Lynchburg is Better Together: Shadow PAC or little-known volunteer group?

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Allegations have been leveled against a volunteer group supporting a bloc of four Democratic candidates for city council in Lynchburg.

Critics charge that the group, Lynchburg Better Together, violated Virginia election law by failing to register with the Department of Elections as a political action committee after campaign signs bearing the organization’s name began appearing throughout the city.

But the group and the candidates it supports claim Lynchburg Better Together is a volunteer cooperative aimed at getting Democrats elected to the Lynchburg City Council.

Regardless, critics and Republican candidates in the city council race have alleged that Lynchburg Better Together’s ties to the Virginia-based political action committee Rural GroundGame are cause for concern.

What is Lynchburg Better Together and how does it relate to Rural GroundGame?

The volunteer group was formed to support four Democratic candidates for city council en bloc. The group, Lynchburg Better Together, approached Rural GroundGame earlier this year asking for help in its efforts to elect four Democrats to the city council.

Through this partnership, Lynchburg Better Together volunteers host meet-and-greets with candidates, coordinate campaign efforts, and manage logistics such as headshots, graphics, and videography at events, among other things; Rural GroundGame, on the other hand, handles donations, expenditures and campaign finance reporting. .

“Lynchburg Better Together has never hidden its relationship with Rural GroundGame – it has been on the Lynchburg Better Together website and in our email signature lines from the very beginning,” a spokesperson for Lynchburg Better Together said in an email.

Rural GroundGame provided an infusion of funds not normally seen in Lynchburg city races — a total of about $36,000 through in-kind contributions among the four Democratic candidates, according to reports filed with the state election board. These contributions included campaign advertising such as marching passes, postcards, postage, billboards, signs and digital ads, as well as helping identify areas where volunteers could conduct research and assistance with some of the technical elements of phone banking and text banking.

Lynchburg Better Together requested online donations for four candidates; It’s an action that critics call problematic because the group is not registered as a political action committee with the state election board. But members of the volunteer group claim that when donors clicked on a link to contribute, they were directed to an ActBlue site, where a disclaimer read: “Your contribution will benefit Rural GroundGame – Government Account.”

What does Virginia election law say?

A volunteer organization, like any organization in Virginia, is free to contribute money or ask others to contribute money to another organization, said John Martin, a research assistant professor of law at the University of Virginia.

“This in itself does not require the voluntary organization to register with the state board of elections,” he said.

An organization must register with the state if it solicits contributions for its own purposes and if more than 50% of those contributions are intended to be used to influence the outcome of non-federal Virginia elections. An organization must also register if it intends to receive contributions or spend more than $200 to influence state or local elections in the state. according to government regulations.

“Making a contribution to a larger organization or asking others to contribute to that larger organization is not the same as ‘spending funds in the campaign finance world,'” Martin said.

If the volunteer organization raises its own funds and uses them for political purposes or independently spends money on its own political communications, this would likely require the volunteer organization to register with the state as a political action committee, he continued.

“Lynchburg Better Together has never received any contributions or spent any money,” said Ian McNally, managing director of Rural GroundGame. “Just as an interested voter would host a fundraiser at his or her home and encourage contributions to a campaign or committee, Lynchburg Better Together volunteers encouraged donations to Rural GroundGame with the understanding that Rural GroundGame is the organization that will direct those funds to grassroots efforts. Lynchburg.”

It appears Lynchburg Better Together may have violated election rules when it included its name on campaign signs to support Democratic candidates for city council.

The fine print at the heart of the problem

Questions about Lynchburg Better Together arose in early October after yard signs and billboards began popping up across the city in support of Democratic candidates. It was the fine print that caused the uproar. The authorization line on many of these signs read: “Paid for by Lynchburg Better Together, a project of Rural GroundGame.”

If Lynchburg Better Together had actually paid for the signs, the group would have run afoul of Virginia election law by not registering as a political action committee with the state board of elections.

The signs were paid for by Rural GroundGame and printed with the mandate “Paid for by Lynchburg Better Together, a project of Rural GroundGame,” based on guidance from the Department of Elections, McNally said.

“After receiving new written guidance from the Department of Electoral Affairs, Rural GroundGame now only uses ‘paid for by Rural GroundGame’ on all materials,” he said in an email. The political action committee attempted to resolve the issue by placing a sticker on existing signs with the correct text over the previous statement.

“This was a sincere mistake made by a volunteer and Rural GroundGame has already taken action to address and rectify this situation,” McNally told The.Lynchburg) News and Developments.

Veronica Bratton, chairwoman of the Lynchburg Republican Party, said she filed a complaint with the state board of elections in early October about including Lynchburg Better Together in the authorization line on campaign signs. Almost a month later, he said, there are still some signs in the community that have not yet been fixed, and some that are completely missing the permit line.

Democratic candidates, Rural GroundGame respond

Randy Smith, who is running for the Ward 1 seat on the city council, said he thinks criticism of Lynchburg Better Together is not as transparent as candidates claim because it is not registered with the state election board. “probably fair.”

“But just because we did something that had never been done before: we ran four candidates as a group, we helped each other even though it was a neighborhood election,” he said. “Anytime you do something new, people need to be educated on the details, and maybe we haven’t done a good enough job there.”

Lynchburg noted that Better Together was never intended to operate as a political action committee because Rural GroundGame handled the financial reporting.

“I think we’re playing catch up now to keep everyone better informed on the details,” Smith said.

IV. Ward candidate April Watson called criticism of Lynchburg Better Together a “distraction from the real problems” in the city.

II respectively. and III. The wards’ Democratic candidates, Sterling Wilder and James Coleman, did not respond to a request for comment.

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