Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Timeshare owners unknowingly aided PAC: "Timeshare owners in Florida and elsewhere were misled into donating to the political fund-raising arm of the U.S. vacation ownership industry while paying their regular property fees, according to a new federal audit report.

Tens of thousands of small contributions - most $3 to $5 - were collected by property management firms around the country and funneled to a political action committee set up by the American Resort Development Association....Auditors found the American Resort Development Association-Resort Owners Coalition PAC also violated other federal election laws.

Their report, focusing on the 2003-04 election cycle, says the PAC secretly raised and spent more than $1.8 million during that time. The PAC also accepted thousands of dollars of prohibited contributions from corporations and foreign nationals, it said."

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Cute. Doesn't say who they contributed to, but there are ways of finding that out. In the meantime, here is what they raised and shelled out in the 2008 election. They had receipts of $5.2 million and spent $4.1 through October 15.

COMMITTEE NAME RECEIPTS DISB CASH DEBT THROUGH


ARDA (PAC, ROC) $5,203,682 $4,178,867 $2,460,366 $0 10/15/2008

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hmm. Sounds a lot like the way CAI operates. Mandatory assessments from homeowners diverted from HOA accounts to CAI legislative action committees to do more ill-will to the homeowners forced to pay into that system.