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(7/26/2006)
Liberal Group Files Tax Complaint Against South Dakota Pro Life Orgs Alleges Alpha Center, National Abstinence Clearinghouse violated tax law by lobbying
BY BOB ELLIS DAKOTA VOICE Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a Left-wing watchdog group, filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today against the Alpha Center pregnancy resource center and the National Abstinence Clearinghouse of Sioux Falls. Both organizations were founded Leslee Unruh, who now heads VoteYesForLife.com, the group working for passage of South Dakota’s abortion ban in the November 2006 election. The complaint alleges that the tax exempt organizations violated federal tax law by engaging in unauthorized lobbying activities in 2003 and 2004. The complaint says the organizations reported no lobbying activity in those years, but cites newspaper reports that say Unruh “lobbied” on several occasions. The complaint does not specify whether Unruh was working in her official capacity or in a personal capacity, and the newspaper reports might have simply reported her activities congruently with a description of her professional background. Unruh was not registered as a lobbyist until 2006. A key issue to the matter is in the definition of the word “substantial.” Tax law says that a nonprofit organization may engage in lobbying to support legislation which agrees with its mission as long as those activities do not amount to a “substantial” portion of the organizations resources. “Substantial” has typically been defined in court as at least 5% of the organizations resources, and as high as 20%. The complaint does not specify the percentage of resources which are alleged to have been expended in lobbying by Alpha Center and the National Abstinence Clearinghouse. The complaint also alleges Alpha Center violated tax law by endorsing John Stratman, a candidate for school board who was also a board member of both organizations. According to an Argus Leader report, Unruh said the email sent to Alpha Center supporters was not an endorsement, just information for the voters about a candidate they knew firsthand. Alpha Center released a statement today which says neither organization has violated tax regulations, and calls the complaint an “ideologically driven agenda” because of Alpha Center’s support of laws restricting abortion. Alpha Center says they have nothing to fear from an IRS inquiry, if there even is one. According to the CREW website, the organization seeks to function as a “parallel” of “conservative” watchdog groups like Judicial Watch, the Rutherford Institute and others. CREW has worked against Texas representative Tom Delay, presidential advisor Karl Rove, and has sought to portray President Bush as failing to take action during Hurricane Katrina. Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW has worked for Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) who has a 100% rating from National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) and Planned Parenthood, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) when he was in the U.S. House of Representatives (Schumer also has a 100% rating from the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) and Planned Parenthood) and Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) who has a 100% NARAL rating and a 75% Planned Parenthood rating. Naomi Seligman, the deputy director of CREW, was formerly the communications director of Media Matters, a watchdog group that claims there is a conservative bias in the mainstream media. The third officer of CREW is staff attorney Anne Weismann, who most recently served as Deputy Chief of the Enforcement Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
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