Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has concluded that Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund IE PAC (“PPVTAF PAC”) did not engage in coordination with the Sue Minter gubernatorial campaign. The Vermont Republican Party filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office requesting an investigation into the activities of PPVTAF PAC, an independent expenditure-only PAC. The complaint asserted that PPVTAF PAC’s candidate survey questionnaire and endorsement of candidate Minter indicated that the PAC was not conducting its activities entirely independent of candidates within the meaning of Vermont campaign finance law. The complaint also pointed to PPVTAF PAC and Minter’s alleged use of the same media vendor and substantially similar video footage as evidence of coordination. Upon investigation of the complaint, the Attorney General’s Office found there was no violation of Vermont’s campaign finance laws.
Where a PAC coordinates its campaign spending with a candidate, its campaign expenditures are treated as “related expenditures” and are counted as contributions to the candidate. However, completion of a survey questionnaire and the subsequent endorsement of a candidate by a PAC is not, in and of itself, sufficient to support a finding of coordination for purposes of Vermont’s related expenditure statute. An independent expenditure-only PAC does not lose its independent status simply by endorsing a candidate for office. “The First Amendment protects the ability of people to pool their resources to amplify their voices by speaking through a political committee,” said Attorney General William Sorrell. “This includes stating their endorsement of a candidate.”
An IE PAC can lose its independent status when it coordinates with a candidate by passing information through a shared vendor or direct communication. The Office’s investigation determined that PPVTAF PAC and the Minter campaign did not use the same media vendor in developing their television advertisements. The investigation found that although some connection existed between the vendors, they appeared to be separately functioning entities. And while the PAC and the Minter campaign used similar video footage in their ads, the video images were publicly available. No evidence was provided that the PAC obtained the footage from the Minter campaign. The complaint also noted that a House candidate gave a contribution to PPVTAF PAC, but this does not disqualify it from being an independent expenditure-only political committee. Vermont law states that these groups may not make contributions to candidates, but it does not prohibit the reverse, and such conduct is entitled to certain protections under the First Amendment. “Because the Office’s investigation did not uncover any actual evidence of coordination, we have concluded that there is no campaign finance law violation presented by the complaint,” explained General Sorrell.
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Source: Vermont AG Nov 3, 2016