Federal Election Commission Main Page
February 19, 1982
CERTIFIED MAIL
RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
ADVISORY OPINION 1981-53
William G. Frazier
4211 North Broadway
Muncie, Indiana 47303
Dear Mr. Frazier:
This responds to your letters dated October 23 and
November 13, 1981, supplemented by your letter dated January 5,
1982, requesting an advisory opinion on behalf of your campaign
committee, the Bill Frazier for Congress Committee, concerning
application of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as
amended, ("the Act"), and Commission regulations to the
Committee's sale of its mailing list to a corporation.
You indicate that the Bill Frazier of Congress Committee,
("the Committee"), developed its mailing list by compiling names
from publicly available voter registration lists in Indiana.
Approximately 80,000 names of residents in five counties in
Indiana were compiled by "family members" and placed on seventeen
magnetic tapes. You state that the expenses incurred by the
Committee to generate this mailing list totalled $4,216 including
travel expenses, supplies, copying forms, labor and equipment.
You ask specifically whether the Act would permit the
committee to sell the seventeen magnetic tapes containing the
described mailing list to Professional Data Processing
Corporation, ("the Corporation"), for the sum of $4,000. You
state that neither you nor anyone acting on behalf of the
Committee will retain the originals of any of the tapes
or retain any future right to use either the computer tapes or
the information contained on the tapes.
The issue raised by your request is whether payment by the
corporation to the Committee for the computer tapes containing
the mailing lists developed by the Committee, would constitute a
corporate contribution prohibited by 2 U.S.C. SS 441b.
The Commission is of the opinion that the Act would permit
the Committee to sell its mailing list on computer tape to the
Corporation provided that the price that the Committee charges
the Corporation for the tapes represents the "usual and normal
charge" for such tapes under the provisions of 11 CFR
100.7(a)(1)(iii). That section provides that "the 'usual and
normal charge' for goods means the price of those goods in the
market from which they ordinarily would have been purchased at
the time of the contribution...." Thus, as long as the Committee
charges the Corporation the "usual and normal" rate for the
tapes, a prohibited corporate contribution would not occur. You
state that the price of $4,000 set for the tapes by the Committee
was "determined to be the fair market value of this material in
this area."
The Commission has held in factual situations involving the
sale of assets of a campaign committee, that if the asset in
question has been developed by the campaign committee in the
normal course of its operation, and the asset is developed
primarily for the campaign committee's own use rather than for
sale to others in the form of a fundraising item, the sale of the
asset to a corporation does not result in a prohibited corporate
contribution provided that the requirements of 11 CFR
100.7(a)(1)(iii) are met. See Advisory Opinions 1979-24,
1979-18, copies enclosed.
Thus, in the situation presented by your request, the sale
of the computer tapes to the Corporation by the Committee would
be permissible under the Act, provided that the price that the
Committee charges the Corporation for the mailing list represents
the "usual and normal" rate for the tapes at the time of the
sale.
This response constitutes an advisory opinion concerning
application of the Act, or regulations prescribed by the
Commission, to the specific transaction or activity set forth in
your request. See 2 U.S.C. SS 437f.