Grand Forks Herald - The recent Holiday Tour of Homes fund-raiser in Grand Forks violated state campaign finance law.
So says a Grand Forks man who has won in the courts before on the same issue.
Bill Couchigian, a retired electrician, said the event run by the Republican Women's Club included illegal contributions.
He cites state law that prohibits corporations, limited liability companies and associations from making direct contributions to aid "any political party, political committee or organization."
Four local businesses assisted in decorating the five homes on the tour, held Nov. 5-6. That help is a violation, Couchigian said, because the law says a contribution is "a gift ... or anything of value ... including any good or service of more than nominal value."
[..]
"This appears like corporate contributions, too," Couchigian said. "We took on Stenehjem over this and showed it can't be done. I can't read the law's language any other way this time.
"They broke the law. I would think the attorney general, secretary of state or state's attorney would be enforcing it."
Here's the text of the pertinent law from the North Dakota Century Code:
16.1-08.1-03.3. Campaign contributions by corporations, cooperative corporations, limited liability companies, and associations prohibited - Violation - Penalty.
1. A corporation, cooperative corporation, limited liability company, or association may
not make a direct contribution:
a. To aid any political party, political committee, or organization.
In order for their to be a violation of the law there would have to be a contribution from the businesses in question. According to the law I just linked to a contribution means "a gift, transfer, conveyance, provision, receipt, subscription, loan, advance, deposit of money, or anything of value, made for the purpose of influencing the nomination for election, or election, of any person to public office or aiding or opposing the circulation or passage of a statewide initiative or referendum petition or measure."
Now lets go back to the article:
[Clarisse] Fasbender said businesses do not donate money or decorations. "They bring their items and then they take them back," she said. "It's a display for them."
Georgia Heitmann of All Seasons Garden Center, which helped decorate two homes, said the nursery participates to showcase its products and design talents.
"Our product does not stay in the homes and we don't pay to have it shown, so I don't know what kind of a political contribution you can interpret that to be," Heitmann said.
Does this classify as a "contribution" under the definition of such provided by the law? Remember that the "contribution" must have "value" in order for it to count. Do goods brought by businesses for showcase in these homes and subsequently taken back have value for the Republican Women's Group in terms of influencing political issues?
Maybe...but how do you quantify something like that? What value does it have? That it attracted a few more visitors? What monetary value can you put on that?
I think this is an instance of the letter of the law being violated, but not necessarily the spirit.
On a side note, Couchigian casts some aspersions in the article about the attorney general's office, the secretary of state's office and the district attorney's office not "enforcing" the law. He's way off base on that one. This violation, if it is one, would fall under the jurisdiction of the county state's attorney who can only act on it if there is first a complaint that has been investigated by law enforcement. Apparently, Couchigian ran to the press with this silliness before even bothering to report his concerns to the proper authorities.
Showing us all where his priorities lay.
Honestly, this seems like another issue where state Democrats are trying to make a lot of noise about an issue that really isn't that big of a deal. If the best they can do is criticize a bunch of little old ladies for displaying house plants during a home tour they must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel.
One almost has to wonder why the Grand Forks Herald even thought this was news.