Complaint Alleges Violation of New York’s New Independent Expenditure Law

The New York Post reports that the head of the New York State Republican Party has filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections charging the state teachers’ union with violating the state’s newly-enacted law that is intended to “curb the power of independent expenditure campaigns.”

The new law, Part A of Chapter 286 of the Laws of 2016, requires that there be a clear separation between political action committees (PACs), which provide financial and other support directly to candidates, and independent expenditure committees, which cannot provide direct support to candidates.

The complaint relates to New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), and two political committees that it has created.  It claims that the group’s PAC, VOTE-COPE, and its independent expenditure group, the Fund for Great Public Schools are coordinating, which is prohibited under NYS Election Law § 14-107.

In support of the allegation, the complaint notes that the two committees share a treasurer and a mailing address, and that NYSUT’s spokesperson has been quoted as speaking for all three entities – NYSUT, VOTE-COPE and the Fund for Great Public Schools.  The complaint argues that this “establishes a nexus of strategic discussions between an independent expenditure committee and the candidates it makes expenditures to benefit.

NYSUT’s spokesperson called the complaint “nonsense,” and said that “NYSUT follows both the letter and spirit of the law.”

As this represents the first test of this new law, it will be interesting to how the State Board of Elections responds.