PERMANENT RULES
Date of Adoption: October 24, 2000.
Purpose: To implement PDC Interpretation 96-02 and Attorney General Opinion 2000 No. 4.
Citation of Existing Rules Affected by this Order: Amending WAC 390-16-226 Loans.
Statutory Authority for Adoption: RCW 42.17.370(1).
Adopted under notice filed as WSR 00-19-120 on September 20, 2000.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's Own Initiative: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted Using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0. Effective Date of Rule: Thirty-one days after filing.
October 27, 2000
V. Rippie
Executive Director
(1) Only loans which are recorded in a written loan agreement executed at the time of the loan and properly reported may be repaid by a candidate or political committee. Surplus campaign funds under RCW 42.17.020 and 42.17.095 may only be used to return a contribution to the candidate if the contribution was properly reported as a loan from the candidate, as described in subsections (2) and (3).
(2) If any person gives or loans the candidate funds in connection with his or her campaign, the funds are not considered personal funds of the candidate. See WAC 390-17-305. Such funds are considered a contribution from the original source of the contribution under chapter 42.17 RCW and, unless the loan meets the exemption provided in RCW 42.17.720(3) and this subsection, the contribution is subject to the contribution limits provided in chapter 42.17 RCW.
(a) If a candidate or candidate's own political committee or campaign or authorized committee receives a loan from a commercial lending institution, the loan is exempt from the contribution limits of RCW 42.17.640 and WAC 390-16-310 only if all the following criteria are met:
(i) the loan is not guaranteed by any other person;
(ii) the loan is made in the regular course of business; and,
(iii) the loan is made on the same terms ordinarily available to the public.
(b) A commercial loan to a candidate's own committee or campaign or authorized committee is presumed to be guaranteed by the candidate. The presumption is rebuttable by clear, cogent and convincing evidence.
(3) The amount of campaign contributions which may be used
to repay a loan made by the candidate to the candidate's own
political committee or campaign, or to repay a commercial loan to
a candidate's own political committee or campaign where the
candidate is the borrower or guarantor, is limited to the loan
repayment limit in RCW 42.17.125(3) as adjusted by WAC 390-05-400. For purposes of the (($3,000)) loan repayment limit
((imposed by RCW 42.17.125(3))), these loans ((by a candidate))
are aggregated for each primary, general, special or recall
election and must be designated accordingly by the candidate at
the time the loan is made.
(4) If a candidate makes documented out-of-pocket campaign expenditures on behalf of his or her campaign expecting repayment (not intending to make an in-kind contribution), the campaign committee must repay the candidate within 21 days of the expenditure or the candidate will be deemed to have made a loan to his or her campaign committee which must qualify for repayment under subsections (1) and (2) in order for the candidate to be repaid. Undocumented out-of-pocket campaign expenditures by the candidate are in-kind contributions not eligible for repayment.
[Statutory Authority: RCW 42.17.370. 93-16-064, § 390-16-226, filed 7/30/93, effective 8/30/93.]
Reviser's note: RCW 34.05.395 requires the use of underlining and deletion marks to indicate amendments to existing rules. The rule published above varies from its predecessor in certain respects not indicated by the use of these markings.