The Case for Establishing More Community PACs
When some people hear the acronym “PAC” their minds immediately jump to special interests and corporations laundering dark money in electoral politics. Others may think about organizations with access to hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to change the outcome of an election. While one or both are true much of the time, there’s a particular type of PAC that doesn’t fit either of those descriptions: a grassroots organization dedicated to uplifting its community and advancing equity and justice on the local and state level.
Maresa Martin Talbert is a co-founder of one such organization called San Diegans for Justice,* a PAC dedicated to strengthening criminal, electoral, and economic justice. Over the last three years, among many other achievements, SDJ led the campaign to create an independent police oversight commission in the City of San Diego, supported cannabis social equity policies, and advocated for and fought against legislation in San Diego and Sacramento.
On deciding to establish San Diegans for Justice as a political action committee (PAC), Talbert said the following,
“When we looked at all the types of entities SDJ could be, we chose to establish it as a PAC because of its flexibility and ability to empower and mobilize a movement. Nonprofits have too many restrictions on political and campaign spending, and we decided it was not a strong enough entity for our cause.”
Talbert added that PACs allow community leaders to be taken seriously by political leaders and stakeholders, giving grassroots individuals access to political power. Traditionally, PACs are run by powerful political organizations or individuals, such as congressional leaders like Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Kevin McCarthy, or labor unions, police officers’ associations, and various business groups.While smaller, community-based PACs may not have the same access to wealth and resources, a grassroots political action committee can demonstrate its power through collective action and coalition building.
While the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision created the modern “Super PAC” that allows the wealthy few to wield unchecked political power through dark money, an everyday PAC does not have to be inherently malicious. It’s a special type of bank account, with its own unique rules and regulations that vary based on jurisdiction. In the United States, any entity that spends $1,000 on political activity must register as a PAC. Individuals, organizations, or businesses may donate money to the PAC, which must be reported publicly within a certain timeline, and the owners of the PAC can choose to spend the money to support movement work that matters to them. Unlike nonprofits, PACs can spend any portion of their budgets on politics and elections. This can look like supporting or opposing political candidates, supporting or opposing ballot measures, registering and educating voters, or hiring organizers in their community.
Nick Cartwright, a former candidate, is hoping to do just that with his new PAC meant to empower voters in Arkansas.* When I asked him why it was important for him to establish a PAC, he said:
“Our community-centered PAC hopes to help break the current supermajority in the state legislature and elect good, hard working people to local offices. We can do this by working through the unhelpful partisan divides and political noise to focus on the issues that truly matter to everyday people in our state. This means listening to communities, empowering people to use their voice, and sharing the tools people need to be successful candidates and leaders in their community. It will mean lifting up public schools, rural communities, and communities who have been marginalized for far too long. If we do these things, there is no doubt we will help bring out the potential for progress we know is in every single community in Arkansas.”
Organizations like the ones run by Talbert and Cartwright rely on small donations from individuals like you and me. San Diegans for Justice has a membership program called the Justice Collective that offers various perks to its members for twelve dollars a month. Individually, twelve dollars may not be able to change the course of an election or create a new law, but collectively, two hundred twelve dollar donations can buy an advertisement or pay the portion of an organizer’s salary.
One of the ways a community-centered PAC can make progress on the issues that matter to them is through offering endorsements and campaign support. Many endorsements have a standard vetting process–which can include questionnaires, interviews, and forums–that can be used to raise awareness of issues and hold elected officials accountable once they win.
Eric Warmoth is a co-founder of Project Super Bloom,* a PAC dedicated to uplifting and empowering young people and students in state politics:
“Too often, students must choose between unpaid internships and paid part-time jobs outside of politics, leaving few options for gaining skills and making connections in politics. We are making investments in young organizers through offering paid positions to power progressive campaigns around California with fresh voices and new perspectives, building a strong foundation of youth power to elect forward-thinking leaders. Young people are directly in touch with the issues facing our generations and know how to run campaigns that speak to voters who are often left out of the traditional political process, and we are ensuring that young people get a seat at the table in state campaigns to carry this message forward.”
Whether it’s climate change, reproductive justice, access to education, housing affordability, LGBTQ+ rights, criminal justice reform, economic inequality, disability rights, or gun violence prevention, I implore you to find a cause that matters to you, and join or establish a community PAC. Community-centered PACs make our collective voice more powerful. Yes, the billionaires and corporate interests have access to wealth that most of us cannot even comprehend, but we have something they don’t: our numbers. And the few stay in control by convincing the rest of us that we don’t have any power. There are many tools at our disposal that, when used collectively, will help us make real change. This is just one of them, and we shouldn’t leave it on the table.
*All organizations and individuals mentioned in this blog post are current or former clients of Evinco Strategies.
This piece was written by Mari Latibashvili.
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