Federal Election Commission Main Page
September 5, 1978
AO 1978-46
Wayne J. Thorburn
Executive Director
Republican Party of Texas
1011 Congress Avenue, Suite 520
Austin, Texas 78701
Dear Mr. Thorburn:
This letter is in response to yours dated July 14, 1978,
concerning the 1978 Republican State Convention of Texas and
the party newspaper published by the Republican Party of Texas.
Specifically, you ask whether Federal statutes, regulations or
FEC Advisory Opinions exist which would limit:
(1) solicitation of corporate advertisements in
a printed program for the 1978 Republican
State Convention of Texas;
(2) sale of exhibit space by the convention to
corporations;
(3) advertising by corporations in the Party's
monthly newspaper.
The Federal statute relevant to your questions is 2 U.S.C.
SS 441b. This provision of the Federal Election Campaign Act
of 1971, as amended prohibits:
(1) Contributions or expenditures by national
banks and Federally chartered corporations
in connection with any election to Federal,
State, or local political office, and
(2) Contributions or expenditures by any corporation
in connection with any Federal
election or "in connection with any
primary election or political convention
or caucus held to select candidates
for" the offices of President, Vice-President,
Senator, and Representative in Congress, and
(3) Knowing acceptance of such contributions by
any candidate, political committee or other
person.
Therefore, to the extent the Republican State Convention
of Texas is for the purpose of influencing or "in
connection with" a Federal election and funds paid
by corporations for advertising or exhibit space are
used to defray expenses of the convention, those funds
would be corporate contributions or expenditures that
are prohibited under SS 441b(a) as outlined above,
Similarly, the Party newsletter could not be financed
with proceeds from corporate ads to the extent its
purpose is to influence Federal election or it in
connected with a Federal election.
Nominations of Federal office candidates by the
Texas Republican Party were required under Texas law
to be made by primary election (held on May 6, 1978)
rather than Party convention. However the Republican
State Convention of Texas, may still be deemed to
be, at least in part, for the purpose of influencing
or "in connection with" a Federal election, Texas
law provides that State conventions be held "between
the first and third Tuesdays, exclusive, in September."
Tex. Elec. Code, art. 13.35. The duties of the State
convention are outlined in Texas law and primarily
relate to candidates for State offices. The convention
also announces "a platform of principles" and elects
officers and members for the State executive committee
of the Party. See Tex. Elec. Code, arts. 13.37, 13.38.
The Texas statute does not preclude the State Convention
from activities involving communications influencing
the election of candidates to Federal office or otherwise
connected with a Federal election. Therefore, if
the State Convention provides a forum for candidates
for Federal office involves (1) the solicitation,
making or acceptance of contributions to a campaign for
Federal office, or (2) any communication expressly
advocating the election or defeat of a clearly identified
candidate for Federal office, the Convention would be
regarded an for the purpose of influencing and in connection
with a Federal election. The prohibitions of
2 U.S.C. SS 441b would bar the financing of all Convention
expenses with corporate treasury funds, but such funds
could be used (assuming it is proper under Texas law)
to defray Convention expenses that are not allocable to
Federal election purposes.
In concluding that some expenses of the convention
may be allocable as influencing Federal elections,
the Commission would not require that such allocable
amount be further allocated to specific candidates
for Federal office. Specific Federal candidate allocation
would only be necessary where a Convention expenditure
was made on behalf of a clearly identified
candidate for Federal office to whom it could be directly
attributed. See SS 106.1 of Commission regulations.
If the Convention has any relationship to Federal
elections, as discussed above, the expenses allocable
to Federal election purposes must be paid from the
Texas Republican Party's Federal campaign committee
established pursuant to SS 102.6(a) of Commission regulations.
The amount of expenditures allocable to
the Federal campaign committee may be determined by
using the formula set forth in SS 106.1(e) of Commission
regulations. Other allocation formulas are explained
in the Commission's response to Advisory Opinion Request
1976-72 and in a guideline published in the FEC Record
of December 1977. (Copies are enclosed.)
If the State Convention is related only to State
elections and does not involve any activities bearing
on Federal elections an discussed above, expenses
of the Convention would not be expenditures under
the Act. Therefore, they would not have to be reported
(assuming they are paid by a non-registered party
organization); nor would the prohibitions of 2 U.S.C.
SS 441b apply except as to contributions by national banks
and corporations organized by authority of a law of
Congress. (See also 2 U.S.C. SS 441e which bars contributions
by foreign nationals in connection with
an election to any political officer.)
Regarding the acceptance of corporate funds for
advertisements placed in a monthly party newsletter
of the Texas Republican Party, the Commission concludes
that under the Act such funds would be contributions.
However, if proper under Texas law, proceeds from
corporate ads could be accepted by the Party and used
for State or local election purpose.*/ The expenses
*/ It appears that Texas Election Code, arts. 14.01(a), (E),
14.06, and 15.17 may be relevant.
of preparing, publishing, and distributing the newsletter
would be regarded an Federal election-related if communications
carried in the newsletter are for the
purpose of influencing the election of any person
to Federal office. Thus if any material published
in the newsletter relates to Federal elections, expenses
incurred for the newsletter need to be paid, on an
allocated basis, from the Federal campaign committee
of the Texas Republican Party. The formulas mentioned
above may be used to compute the allocable amount,
In addition, an allocation based upon the column inches
(or space) devoted to Federal candidates as a class,
without express advocacy of specific Federal candidates,
may be used to determine the amount of expenses required
to be paid and reported by the Federal campaign cambodia
of the Party.
However, if the newsletter includes communications
expressly advocating the election of defeat of a clearly
identified candidate for Federal office, the expenses
of the newsletter attributed to those communications
(to be determined by an allocation formula based
on columns or amount of space utilized for the communication
in relation to the entire newsletter) must
be treated as a general election expenditure of the
Party under 2 U.S.C, SS 441a(d). It must be paid from
funds of, and reported by, the Federal campaign committee
pursuant to SS 110.7 of Commission regulations. See
also SS 104.2(b). This conclusion follows from commission
regulations on allocation which require that expenditures
for "general administrative... and other day-to-day
costs of political committees" have to be attributed
to individual candidates for Federal office when they
are "on behalf of a clearly identified candidate and
the expenditure can be directly attributed to that
candidate". 11 CFR 106.1(c).
On the other hand, if the Party's newsletter
is completely devoid of both general and specific
communications relating to candidates for Federal
office, the expenses of preparing, publishing and
distributing it would not involve contributions or
expenditures under the Act and Commission regulations.
Those portions of this opinion relating to the
Party's newsletter supercede and modify, in part, the
Commission's response to Advisory Opinion Request
1976-65, issued September 21, 1976.
This response constitutes an advisory opinion
concerning the application of a general rule of law
stated in the Act, or prescribed as a Commission regulation,
to the specific factual situation set forth
in your request. See 2 U.S.C. SS 437f.