Court finds Republican Governors Association violated campaign finance law

The Vermont Superior Court, Washington Unit, issued a decision Tuesday concluding that the Republican Governors Association (RGA) violated Vermont law by accepting contributions in excess of $2,000 during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign. The RGA claimed it should be exempt from contribution limits because it qualified as an independent-expenditure-only committee. The Vermont Attorney General’s Office disagreed that RGA was an independent-expenditure-only committee and argued it must abide by the contribution limits.

Although the Superior Court ruled for the State in 2011, the court asked the parties for additional briefing in light of newly decided federal cases. Some courts interpreted the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision as suggesting contributions to PACs making independent expenditures are unconstitutional. The State presented evidence that RGA and its Vermont PAC, Green Mountain Prosperity, had no separate board, no separate staff, and no separate solicitation of contributions. The court found that all the funds and activities of GMP were controlled by RGA, holding that “But for a separate checkbook, they were one and the same.”

As the court recognized in its decision: “Expenditures cannot be truly ‘independent’ if they are entirely controlled by the identical entity that is simultaneously making expenditures in coordination or cooperation with a campaign or party.”

Attorney General William Sorrell said he is pleased with the court’s decision. “If a PAC wants to receive unlimited contributions, it must be functionally distinct from PACs that contribute to candidates. Mere separation in name only is insufficient protection against the possibility that funds may flow through the ‘independent’ group to candidates.”

In 2014, the Legislature revised the campaign finance law specifically stating that an independent-expenditure-only PAC cannot be closely related to a political party or to a PAC that makes contributions to candidates.

The Court will schedule a hearing to determine the penalty for the RGA’s campaign finance violations. Vermont law allows for a maximum civil penalty of $10,000 per violation.