Federal Election Commission Main Page
cc: Work Product File
February 9, 1979
ADVISORY OPINION 1979-3
Marion Edwyn Harrison
Barnett, Alagia & Carey
1627 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
Dear Mr. Harrison:
This responds to your letter of January 12, 1979
requesting an advisory opinion on behalf of the Committee
for the Survival of a Free Congress ("CSFC") concerning
application of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as
amended ("the Act") to the use of a contributor list by
CSFC.
Your letter states that a political committee ("donor"),
which is required to file reports with the Commission,
intends to donate a list of contributors to CSFC. You set
forth four alternative methods under which the contributor
list might be given and add that in each instance CSFC is
authorized specifically by the donor to solicit contributions
from those individuals on the list. The four alternative
methods are:
1. The donor releases to CSFC by means other than
photocopy the names and addresses on a list.
2. The donor releases to CSFC a photocopy of a list.
3. The donor releases to CSFC selected names from a list.
4. The donor in writing authorizes CSFC to copy names
from a list on file with FEC.
You ask whether CSFC would violate the Act or Commission
regulations under any of these alternatives.
Under the Act, information "copied from [FEC Disclosure]
reports and statements shall not be sold or utilized by any
person for the purpose of soliciting contributions or for
any commercial purpose." 2 U.S.C. SS 438(a)(4). Commission
regulations prohibit the use of "any information copied, or
otherwise obtained, from any report or statement, or copy,
reproduction, or publication thereof, filed with the Commission"
for the purpose of soliciting contributions. 11
CFR 104.13.
The situations you have presented in alternatives 1, 2,
and 3 involve circumstances wherein the donor releases to
CSFC a list of contributors to the donor. This list is
compiled by the donor from its contributor records and is
not copied from reports filed under the Act. In those
circumstances, the Commission concludes that use of that
list by CSFC to solicit contributions is not prohibited by 2
U.S.C. SS 438(a)(4) or Commission regulations.
In alternative 4, the donor would authorize CSFC to
copy names from reports filed by the donor with the Commission
and to solicit those individuals for contributions to
CSFC. The donor's authorization to CSFC, permitting use of
information copied from reports filed under the Act for
soliciting contributions, does not change the fact that
information copied from filed reports is being used for an
unlawful purpose. Thus the Commission concludes that
alternative 4 is prohibited by 2 U.S.C. SS 438(a)(4). The
distinction here between alternatives 1-3, and alternative 4
is the source of the contributor list.
In Advisory Opinion 1977-66 the Commission concluded
that a political committee's use of its own contributor list
is not prohibited by 2 U.S.C. SS 438(a)(4) and Commission
regulations at 11 CFR 104.13. The opinion reasoned that the
names of the contributors were not obtained from the committee's
reports to the Commission since the committee
itself prepared the report on the basis of its own information.
Similarly in this case, SS 438(a)(4) would not prohibit
the donor from selling or renting its own contributor list
for use by CSFC to solicit contributions to CSFC, but it
does prohibit the use of any list to solicit contributions
which is copied or otherwise obtained from disclosure
reports filed under the Act.
If the donor provides its contributor list without
charge, or at less than "usual and normal charge" for a
contributor list of the same quality and number of names,
the list (or the reduction in price below usual and normal
charge) would be a gift of "anything of value" and hence a
contribution for purposes of disclosure and limitation under
the Act. 2 U.S.C. SS SS 431, 434, 441a(a). The amount of the
contribution should be determined under Commission regulations
at 11 CFR 100.4(a)(1)(iii). See also SS 104.3 of Commission
regulations concerning the reporting and consumption of in-kind
contributions.
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.