In order to comply with the spirit of campaign finance regulations and in keeping with advice received from an attorney at the State Election Enforcement Commission (SEEC), the Cafe will provide the treasurer of any candidate’s Election Committee a receipt for the in-kind value of any candidate’s statements posted here at the Cafe.
Regulations governing political advertising require the following (Chap.155, Sec. 9-621):
(a) No individual shall make or incur any expenditure with the cooperation of, at the request or suggestion of, or in consultation with any candidate, candidate committee or candidate’s agent, and no candidate or committee shall make or incur any expenditure for any written, typed or other printed communication, or any web-based, written communication, which promotes the success or defeat of any candidate’s campaign for nomination at a primary or election or solicits funds to benefit any political party or committee unless such communication bears upon its face (1) the words “paid for by” and the following: (A) in the case of such an individual, the name and address of such individual; (B) in the case of a committee other than a party committee, the name of the committee and its campaign treasurer; or (C) in the case of a party committee, the name of the committee, and (2) the words “approved by” and the following: (A) in the case of an individual making or incurring an expenditure with the cooperation of, at the request or suggestion of, or in consultation with any candidate, candidate committee or candidate’s agent, the name of such individual; or (B) in the case of a candidate committee, the name of the candidate. No candidate or candidate committee or exploratory committee established by a candidate shall make or incur any expenditure for a mailing to promote the success of said candidate’s campaign for nomination at a primary or election or the defeat of another candidate’s campaign for nomination at a primary or election, unless the mailing contains a photograph of the candidate conducting the mailing and said candidate’s name in a font that is not less than the size of the font used for the narrative of the mailing.
Campaign statements will be required to fulfill both attribution and disclosure requirements which is a high falutin’ way of saying the candidate stands by what is written (approved by Candidate). Since it must be thus, the administrators cannot make any corrections or changes unless directed to do so by the candidate (as stated previously in the rules for candidates making campaign statements at the link on the right). So, we will request valid contact information be included with each submission should there be a need to contact the candidate.
The Cafe will disclose in-kind support at the time of each individual’s statement below the body of the statement. After the statement is posted, the Cafe will create an in-kind receipt for each candidate who publishes a statement at the Cafe and forward this receipt to the appropriate campaign treasurer in adequate time to adhere to finance filing deadlines. The value of the in-kind service provided by the Cafe will have a negligible impact on any individual’s annual limit. We must reiterate these postings are of an in-kind value and no monies will actually change hands.
Becki Leavitt, Cafe Administrator
