TITLE 67

STATE GOVERNMENT AND STATE AFFAIRS

CHAPTER 66

ELECTION CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS AND EXPENDITURES — LOBBYISTS

67-6602.  Definitions. As used in this chapter, the following terms have the following meanings:

(1)  "Candidate" means an individual who seeks nomination, election, or reelection to public office and who has taken any of the following actions:

(a)  Announced the individual’s candidacy publicly;

(b)  Filed for public office;

(c)  Received a contribution for the purpose of promoting the individual’s candidacy for office; or

(d)  Made an expenditure, contracted for services, or reserved space with the intent of promoting the individual’s candidacy for office.

For purposes of this chapter, an incumbent shall be presumed to be a candidate in the subsequent election for his or her office until the incumbent has failed to file a declaration of candidacy by the statutory deadline.

(2)  "Compensation" includes any advance, conveyance, forgiveness of indebtedness, deposit, distribution, loan, payment, gift, pledge or transfer of money or anything of value, and any contract, agreement, promise or other obligation, whether or not legally enforceable, to do any of the foregoing, for services rendered or to be rendered, but does not include reimbursement of expenses if such reimbursement does not exceed the amount actually expended for such expenses and is substantiated by an itemization of such expenses.

(3)  "Contractor" means a person who receives compensation from another person for either full-time or part-time work based on a contract or compensation agreement, but who is not an employee of that person.

(4)  "Contribution" includes any advance, conveyance, forgiveness of indebtedness, deposit, distribution, loan, payment, gift, pledge, subscription or transfer of money or anything of value, and any contract, agreement, promise or other obligation, whether or not legally enforceable, to make a contribution, in support of or in opposition to any candidate, political committee or measure. Such term also includes personal funds or other property of a candidate or members of his household expended or transferred to cover expenditures incurred in support of such candidate but does not include personal funds used to pay the candidate filing fee. Such term also includes the rendering of personal and professional services for less than full consideration, but does not include ordinary home hospitality or the rendering of "part-time" personal services of the sort commonly performed by volunteer campaign workers or advisors or incidental expenses not in excess of twenty-five dollars ($25.00) personally paid for by any volunteer campaign worker. "Part-time" services, for the purposes of this definition, means services in addition to regular full-time employment, or, in the case of an unemployed person or persons engaged in part-time employment, services rendered without compensation or reimbursement of expenses from any source other than the candidate or political committee for whom such services are rendered. For the purposes of this act, contributions, other than money or its equivalent shall be deemed to have a money value equivalent to the fair market value of the contribution.

(5)  "Election" means any state or local general, special, recall, or primary election.

(6)  "Election campaign" means any campaign in support of or in opposition to a candidate for election to public office and any campaign in support of, or in opposition to, a measure.

(7)(a)  "Electioneering communication" means any communication broadcast by television or radio, printed in a newspaper or on a billboard, directly mailed or delivered by hand to personal residences, or telephone calls made to personal residences, or otherwise distributed that:

(i)   Unambiguously refers to any candidate; and

(ii)  Is broadcasted, printed, mailed, delivered, made or distributed within thirty (30) days before a primary election or sixty (60) days before a general election; and

(iii) Is broadcasted to, printed in a newspaper, distributed to, mailed to or delivered by hand to, telephone calls made to, or otherwise distributed to an audience that includes members of the electorate for such public office.

(b)  "Electioneering communication" does not include:

(i)   Any news articles, editorial endorsements, opinion or commentary, writings, or letter to the editor printed in a newspaper, magazine, or other periodical not owned or controlled by a candidate, political committee, or political party;

(ii)  Any editorial endorsements or opinions aired by a broadcast facility not owned or controlled by a candidate, political committee, or political party;

(iii) Any communication by persons made in the regular course and scope of their business or any communication made by a membership organization solely to members of such organization and their families;

(iv)  Any communication that refers to any candidate only as part of the popular name of a bill or statute;

(v)   A communication that constitutes an expenditure or an independent expenditure under this chapter.

(8)  "Employee" means an individual who performs a service for wages or other compensation from which the individual’s employer withholds federal employment taxes under a contract for hire, written or oral.

(9)  "Executive official" means:

(a)  The governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state controller, state treasurer, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction and any deputy or staff member of any of those individuals who, within the course and scope of his or her employment, is directly involved in major policy-influencing decisions for the office;

(b)  A state department or agency director, deputy director, division administrator or bureau chief as established and enumerated in sections 67-2402 and 67-2406, Idaho Code;

(c)  The membership and the executive or chief administrative officer of any board or commission that is authorized to make rules or conduct rulemaking activities pursuant to section 67-5201, Idaho Code;

(d)  The membership and the executive or chief administrative officer of any board or commission that governs any of the state departments enumerated in section 67-2402, Idaho Code, not including public school districts;

(e)  The membership and the executive or chief administrative officer of the Idaho public utilities commission, the Idaho industrial commission, and the Idaho state tax commission; and

(f)  The members of the governing board of the state insurance fund and the members of the governing board and the executive or chief administrative officer of the Idaho housing and finance association, the Idaho energy resources authority, and the Idaho state building authority.

(10) "Expenditure" includes any payment, contribution, subscription, distribution, loan, advance, deposit, or gift of money or anything of value, and includes a contract, promise, or agreement, whether or not legally enforceable, to make an expenditure. The term "expenditure" also includes a promise to pay, a payment or a transfer of anything of value in exchange for goods, services, property, facilities or anything of value for the purpose of assisting, benefiting or honoring any public official or candidate, or assisting in furthering or opposing any election campaign.

(11) "Independent expenditure" means any expenditure by a person for a communication expressly advocating the election, passage or defeat of a clearly identified candidate or measure that is not made with the cooperation or with the prior consent of, or in consultation with, or at the consent of, or in consultation with, or at the request of a suggestion of, a candidate or any agent or authorized committee of the candidate or political committee supporting or opposing a measure. As used in this subsection, "expressly advocating" means any communication containing a message advocating election, passage or defeat including, but not limited to, the name of the candidate or measure, or expression such as "vote for," "elect," "support," "cast your ballot for," "vote against," "defeat" or "reject."

(12) "Lobby" and "lobbying" each means attempting through contacts with, or causing others to make contact with, members of the legislature or legislative committees or an executive official to influence the approval, modification or rejection of any legislation by the legislature of the state of Idaho or any committee thereof or by the governor or to develop or maintain relationships with, promote goodwill with, or entertain members of the legislature or executive officials. "Lobby" and "lobbying" shall also mean communicating with an executive official for the purpose of influencing the consideration, amendment, adoption or rejection of any rule or rulemaking as defined in section 67-5201, Idaho Code, or any ratemaking decision, procurement, contract, bid or bid process, financial services agreement, or bond issue. Neither "lobby" nor "lobbying" includes an association’s or other organization’s act of communicating with the members of that association or organization; and provided that neither "lobby" nor "lobbying" includes communicating with an executive official for the purpose of carrying out ongoing negotiations following the award of a bid or a contract, communications involving ongoing legal work and negotiations conducted by and with attorneys for executive agencies, interactions between parties in litigation or other contested matters, or communications among and between members of the legislature and executive officials and their employees, or by state employees while acting in their official capacity or within the course and scope of their employment.

(13) "Lobbyist" includes any person who lobbies.

(14) "Lobbyist’s client" means the person on whose behalf the lobbyist is acting, directly or indirectly, as a contractor, and by whom the lobbyist or lobbyist’s employer is compensated for acting as a lobbyist.

(15) "Lobbyist’s employer" means the person or persons for whom a lobbyist is an employee, and by whom the lobbyist is compensated for acting as a lobbyist.

(16)  "Local government office" means any publicly elected office for any political subdivision of the state or special district that is not a legislative, judicial, statewide, or federal office.

(17)  "Measure" means any proposal submitted to the people for their approval or rejection at an election, including any initiative, referendum, recall election, or revision of or amendment to the state constitution. An initiative or referendum proposal shall be deemed a measure when the attorney general, county prosecutor, or city attorney, as appropriate, reviews it and gives it a ballot title. A recall shall be deemed a measure upon approval of the recall petition as to form pursuant to section 34-1704, Idaho Code.

(18) "Nonbusiness entity" means any group of two (2) or more individuals, a corporation, association, firm, partnership, committee, club or other organization that:

(a)  Does not have as its principal purpose the conduct of business activities for profit; and

(b)  Received during the preceding or current calendar year contributions, gifts or membership fees, which in the aggregate exceeded ten percent (10%) of its total receipts for such year.

(19) "Person" means an individual, corporation, association, firm, partnership, committee, political party, club or other organization or group of persons.

(20) "Political committee" means:

(a)  Any person specifically designated to support or oppose any candidate or measure; or

(b)  Any person who receives contributions and makes expenditures in an amount exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) in any calendar year for the purpose of supporting or opposing one (1) or more candidates or measures.

(c)  A county, district or regional committee of a recognized political party shall not be considered a political committee for the purposes of this chapter unless such party committee has expenditures exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000) in a calendar year.

(21)  "Political treasurer" means an individual appointed by a candidate or political committee as provided in section 67-6603, Idaho Code.

(22)  "Public office" means any local, legislative, judicial, or state office or position that is filled by election but does not include the office of precinct committeeman.

History:

[67-6602, added Init. Measure 1974, No. 1, sec. 2; am. 1977, ch. 180, sec. 1, p. 502; am. 1978, ch. 58, sec. 1, p. 112; am. 1986, ch. 218, sec. 1, p. 554; am. 1992, ch. 196, sec. 1, p. 605; am. 1993, ch. 189, sec. 1, p. 481; am. 1994, ch. 5, sec. 1, p. 6; am. 1994, ch. 379, sec. 1, p. 1218; am. 1997, ch. 393, sec. 1, p. 1250; am. 1999, ch. 176, sec. 1, p. 476; am. 2001, ch. 291, sec. 2, p. 1029; am. 2004, ch. 277, sec. 3, p. 768; am. 2005, ch. 254, sec. 1, p. 777; am. 2006, ch. 106, sec. 2, p. 294; am. 2008, ch. 306, sec. 1, p. 847; am. 2012, ch. 162, sec. 3, p. 438; am. 2015, ch. 284, sec. 1, p. 1151; am. 2019, ch. 288, sec. 2, p. 832; am. 2019, ch. 290, sec. 1, p. 850; am. 2020, ch. 82, sec. 37, p. 209; am. 2024, ch. 278, sec. 1, p. 953.]