• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Stamp Out Charity Discounts for Political Mail, Critics Say: Some Republicans Are Using Nonprofit Postal Permits to Send Election Fliers.

Posted on: Friday, 2 June 2006, 21:00 CDT

By Clea Benson, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

May 30--The California Club for Growth Newsletter doesn't look much different from all the other political fliers filling voters' mailboxes as the days tick down to the primary election.

It includes the photos of a slate of Republican candidates who have all paid to appear and signed a pledge to crusade against tax increases and government waste.

But unlike almost all other political mailings, this one is being sent at the special 40 percent discount that the U.S. Postal Service gives to charities, potentially saving the candidates hundreds of thousands of dollars in postage.

For the past few years, by carefully crafting their literature to fit the letter of Postal Service regulations, some Republicans have been using nonprofit mailing permits to cut the cost of sending out millions of pieces of campaign mail.

The Postal Service allows discounts only for mailings by state political parties, unions and "nonprofit philanthropic organizations." So the political mailers, aided by a conservative Dana Point lawyer and city councilman, James Lacy, have been getting their organizations certified as philanthropic by postal officials.

Democrats say it's unfair and illegal. The Alliance for a Better California, a Democratic organization, is suing the Postal Service in federal court over a mailing that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political operation sent out at a discount during the special election.

This political season, the practice is stirring controversy anew.

State Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, running for state controller in a tough race against former Assemblyman Tony Strickland, of Moorpark, is complaining about Strickland's use of nonprofit postal rates.

Strickland is on leave from a job as president of the California Club for Growth, the nonprofit anti-tax group whose newsletter is the slate mailer. Strickland paid $25,000 to appear on the newsletter's slate.

"I don't think it's fair that I'm paying full boat for postage and my opponent's campaign is being subsidized by the taxpayers," Maldonado said.

"It burns me every day to know that he's mailing out just like the March of Dimes and Easter Seals, and it's actually political mail."

Lacy says: "It's perfectly legal, but it has to be done properly."

Lacy, who is also the California Club for Growth's attorney, runs a law practice with his wife specializing in postal issues for nonprofits that he describes as a "highly sophisticated political" firm.

He pioneered the technique a few years ago when he teamed with former Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association mail guru Bill Butcher. They offered candidates discounted rates to appear on the slate of the Policy Issues Institute, an organization that Lacy had certified as a philanthropy by the Postal Service.

Lacy's response to critics is that they should get their own nonprofit mailing permits.

"We're the only people doing it that we know of," Lacy said.

To meet Postal Service rules, Lacy said, the groups that have nonprofit mailing permits sell advertising space to political candidates. As long as the mailing consists of at least 25 percent educational content reflecting the groups' purpose, Lacy said, it's allowed.

Lance Olson, the lawyer representing the Alliance for a Better California in federal court, said other groups don't do it because it's wrong.

"For the same reason I don't go rob the ATM, it's wrong," Olson said. " 'We're stealing from the government, so why don't you?' is not the right answer."

So far, the Postal Service has come down firmly on Lacy's side.

Postal officials declined to discuss the issue because of the ongoing litigation. But they issued a ruling last year when the Alliance for a Better California complained, supporting Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team's claim to be a philanthropic group.

The California Recovery Team is the campaign arm of Schwarzenegger's political organization. It was the driving force behind the slate of ballot initiatives that the Republican governor supported in last year's special election.

Postal regulations define a philanthropic group as one "organized to relieve the poor, distressed or underprivileged" or "to lessen the burdens of government ... promote social welfare ... and defend human and civil rights secured by law."

The California Recovery Team's ballot initiative campaign, the Postal Service said, "benefits the public by advocating directly to the public for policy changes."

Olson disputes that finding.

"Show me 1 percent of the activity that the California Recovery Team has done that would qualify as a philanthropy, and I'll go away," he said. "If Congress had wanted to give politicians a nonprofit permit, they would have done so, but they haven't."

Meanwhile, no one has filed a formal protest about the California Club for Growth's use of nonprofit mailing rates. But Maldonado is talking about it on the campaign trail. "It's just not right in the heart to do that," he said.

Lacy says Maldonado's reaction is "routine sour grapes that come during an election campaign."

The California Club for Growth, founded in 2004 by Strickland, is licensed by the national Club for Growth, the well-known political action group that supports conservative, anti-tax policies and politicians. The California group is financially separate.

When he started the organization, Strickland said it would raise millions of dollars to support Republican candidates, similar to the practice of the national group.

But in the past two years, the California Club for Growth has given little money to candidates. Most of its political funds have been spent on mailings: an independent expenditure campaign against Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, and the newsletter's slate mail.

The Club for Growth Newsletter mailings help the group spread its anti-tax philosophy. And the California Club for Growth's efforts to spread that philosophy were the reason it qualified as a philanthropy, Lacy said.

"At the end of the day, the California Club for Growth has a reason to want to get its message out," Lacy said. "They are a nonprofit. ... They do have a very significant non-advertising content in all of their mailings. This is a way for them to help fund their mailing and get their message out with legitimate advertising."

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

More News in this Category