FEC Releases Draft Advisory Opinion on California Primary Election Under Expedited Proces

Washington – The Federal Election Commission has released a draft advisory opinion under an expedited process today for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Central Committee about the upcoming June 6 election.  The draft advisory opinion states that the Committee’s planned get-out-the-vote activities are Federal election activities under the Federal Election Campaign Act and Commission regulations.   This means that the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Central Committee would need to pay for these activities with Federal funds or the appropriate mix of Federal funds and Levin* funds. The advisory opinion request was made public on May 12, 2006, and the Commission will accept public comments on the request for the statutorily-required 10-day comment period, through May 22, 2006. 

Under the expedited process, the Office of General Counsel released the draft advisory opinion within 10 days of the public release of the request, and plans to circulate a draft for  Commission consideration by tally vote at the close of the 10-day comment period.   The expedited process is similar to the one the Commission recently followed in issuing Advisory Opinion 2006-16 (Campaign to Elect Nancy Detert).  The FEC has implemented this expedited advisory opinion process to handle time and election sensitive requests.  Drafts of advisory opinions are otherwise normally considered at regularly scheduled Commission meetings. 

The draft advisory opinion is available here.

*Levin funds are donations allowable under state law, raised directly by the specific state or local party that intends to use them, and limited to no more than $10,000 in a calendar year from any "person."  (A "person" can include a corporation or union, if state law allows, but not a foreign national.)

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