Mister Tredyffrin and Friends

Leaders of §501(c)(3) organizations retain their personal free speech rights to endorse political candidates and support partisan issues, provided that the endorsement is done in their individual capacity and not as a spokesperson for their nonprofit.
--Richard A. Newman, Attorney, Arent-Fox law firm, in legal background paper “IRS Issues Guidance on Prohibited Political Activity by Nonprofit Organizations”

Here is an interesting case study in legal distinctions: Tredyffrin Library capital campaign co-chair, Rod Ross, had 2 letters of political advocacy published in the Oct. 23 issue of Main Line Life. They’re stacked, one above the other, in one newspaper column.

Essay question: Why did Mr. Ross write 2 letters for same-day publication in the local paper? How are they different? Compare and contrast. Extra credit for mentioning the paid political advertisement with the same text in the Nov. 1 issue of the Suburban and Wayne Times.

The first letter seems a heart-felt, personal appraisal of Ross’s friend and political candidate, Paul Olson. The second letter, co-signed with another fundraising co-chairperson, Anne McCollum, seems a piece of political hatchetry that perhaps Mr. Ross just signed onto. But there it sits. Blatantly inappropriate political bias from the two self-described “co-chairs of the Capital Campaign,” the charitable building-fund for renovating our Great Building library.

The McCollum/Ross letter singled out only Republican supervisors for praise, although both Democratic supervisors had most recently served as the board of supervisors’ liaison to the library and had actively advanced the library’s role in the community. The letter further smeared Democrats Paul Drucker and Mark DiFeliciantonio with the charge of not contributing to the library’s charity, even though Mr. DiFeliciantonio had supported the library’s Foundation and Mr. Drucker had long supported his neighborhood’s Paoli Library.

Tempest in a teapot. Except the teapot is a §501(c)(3) charity, and the tempest is a prohibited political activity.

Leading The Witness
You would have expected the library’s Board of Trustees to hasten toward clearing up the legal distinctions around their fundraising leaders’ political statements. One of their members, attorney Michael Broadhurst, left the November library board meeting with the charge to investigate the §501(c)(3) issues. Apparently he returned empty-handed to the January 22 meeting, because he gave no report on the legal ramifications.

Instead the board mostly examined Mr. Ross’s state of mind, with Mr. Broadhurst leading their “witness” along this path: So, you were writing as a private citizen. —Yes, I was.—Okay, there we have it. Case closed, we need to move on.

You can’t blame the library board for wanting to move on. There is always a tendency toward denial when a member of a community or family transgresses.

Exposed
Serious legal risk aside, there was the hope that some boundaries of courtesy and decency would be re-established through the library board’s examination. Instead, we’re left with the clear sense that Karl Rovian tactics have trickled down to the township level.

One only had to hear the 3 Republican supervisors at the January library meeting proudly and smugly acknowledge bending the charity to their benefit. Warren Kampf, current chair of Tredyffrin’s board of supervisors, used almost 8 minutes of his 3-minute allotment with a long rambling discourse of justification. Mr. Kampf included the example that if he didn’t contribute to the fire company, but campaigned in support of the fire companies, he’d expect their leaders to malign him in the community. He said, “Anybody who signs up to run for public office is essentially exposing almost all of their lives to public scrutiny.”

Making A List
So, let’s follow Mr. Kampf and propose that he publish a new chart. In one column list the current members of the township board of supervisors and all the members of the public advisory boards. Next column, contributed to the Tredyffrin Library, yes/no. Next column, amount, if known. (If not known, confer with capital campaign co-chairs for financial details.)

With time we should be able to expand that chart to other charities on the Tredyffrin GOP’s preferred list.

With tax time approaching, it might be easier if you just make an extra copy of your Form 1040, Schedule A, and send it directly to Mr. Kampf.