5-4 Political Committee Mailings | Postal Explorer

5-4 Political Committee Mailings

5-4.1 Applying the Cooperative Mail Rules

Qualified political committees are subject to the cooperative mailing requirements. However, unlike cases involving cooperative mailings between an authorized nonprofit organization and a commercial organization, there is often an ongoing relationship between the qualified political committee and the committee’s candidate.

A political candidate may be connected to the authorized political committee mailer by being a member of and/or financial contributor to the political party represented by the committee. The committee is, of course, interested in promoting, encouraging, and supporting the candidate’s election.

Postal laws and regulations do not prohibit the candidate from contributing to the committee or the committee from supporting the candidate. The concern under postal laws and regulations is whether the political candidate’s financial contribution to the authorized political committee is in return for the mailing or mailings that support the candidate. (See CSR PS–055.)

Example: Proper Use of Contributed Funds

Politician A is a member of the qualified political committee. The qualified political committee plans to include information supporting politician A’s candidacy for office and has asked the candidate for a biographical sketch. The candidate provides the information and makes a contribution to the qualified political committee. The qualified political committee will retain authority to accept or reject information provided by the candidate, and the contribution by the candidate is not a contribution to pay for the mailing. This is not considered to be a cooperative mailing because the qualified political committee retained discretion over the decision to mail and the contents of the mailing.