The Limits of Charity: Gov. Bill Richardson is taking advantage of a regulatory gray area to get out the vote

The Limits of Charity

Gov. Bill Richardson is taking advantage of a regulatory gray area to
get out the vote

WASHINGTON, October 25, 2004 - New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson,
chairman of this year's Democratic National Convention, has been
operating a virtually invisible network of nonprofit organizations
engaged in get-out-the-vote operations in Hispanic and American Indian
communities in five battleground states.

The first-term governor, who served in Congress and then in the Cabinet
of President Bill Clinton, founded both a public educational charity
called the Moving America Forward Foundation and a political action
committee called Moving America Forward-a dual-pronged strategy that,
while perfectly legal, operates partly in an unregulated gray area,
according to University of Miami law professor Frances Hill. "The
problem," says Hill, an acknowledged expert on political nonprofits, is
"when social welfare organizations become redesigned into
crypto-political committees"-that is, when they stray from their
nonpartisan mandates.

To read the full report log on to http://www.publicintegrity.org.

Nathan Kommers
Center for Public Integrity
910 17th St. NW
Washington, DC 20006
ph: 202-481-1221

To read the full report go to http://www.publicintegrity.org

Nathan Kommers
Center for Public Integrity
910 17th Street NW, 7th FL
Washington, DC 20006
ph: 202-481-1221