I Bike. I Vote.

Election Guide
Issues for the 110th Congress
How to Get Involved
Campaign Guidelines for Nonprofits
Congressional Elections 2008

Election Guide

I Bike. I Vote.

From a national perspective, this year’s mid-term elections provide the bicycling community with a great opportunity to continue to build credibility, and foster a better understanding of issues important to bicycling.  Your participation, and your bike club or advocacy organization’s careful involvement, in election campaigns affords the chance to educate candidates on bicycling issues, get more involved in your community, and ultimately build a more bicycle-friendly America.

Below, you will find guidelines for what 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations can and cannot do during a political campaign.  We have also provided you with a list of the races to watch in the House and the Senate.  For information on elections and candidates in your state and district, visit the League’s Advocacy Center where you can also register to vote and locate your polling place. 

Issues for the 110th Congress

Bicycle Commuters Benefits Act

The Bicycle Commuters Benefits Act would extend the transportation fringe benefit, currently available to transit users and car drivers, to bicycle commuters.

House Congressional Resolution

The House Congressional Resolution on Bicycling (H.CON.RES 305) calls on the United States Congress to adopt a national bicycling strategy to fully realize the incredible benefits of getting more people bicycling, more safely, more often. There is a “sense of Congress” that complete streets policies are essential to ensure wise use of considerable Federal investment in transportation infrastructure, and that expanded funding for bicycling and walking programs is desirable and appropriate.

Read Congressman Blumenauer’s floor speech introducing the Congressional Resolution.

Complete Streets Legislation

The Complete Streets Act of 2008 (S.2686), introduced by Senator Harkin (D-IA) and Senator Carper (D-DE), requires states and metropolitan planning organizations to consider the needs of all users when building new roads or improving existing roads while using federal funds. Read Senator Harkin’s press release.

Energize Congressional Bike Caucus

The Congressional Bike Caucus (pdf) is bipartisan and provides a venue in which members can enjoy bicycling as a recreational activity and discuss issues affecting bicycling.

How to Get Involved

How can you get involved? Good question. This list is by no means all-inclusive, but here a few ways you, as an individual cyclist, can participate in campaign activities.

• REGISTER TO VOTE!!!
• Find out who the pro-bicycling candidates are
• Volunteer for a candidate
• Volunteer to register voters
• Invite the candidates on a ride
• Write letters to the editor about why cycling is important
• VOTE!!!

Campaign Guidelines for Nonprofits

*Please note that this is not legal advice; these are just general guidelines.

**Sources:

• Election Year Activities for 501(c)(4) Social Welfare Organizations. Alliance for Justice. 7 July 2006 <http://www.afj.org/nonprofit/electoral_activities_c4.pdf>.
• Permissible Election Activities Checklist. Alliance for Justice. 7 July 2006 <http://www.afj.org/nonprofit/electoral_activities_01.pdf>.
• Smucker, Bob. The Nonprofit Lobbying Guide, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Independent Sector, 1999. Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest. 7 July 2006 <http://blue.isoph.com/shared/assetDownload.aspx?id=1066>.

Organizations with 501(c)(3) nonprofit status are forbidden from engaging in political activity in support of or in opposition to any particular political candidate; however, 501(c)(3)s can engage in nonpartisan voter education activity and a limited amount of lobbying.

Do not be intimidated by all these dos and don’ts!  These guidelines are all for the organization, and do not prohibit officers, individual members, or employees from participating as long as they are acting as private citizens and not as spokespersons for the organization or while using the organization’s resources.  And, if you choose to identify yourself with the organization, you must make it plain that you are speaking solely for yourself and not for the organization.  If members do not identify themselves with the organization but the media do, the members have done nothing wrong.

Here are some guidelines for how Bike Clubs and Advocacy Organizations with 501(c)(3) status can (and cannot) get involved in election activities.

501(c)(3)s CAN:

• engage in limited lobbying, including work on ballot measures
• work for the passage of a particular piece of legislation during a political campaign (or any other time)
• conduct nonpartisan public education and training sessions about participation in the political process
• invite candidates to meetings or to public forums. The invitation must be extended to “all serious candidates.” It is best to write to them all simultaneously and to use identical language in the invitations. It is not necessary that all candidates attend.
• sponsor candidate debates (with certain restrictions)
• educate all of the candidates on public interest issues
• publish legislative scorecards (with certain restrictions, see below)
• canvass the public on issues
• rent at fair market value mailing lists and facilities to other organizations, legislators, and candidates.  All candidates must be aware of the opportunity and be given the same access.
• conduct nonpartisan get-out-the-vote and voter registration drives
• establish a controlled 501(c)(4) organization
• work with all political parties to get its positions included on the party’s platform (with certain restrictions)
• inform candidates of its positions on particular issues and to urge them to go on record, pledging their support of those positions.  Candidates may distribute their responses both to the nonprofit and to the general public. Nonprofits, however, do not have the same freedom. They may not publish or distribute statements by candidates except as nonpartisan “questionnaires.”

501(c)(3)s CANNOT:

• endorse candidates for public office
• make any campaign contributions
• make expenditures on behalf of candidates
• restrict rental of their mailing lists and facilities to certain candidates
• ask candidates to sign pledges on any issue (tacit endorsement)
• increase the volume or amount of incumbent criticism as election time approaches
• publish or communicate anything that explicitly or implicitly favors or opposes a candidate

Gray Areas for 501(c)(3) Bike Clubs and Advocacy Organizations

Typically 501(c)(3)s may prepare candidate questionnaires and create voter guides. Nonprofits with a broad range of concerns can safely disseminate responses from questionnaires. The questions must cover a broad range of subjects, be framed without bias, and be given to all candidates for office. If a nonprofit has a very narrow focus, however, questionnaires may pose a problem. The IRS takes the position that a nonprofit’s narrowness of focus implies endorsement of candidates whose replies are favorable to the questions posed. The same applies when candidates are asked to respond to a nonprofit’s position paper. Unless you are certain that your organization clearly qualifies as covering a broad range of issues, your organization should avoid disseminating replies from questionnaires.

501(c)(4)s CAN:

• engage in all of the nonpartisan voter education activity that a 501(c)(3) can engage in
• engage in unlimited lobbying, including work on ballot measures
• endorse federal candidates for office to the organization’s membership and share the endorsement with the organization’s press list
• expressly advocate for a federal candidate’s election or defeat when communicating with the organization’s membership
• in some states, make cash or in-kind contributions to state or local candidates
• create an affiliated 527 organization (more commonly known as a political action committee)

501(c)(4)s CANNOT:

• make communications to the general public that include
• express advocacy for a federal candidate
• make cash or in-kind contributions to federal candidates
• coordinate communications with a federal candidate or party
• engage in electoral activity as the organization’s primary activity

Your involvement in the election process is just one of the things to consider if you are deciding whether to incorporate as a (c)(3) or (c)(4). For example, (c)(3)s are much more likely to be eligible recipients of foundation and government grants and can offer tax deductible giving opportunities to members and donors.

For More Information:

Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest, The Nonprofit Lobbying Guide(www.clpi.org)

Alliance for Justice (www.afj.org/nonprofit/)

Congressional elections 2008

Senate Races

In 2008 there will be 33 U.S. Senate seats up for election. If a vacancy happens to occur there is a possibility for additional open seats. There will be elections for 21 Republican held seats and 12 Democratic held seats.

Click here for a map that shows the states that will have a U.S. Senate seat up for election in 2008. Red shows Republican seats, pink shows Republican seats where incumbent is retiring and blue shows Democratic seats.

For more information on Senate Races click here.

House Races

In 2008 there will be 435 Congressional eats up for election. All 435 seats are up for election every two years. Currently there are 202 Republican held seats and 233 Democratic held seats. The Republicans would need to net 16 seats to take back the majority they lost in the 2006 midterm elections.
Click here for a House Summary.
Click here for a look at the Competitive Races.