what should a politician disclose to run for office
Are Disclosure Reports Required?
Stride 1: Determine if the candidate must register the campaign or disclose personal financial data.
Multiple factors decide whether a candidate running for land, local, or judicial office must register a campaign and disclosure to the public campaign contributions and expenditures. Candidates seeking election to a federal office are regulated by the Federal Elections Commission.
The offset step is agreement that an individual becomes a candidate upon doing any one of these activities:
- Accepting a entrada contribution,
- Spending money on the campaign,
- Reserving space, facilities, or placing orders and committing to pay for services or supplies for the entrada,
- Authorizing someone else to do any of the to a higher place,
- Publicly announcing candidacy, or
- Filing a annunciation of candidacy.
Almost candidates must disembalm personal fiscal information virtually themselves, their spouse or registered domestic partner, and dependents. Some candidates must register the entrada with the Public Disclosure Commission. Filing requirements are determined past the office sought and how much money the candidate expects to heighten and spend:
- A candidate for country office must file theregistration (PDC Course C-1) and personal financial diplomacy statement (PDC Grade F-1).
- A candidate for local part that covers an unabridged county must file the registration (PDC Form C-1) and personal financial affairs statement (PDC Form F-i).
- A candidatefor a local office that does not include the unabridged canton files the F-1, if there are at least two,000 registered voters in the jurisdiction.The candidate also files the C-1 if there are at least 5,000 registered voters in the jurisdiction or the candidate expects to enhance $5,000 for the campaign.
The C-1 and F-1 are due inside ii weeks of becoming a candidate.
Footstep 2: Decide if the candidate must report the entrada's contributions and expenditures.
Only those candidates who must register their campaigns will have to determine whether they will go on to disclose contributions and expenditures. The Public Disclosure Commission has created the mini reporting selection for candidates who raise and spend $0 - $5,000.
Mini reportingallows a candidate to raise and spend up to $5,000 without filing contribution or expenditure reports, so long as no more than $500 is received from a single contributor. At that place are two exceptions to the $500 aggregate contribution limit: (1) a bona fide political party commission may pay the candidate's filing fee and (ii) the candidate's personal contribution is non limited to $500. In that location are no exceptions to the $v,000 mini reporting threshold. This option should exist selected only after a candidate has carefully because how much money the campaign will demand to raise and spend and are certain the limitations volition not be exceeded.
A candidate who is unsure how much money will be raised or does not wish to limit how much money the campaign may heighten and spend overall should select thetotal reporting pick.Selecting full reporting means that the candidate must file regular reports disclosing contributions and expenditures.
Bank Account
A candidate must open up a banking concern account upon receiving a monetary contribution. Monetary contributions must be deposited within five business organisation days of receipt. The name on the business relationship should be the campaign committee proper noun on the C-1. Virtually banks volition require the candidate to have an Employer Identification Number, which is obtained from the Internal Revenue Service. (The PDC's Candidate manual explains IRS contact options.)
Electronic Filing
Land law requires electronic filing of PDC reports except when the executive director has granted a hardship exemption. The PDC'due south gratis ORCA software can be installed and used past candidates to fulfill the electronic filing requirement. The PDC as well has online applications for filing the C-1 and F-ane.
Reports & Due Dates
The Index of Forms explains the purpose of each written report and when it is due.The PDC calendar shows bodily written report due dates. Reporting dates are also programmed into the ORCA software.Generally,
- Through May of the election twelvemonth, deposits and expenditures are reported on the tenth of each month. A candidate that deposits or spends less than $200 in a calendar month, tin cull non to file a monthly report until the contributions or expenditures to exist reported exceed $200. A candidate who does non announced on the primary election ballot continues to file monthly reports through the cease of August.
- Starting in June, each deposit is reported on the following Monday.
- Expenditure reports are filed 21 and 7 days before the ballot and on the tenth of the calendar month following the election.
Additionally, during the calendar week before the primary election and the three weeks before the general election, a candidate must file a special report inside 48 hours of receiving $1,000 or more from a single source in the aggregate during the special reporting period. Whatsoever contributions received outside of the special reporting menses practise not count towards the $1,000 threshold.
Campaign Books
The fundamental to complying with entrada disclosure requirements is to keep detailed records of each contributions and expenditureand file reports on time.Continue all campaign records for five years after the election. Campaign books include banking company statements, eolith slips, canceled checks, checkbook register likewise as receipts, invoices, copies of contribution checks, notes or documents regarding orders placed or loans, etc. A ledger, periodical, or similar record may be maintained to identify contributions (contributor information, amount, and date received) and expenditures (vendor, item or service provided, and cost).
Campaign books must exist bachelor for public inspection during the last eight days earlier an election.
Campaign Contributions
Voters passed I-276 to plant the Public Disclosure Commission and Washington'south disclosure requirements equally a means for making regime more transparent and creating a machinery that allowed the public to follow the money in campaigns. Campaigns should take care to record each contribution that it receives.The allowed limit for a cash - bodily currency - contributions is $100. A contribution bigger than that must be made past written instrument.A candidate may keep aggregate anonymous contributions up to $300 or 1% of the total contributions received, whichever is greater. If a candidate receives backlog anonymous contributions, the coin is to be deposited and then turned over to the state past sending to the PDC a entrada check for the excess amount payable to the State General Fund.
No more than than $5,000 may be accepted past a legislative or local part candidate from a unmarried source other than a bona fide state party committee during the last 21 days before a general election. The threshold increases to $fifty,000 for a Supreme Court or state executive office candidate. Contribution limits enacted by voters in 1992 prevent most candidates from receiving contributions anywhere near these thresholds from a contributor other than a bona fide political party commission. The limits for contributors other than party or conclave entrada committees are:
| Amount Per Election | Part Sought |
|---|---|
| $two,000 | State Executive Judicial Function Port Commissioner |
| $1,000 | Country Senator or Representative County Office Mayor, Metropolis Council Schoolhouse Director Infirmary Commissioner** |
Deposit campaign contributions inside five concern days of receipt.
"Per election" means each fourth dimension the candidate's name is on the election. The candidate transmission contains very complete information about when contributions may be received, how to handle contributions received for an ballot where the candidate volition not appear on the ballot, what to practice with contributions when the candidate decides to run for a different office or otherwise finish the campaign earlier the election, and many other situations.
Bona fide political party and caucus entrada committees' limits are determined by the number of registered voters in the jurisdiction where the candidate seeks office and are foundhere.
Candidates for mayor and urban center council should check with the city'due south clerk to learn whether the city has enacted lower limits that the metropolis enforces. There are no contribution limits in issue for candidates running for local offices that are not listed here.
** Just candidates running for commissioner in King County Hospital Dists. 1 and 2 and Snohomish County Hospital Dist. 2 (districts with a population exceeding 150,000).
Political Advertising
Generally, political ads of all types must identify the sponsor of the ad. In partisan campaigns, all ads must incorporate the candidate's political party preference.Details about these and other requirements tin be found in the Political Advertizement brochure.
This brochure is intended to be an overview of the subjects with which candidates and their campaign treasurers should go familiar. Candidates should refer to the online manuals for more complete instructions. The information contained in online instructions has been distilled from the requirements set out in RCW 42.17A and Championship 390 WAC, as well equally the Public Disclosure Committee's declaratory orders and interpretations. Care has been taken to make the instructions accurate and concise. Nevertheless, the instructions cannot exist substituted for the applicable laws and rules
Source: https://www.pdc.wa.gov/learn/publications/candidates-guide-reporting
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