NEWS STORY: Giving Church Rolls to Campaigns Raises `Red Flags,’ IRS Says

c. 2004 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ On the same day the Bush-Cheney campaign had designated for churches to host a “coffee/pot luck dinner,” Internal Revenue Service officials said handing over a congregation’s membership list could violate federal regulations. In Thursday (July 15) interviews, IRS officials said if church lists are repeatedly given to only […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ On the same day the Bush-Cheney campaign had designated for churches to host a “coffee/pot luck dinner,” Internal Revenue Service officials said handing over a congregation’s membership list could violate federal regulations.

In Thursday (July 15) interviews, IRS officials said if church lists are repeatedly given to only one campaign free of charge, the congregation risks losing its tax-exempt status. What’s more, churches or individuals who give away lists worth more than $1,000 could be required to register with the Federal Election Commission.


IRS regulations forbid nonprofit organizations _ such as churches _ from giving a mailing list to a partisan political campaign unless the campaign pays for it. A church directory falls within the category of a “mailing list,” said Joseph Urban, a manager in the exempt organizations division of the IRS.

Urban said potential violations are handled on a case-by-case basis, but “it would certainly raise some red flags” if a church directory made its way into the hands of a political campaign.

“On the surface, it certainly raises some questions,” he said.

Churches or other houses of worship may sell their membership rolls to campaigns as long as they are priced at “fair market value” and made available to all candidates.

It “must be shown that all candidates had an equal opportunity to get the list,” said Jack Reilly, another IRS official.

IRS guidelines say that “to ensure the list is equally available to all candidates, a (nonprofit) organization should inform the candidates of the availability of the list.”

An effort by the Bush-Cheney campaign to acquire the membership directories has come under fire from Democrats and church-state watchdog groups as an improper and partisan commingling of politics and religion.

The Bush-Cheney campaign had sent an instruction sheet to volunteers titled “Coalition Coordinator Duties” with a list of 22 tasks to be carried out by specific dates. The first is to “Send your Church Directory to your State Bush-Cheney ’04 Headquarters.”


A copy of the instruction sheet was obtained by Religion News Service.

Other duties included identifying “another conservative church” to help organize “for Bush,” holding voter registration drives and hosting “a coffee/pot luck dinner/`Party for the President’ with church members” on Thursday (July 15).

A Bush-Cheney campaign spokesperson said the campaign had not asked any churches for a mailing list, but rather had contacted individuals about sending in a church directory.

The spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Bush-Cheney campaign is not paying volunteers or churches for their directories.

“These directories are readily available, public information,” she said.

But if an individual turns in a church directory, and church officials “find out and they don’t do anything about it,” it would be a violation of IRS rules, Reilly said.

The religious body would not lose its tax-exempt status unless it provided the registries “repeatedly,” Reilly said, but would probably be fined by the IRS after the first instance.

Federal Election Commission guidelines forbid “membership organizations” from donating anything “of value” to a political campaign unless they register as a political action committee, said FEC spokesman Ian Stirton. A mailing list “could certainly be considered something of value,” he said.


Stirton, who could not remember the FEC ever hearing a church-related case, said that the IRS usually monitors the political activity of churches.

He said it was conceivable, however, that a church could qualify as a “membership organization.”

“I would have to look at the bylaws and things like that, but a church could fall under that category,” Stirton said.

If any individual or “non-connected” group donated anything valued at $1,000 or more, they would also have to register as a political action committee under FEC bylaws, Stirton said.

According to several direct-marketing firms, the value of a particular mailing list varies with the number of names listed and how specific or “tailored” the names are to a buyer’s interest.

Jason Allely, an account executive for InfoUSA, a marketing firm that specializes in mailing lists and “sales leads,” said that a buyer could pay anywhere from 12 to 18 cents per name.


Another direct marketing executive said that a buyer usually pays $80 to $100 for every thousand names.

“I am confident we are following the law to a `T’,” said the Bush-Cheney campaign spokesperson.

KRE/MO END BURKE

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