Rounding out a hat trick of recent settlements with political action committees (PACs), Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell announced Tuesday that Planned Parenthood of Northern New England will pay the state $30,000 for alleged campaign finance violations.
In 2013, the Attorney General’s Office has reeled in $110,000 from settlements involving PAC violations that took place during the 2010 election cycle. In addition to Planned Parenthood, the political players who’ve been put on the hook are the Democratic Governor’s Association (DGA), and a related case involving the Republican Governors Association (RGA) and GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie.
Two other campaign finance cases remain in court. One is another suit the state brought against the RGA; the other was brought against the state by Vermont Right to Life.
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE Action Fund) ran $119,000 worth of political ads against Dubie during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.
The attorney general argued that PPNNE Action Fund failed to comply with campaign finance reporting requirements, and that it accepted donations above the $2,000 individual maximum that applies to PACs.
PPNNE contended that those requirements didn’t apply because the group made only independent expenditures — contributions that aren’t given directly to candidates and aren’t coordinated with them.
But Sorrell pointed to a PAC that the PPNNE Action Fund operated in the state that did receive direct contributions and made the case that the two entities were too entwined for the PPNNE Action Fund to be considered an independent expenditure-only group. The AG’s news release cites a “significant overlap in their planning, activities, and finances.”
Sorrell states, “A PAC must demonstrate that it makes only independent expenditures in order to qualify for this exception. Otherwise, the PAC will continue to be subject to Vermont’s contribution limits.”
Planned Parenthood disagreed but decided to settle with the state.
The attorney general’s investigation was launched in 2012 in response to complaints lodged by the group Let Vermont Vote. The investigation did not unearth evidence of coordination between the PPNNE Action Fund and the Shumlin campaign — one of allegations made by Let Vermont Vote.
