaration period), in which case the campaign may not accept additional contributions to such elections.
So, for example, if a donor has contributed between $1,000 and $5,000 in the pre-declaration period, those funds would be attributed to the primary, and the campaign could accept another $1,000 in the post-declaration period for the general election, but no more for the primary. If a donor has contributed $6,000 in the pre-declaration period, $5,000 of those funds would be attributed to the primary, $1,000 to the general, and the campaign could not accept any more contributions in the post-declaration period.
The Friends of John Stephen committee has declined to take the voluntary spending cap, and thus is subject to the restrictions described above. The Stephen campaign, however, appears to be operating under the principle that contributions made pre-declaration do not count toward either the primary or general election limits. For example:
• Friends of John Stephen accepted a total of $5,000 ($5,000 pre-declaration, $1,000 for the primary, and $1,000 for the general) from single individuals in at least 5 instances on the Aug. 25 filing.
• Friends of John Stephen accepted an additional $1,000 toward the primary from many individuals who had already given between $1,000 and $5,000 in the pre-declaration period, and thus may have been precluded from further giving except $1,000 towards the general election fund under widely accepted previous interpretations of the law.
Based on the above would appear that Friends of John Stephen has accepted at least $33,058 in funds that may exceed the caps set by RSA 664 and the Attorney General's interpretations thereof.
We ask that you use your authority under RSA 664:18-21 to immediately clarify whether these contributions to the Stephen campaign are consistent with RSA 664 and your office's guidance on such matters.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Pamela M. Walsh
Campaign Manager
NH for John Lynch '10
Cc: Deputy Attorney General Orville Fitch
|
