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Malagon Asks $250,000 Line of Credit

Addendum: The motion is out of order.  Only the LNC can approve borrowing money and a 2/3  vote is required.

LNC member Adrian Malagon has called for a $250,000 line of credit for the LNC.  His actual call reads:

Greetings Executive Committee Members,

I move to take out a line of credit of up to $250,000.

I am looking for co-sponsors.

8 Comments

  1. Andy Andy March 31, 2024

    I looked into the building fund tbing awhile ago, and I do not think it is true that any or all funds from the sale of a party office must be rolled into another party office. I will research it again to be sure, but I think at least some of the funds can be used for other purposes.

    Even if the party did have to roll all of the funds into another office, it could buy a better and larger one in a cheaper area.

    • Paul Paul March 31, 2024

      You can think anything you want. If the money I contributed specifically to the building fund isn’t used for the intended purpose or refunded, the officers of the recipient organization are civilly liable for fraud and criminally liable for violating campaign finance laws and, again, fraud.

      Building funds are not bound by the same contribution rules and limits as other national political party expenditures. In return, they can only be used for a building or refunded. If a party uses them for a building and then sells the building, they can be used for another building or refunded. Anything else would be money laundering, fraudulent solicitation of funds under false premises, etc. It would be a way to get around campaign finance laws.

      Regardless of what you think of those laws, they exist, and the people who wrote them aren’t stupid enough to make it that obviously easy to evade them. If it were, political parties could get donations to building funds not restricted by campaign finance laws, flip buildings, and openly mock those laws. Lawmakers might be evil, but they’re not quite that stupid.

      Furthermore, all of this was part of the pitch to solicit donations. If they sell the building, the funds have to stay in an account that can only be used to buy another building or returned to donors, regardless of what you believe.

  2. Andy Andy March 30, 2024

    As far as I know, there is no legal obligation for people to get donations back if the building is sold, nor was there ever any legal obligation that the building (ie-the townhouse office) had to be a permanent asset or location for the party.

    The office got used for awhile, but there were already some LNC staff members working remote before the office was purchased, anf the trend of staff members working remote has increased since then to the point where the office had outlived its usefulness.

    Renting it out or selling it makes sense. I have heard that the plan is to rent it out, at least for the next couple of years or so.

    • Paul Paul March 30, 2024

      It’s actually a legal requirement. Building funds are a separate legal category. The money can only be used for another hq building or refunded if it’s sold. And I do want my money back, promptly, with interest.

    • Jeff Davidson Jeff Davidson March 31, 2024

      Hi Andy. This has been discussed several times. Why do you not believe the people who say that donor funds given for a specific purpose to a specific fund must be used in the specified way?

      • Nicholas Sarwark Nicholas Sarwark April 1, 2024

        Andy believes a lot of things that are not true.

    • Steve M Steve M April 1, 2024

      There are very specific legal obligations for not using a political parties building funds for anything other than the building, its operations and its maintenance.

      (B) A separate, segregated account of a national committee of a political party (including a national congressional campaign committee of a political party) which is used solely to defray expenses incurred with respect to the construction, purchase, renovation, operation, and furnishing of one or more headquarters buildings of the party or to repay loans the proceeds of which were used to defray such expenses, or otherwise to restore funds used to defray such expenses (including expenses for obligations incurred during the 2-year period which ends on December 16, 2014).

      https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:52%20section:30116%20edition:prelim)#:~:text=(A)%20A%20separate%2C%20segregated,or%20to%20repay%20loans%20the

  3. ATBAFT ATBAFT March 30, 2024

    Does Mr. Malagon specify what assets will secure the LOC? Perhaps the Alexandria real estate? If LOC can’t be paid back, and real estate is foreclosed on, or sold, is there still enough $$$ to pay back those (unsecured) building contributors who expect to get their contributions back when LP disposes of the building?

Comments are closed.