Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a "watchdog group" that claims its goal is to hold public officials accountable for their actions, has taken on Kansas--or at least its attorney general. The group filed a complaint on October 18 with the IRS, asking the IRS to investigate churches that may have supported Republican Attorney General Phill Kline in his re-election bid. See the CREW website, here. See also this U.S. Newswire description.
Kansas newspapers reported on leaked internal memorandum from the Kline campaign naming churches that were targeted to disseminate campaign literature and to hold political forums. Exhibit to CREW complaint with two newspaper stories. Kline's memorandum specifically urged staffers to tap churches in various ways that suggest a violation of the restriction against partisan campaign activity. He sought to invitations to present sermons and connected those invitations with the idea of meeting big money donors. He wanted to "tap" ministers that had supported the state's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. He wanted churches to show a video supporting his campaign (and advised that it wouldn't be a violation of the rules governing non-partisan activity).
“Must get in their pulpits and have them personally host a reception to match Tiller’s blood money,” Kline wrote, referring to Dr. George Tiller, a local obstetrician and reproductive-rights activist. “[They] must commit to get 5-10 people there who can drop $1,000 to $2,000.” Kline’s goal was to walk away from each sermon with “contact information, money and volunteers and a committee in each church.” He did not elaborate on what he wanted these “committees” to do. Americans United for Separation of Church and State report (quoting from memorandum).
The full Kline memorandum is available here. Another Kansas paper, the Kansas City Star, revealed a further quirk of the church-oriented campaigning, here. Apparently, former Kansas Attorney General Stephen had been acting as a campaign special assistant (he has since resigned), when he learned of Kline's accepting "love offerings" for sermons. The payments for Kline's sermons go to SWT Communications, a corporation operated by his wife. The Lawrence World-Journal reports that some view the timing of a payment from a church to SWT Communications and a contribution from SWT Communications to Kline's campaign as suspicious.
The IRS reminded charities about the need to avoid campaign activities back in June of this year. See IR-2006-87 (June 1, 2006) (including links to related items such as Fact Sheet 2006-17 and Publication 1828 Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations). Commissioner Everson neted that an increasing number of churches took part in prohibited activities during the 2004 election cycle. I suspect that number has increased again this time around, as politicians push the boundaries hard in search of an advantage, especially Republicans in pursuit of their conservative Christian base. The problem, of course, is that any enforcement action will tend to come after the fact, and politicians in the heat of the campaign for this mid-term election undoubtedly know that if they press churches to engage in aggressive partisan activities now, they will still be able to reap the benefit come election time, even if the churches are subject to investigation later.
People inside campaigns, like the person who leaked Kline's memorandum about plans to use churches, do us a favor by shedding light on how campaigns are organizing their assault on the church-state wall. The media need to continue highlighting what we learn about the use of churches as campaign tools.
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