Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Public Citizen has released a 152-page report, The New Stealth PACs: Tracking 501(c) Non-Profit Groups Active in Elections. The accompanying press release notes:

Public Citizen estimates that at least $91 million – and almost certainly many millions more – was spent by 26 non-profit groups registered under Section 501(c) of the tax code to influence at least 117 contests in 2000 and 2002. However, these groups reported only $12.2 million in electoral expenditures to the IRS. In 2004, at least 13 501(c) groups have been active.

In a letter to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, Public Citizen asked the agency to examine “its procedures for monitoring and enforcing the tax code when it comes to regulating electioneering activities of 501(c)(4)-(6) non-profit groups” because there “appears to be a considerable amount of confusion…as to what constitutes a political expenditure versus a lobbying expenditure.” Public Citizen also asked the IRS to “consider initiating a formal investigation into the financial transactions and electioneering activities” of the four seniors’ groups that appear to have been funded by PhRMA. For Public Citizen’s letter to the Federal Election Commission asking for greater monitoring of election activities of tax-exempt groups, see here. For a state-by-state breakdown of election activities by tax-exempt organizations, see here.