| AO-95-44 |
Funds may be received by a ballot question committee to pay for liability incurred in contesting certification of ballot question do not have to be considered "contributions" subject to c. 55. [See IB-90-02; References AO-94-42 which was overruled by 970 CMR 1.04(13) effective 4/25/03] |
| AO-95-43 |
A candidate's committee could make an expenditure to support the candidate's election to a state party committee. |
| AO-95-42 |
Municipal power plant prohibited by Anderson from making expenditures to influence a ballot question. |
| AO-95-41 |
A tax-exempt non-profit corporation should contact the Internal Revenue Service before becoming involved in campaign activity. |
| AO-95-40 |
Political committee may pay candidate's legal expenses associated with Ethics Commission review and subsequent criminal prosecution under conflict of interest law where the review was made public. [Overruling AO-85-13] |
| AO-95-39 |
"Person in the service" subject to s. 15 should not serve as treasurer of committee organized to support candidate for federal office. [But see s. 15 as amended, which now allows persons in the service to serve as treasurers] |
| AO-95-38 |
A political committee may pay for ticket for elected official's attendance at a trade association awards dinner if the candidate is attending the dinner to enhance his political future. |
| AO-95-37 |
A poll worker is "employed for compensation" on a temporary basis, and is subject to s. 13 only on election day while performing services for the town. Poll worker may serve as treasurer of committee if no fundraising undertaken on election day. |
| AO-95-36 |
A PAC may make expenditures to influence ballot questions if consistent with the purpose for which the PAC was organized. If a PAC intends to solicit contributions to influence a ballot question, it must organize a separate ballot question committee. |
| AO-95-35 |
The spouse of a legislative agent may contribute up to $500 to a candidate. |
| AO-95-34 |
A person employed by a federally funded state agency who receives benefits provided to state employees, and is supervised by persons employed by the state and directly paid by the state, is subject to s. 13. |
| AO-95-33 |
Selectmen may discuss local ballot questions at Board meetings. |
| AO-95-32 |
Corporation may host breakfast for candidate to extent expenditures are de minimus and consistent with "ordinary hospitality." |
| AO-95-31 |
Campaign finance law does not apply to person seeking election to public employee retirement board. |
| AO-95-30 |
If a PAC is organized, financed, controlled and maintained by an individual and the PAC is not able to identify the economic or special interest of most contributors, the PACs name must identify the controlling individual. |
| AO-95-29 |
City could not provide payroll deduction plan to benefit PAC if not mandated as part of collective bargaining agreement. |
| AO-95-28 |
Proceeds received at joint fundraising event may be distributed to sponsoring committees in equal shares, by written agreement reflecting relative efforts of each committee, or based on proportion of tickets sold by each committee. |
| AO-95-27 |
A contributor may contribute to two committees with a single check if the "memo" section of the check or a separate signed document allocates the portion intended for each committee. Contributions may be jointly solicited by MA and federal PACs. [Overruling, in part, AO-89-14] |
| AO-95-26 |
Consultant to state agency is an independent contractor and not subject to M.G.L. c. 55, s. 13 where consultant is not supervised by the agency, has many other clients, provides guidance on an as-needed basis, sets his own hours and has no office at the agency. |
| AO-95-25 |
A public employee may host a meet-the-candidate event at which fundraising does not take place. |
| AO-95-24 |
Candidate committee may pay for social club membership of officer or employee of committee, if the officer or employee would not be a member but for the person's participation in the political committee, and the expenditure is made primarily to benefit the candidate's political future. |
| AO-95-23 |
A person who is appointed to complete the unexpired term of an elected officer may solicit contributions. |
| AO-95-22 |
Depository candidate should use credit card, not wire transfer, to pay for computer service provided to committee and then be reimbursed by committee. Law does not contemplate committee expenditures by electronic transfer. |
| AO-95-21 |
A committee may pay for supporters' breakfast after funeral of candidate. Although the funeral would be considered "personal," costs associated with an event which would not have taken place but for the candidacy of the decedent are costs associated with terminating the committee. |
| AO-95-20 |
A lobbying organization may have fundraiser for a candidate without being subject to s. 10A if contributions are given directly to the candidate at the event and no writing reflects bundling. The opinion also states that a lobbying organization may contribute up to 10% of previous year's revenues, or $15,000 prior to being treated as political committee. [See IB-88-01] |
| AO-95-19 |
If the primary purpose of an organization is to support a party committee, the organization should register and report as a PAC. |
| AO-95-18 |
Members of representative town meeting (but not voters in towns having open town meetings) are "persons in the service" subject to s. 15. [But see s. 15 as amended] |
| AO-95-17 |
A PAC which has a fundraiser to benefit candidates is not subject to the bundling requirements and limitations of s. 10A if contributions are received and deposited by the PAC. |
| AO-95-16 |
A political committee may pay for a candidate's legal expenses related to filing criminal complaint if the incident which gave rise to the complaint arose out of the campaign and may affect the candidate's political future. |
| AO-95-15 |
A political party committee may generally accept contributions for a building fund from corporations and individuals in excess of limits imposed by c. 55. [No longer in effect.] |
| AO-95-14 |
A "bona fide" joint fundraiser by three town political party committees is permitted. The three committees should each pay one-third of the total expenses and share equally in the proceeds. Proceeds must be distributed within 30 days of the event. |
| AO-95-13 |
A candidate may not serve as principal officer of PAC, even if the PAC is "a political designation" under M.G.L. c. 50, s. 1. |
| AO-95-12 |
Name of common employer of majority of contributors or organizers of PAC must be used, even if name contains service mark of employer (Blue Cross and Blue Shield). |
| AO-95-11 |
Ballot question committee may organize for two specific, identifiable ballot questions. |
| AO-95-10 |
A union's PAC could not make expenditure to support a person seeking election to retirement board because the person is not a "candidate," and such expenditures could not be made by a political committee. |
| AO-95-09 |
Electronic transfer of funds by contributors to candidates/committees is prohibited. [Overruled in substantial part by c. 149 of Acts of 2004, which amended Section 9A to allow PACs to accept contributions up to $500 by payroll deduction in a calendar year] |
| AO-95-08 |
A candidate may not serve as a principal officer of PAC, even if the candidate is insulated from funding decisions. |
| AO-95-07 |
Committees must disclose the most accurate information available regarding both employer and occupation. The opinion discusses the appropriate manner for reporting contributions from self-employed retired persons. |
| AO-95-06 |
This opinion addresses the new bundling provisions of chapter 55. Specifically, it notes that section 10A is not triggered unless legislative agent "bundles" two or more contributions and that agent may sign fund raising letter or orally promote a fund raising event. In addition, contributions made through an agent to a candidate are subject to section 10A even if the parties are related and regardless of the state or local office sought. Contributions from an agent personally to a candidate are not subject to section 10A. |
| AO-95-05 |
Professional corporations and partnerships report contributions differently. If a contribution is from a PC, the PC reports to OCPF, but if a contribution is from a partnership, the committee must obtain information from the partnership to report attributable shares of partners. |
| AO-95-04 |
Upon dissolution, a ballot question committee may transfer remaining liabilities to another ballot question committee if both committees are organized for the same purpose. |
| AO-95-03 |
Members of representative town meeting are not subject to the disclosure and limitation requirements of the campaign law. In particular, they are not "elective public officers" within the context of s. 5A. |
| AO-95-02 |
Residual Funds may be transferred from a candidate's account to a charitable trust where relatives of the candidate are honorary overseers of trust, and as honorary overseers, they would have no rights or powers under the trust. |
| AO-95-01 |
A candidate or elected official may generally not serve as an "honorary chairman" of a PAC or sign fundraising letters for a PAC. |
