Can political action committees pay for electioneering communications?
Yes. PACs cannot raise money from corporations or labor unions (corporate and union PACs collect funds from individual employees or members, not from the corporate or union treasury). As a result, PACs can pay for broadcast ads that mention a candidate at any time before an election. And because PACs raise “hard” money, which is subject to contribution limits, their ads can expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate with the words “vote for,” “vote against,” “elect,” “defeat,” “support” and “oppose.” Q: So what has changed now that we’re in the 60-day window before the November elections? A: The change is in how broadcast ads that mention a candidate are paid for. Now that we’re in the 60-day window, corporations (including incorporated nonprofits) and labor unions cannot run such ads using funds from their treasury. Unincorporated nonprofits cannot run such ads either if they use corporate or union funds to pay for them. Individuals and PACs, including corporate and unio
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