As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
1. "Ballot issue" means a question, other than the nomination or election of a candidate to a public office, which has been approved by a political subdivision or the general assembly or is required by law to be placed before the voters of the political subdivision by a commissioner of elections, or to be placed before the voters by the state commissioner of elections.
2. "Board" means the Iowa ethics and campaign disclosure board established under section 68B.32.
3. "Campaign function" means any meeting related to a candidate's campaign for election.
4. "Candidate" means any individual who has taken affirmative action to seek nomination or election to a public office and shall also include any judge standing for retention in a judicial election.
5. "Candidate's committee" means the committee designated by the candidate for a state, county, city, or school office to receive contributions in excess of five hundred dollars in the aggregate, expend funds in excess of five hundred dollars in the aggregate, or incur indebtedness on behalf of the candidate in excess of five hundred dollars in the aggregate in any calendar year.
6. "Clearly identified" means that a communication contains an unambiguous reference to a particular candidate or ballot issue, including but not limited to one or more of the following:
a. Use of the name of the candidate or ballot issue.
b. Use of a photograph or drawing of the candidate, or the use of a particular symbol associated with a specific ballot issue.
c. Use of a candidate's initials, nickname, office, or status as a candidate, or use of acronym, popular name, or characterization of a ballot issue.
7. "Commissioner" means the county auditor of each county, who is designated as the county commissioner of elections pursuant to section 47.2.
8. "Committee" includes a political committee and a candidate's committee.
9. "Consultant" means a person who provides or procures services for or on behalf of a candidate including but not limited to consulting, public relations, advertising, fundraising, polling, managing or organizing services.
10. "Contribution" means:
a. A gift, loan, advance, deposit, rebate, refund, or transfer of money or a gift in kind.
b. The payment, by any person other than a candidate or political committee, of compensation for the personal services of another person which are rendered to a candidate or political committee for any such purpose.
"Contribution" shall not include services provided without compensation by individuals volunteering their time on behalf of a candidate's committee or political committee or a state or county statutory political committee except when organized or provided on a collective basis by a business, trade association, labor union, or any other organized group or association. "Contribution" shall not include refreshments served at a campaign function so long as such refreshments do not exceed fifty dollars in value or transportation provided to a candidate so long as its value computed at a rate of twenty cents per mile does not exceed one hundred dollars in value in any one reporting period. "Contribution" shall not include something provided to a candidate for the candidate's personal consumption or use and not intended for or on behalf of the candidate's committee.
11. "County office" includes the office of drainage district trustee.
12. "County statutory political committee" means a committee as defined in section 43.100.
13. "Disclosure report" means a statement of contributions received, expenditures made, and indebtedness incurred on forms prescribed by rules adopted by the board in accordance with chapter 17A.
14. "Express advocacy" or to "expressly advocate" means communication that can be characterized according to at least one of the following descriptions:
a. The communication is political speech made in the form of a contribution.
b. In advocating the election or defeat of one or more clearly identified candidates or the passage or defeat of one or more clearly identified ballot issues, the communication includes explicit words that unambiguously indicate that the communication is recommending or supporting a particular outcome in the election with regard to any clearly identified candidate or ballot issue.
c. When taken as a whole and with limited reference to external events such as the proximity to the election, the communication could only be interpreted by a reasonable person as supporting or recommending the election, passage, or defeat of one or more clearly identified candidates or ballot issues because both of the following conditions are met:
(1) The communication, as it relates to the election or defeat of the candidate or ballot issue, is unmistakable, unambiguous, and suggestive of only one meaning.
(2) Reasonable minds could not differ as to whether the communication encourages action to nominate, elect, approve, or defeat one or more clearly identified candidates or a ballot issue or whether the communication encourages some other kind of action.
15. "Fundraising event" means any campaign function to which admission is charged or at which goods or services are sold.
16. "National political party" means a party which meets the definition of a political party established for this state by section 43.2, and which also meets the statutory definition of the term "political party" or a term of like import in at least twenty-five other states of the United States.
17. "Person" means, without limitation, any individual, corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, labor union, or any other legal entity.
18. "Political committee" means either of the following:
a. A committee, but not a candidate's committee, that accepts contributions in excess of five hundred dollars in the aggregate, makes expenditures in excess of five hundred dollars in the aggregate, or incurs indebtedness in excess of five hundred dollars in the aggregate in any one calendar year to expressly advocate the nomination, election, or defeat of a candidate for public office, or to expressly advocate the passage or defeat of a ballot issue.
b. An association, lodge, society, cooperative, union, fraternity, sorority, educational institution, civic organization, labor organization, religious organization, or professional organization that accepts contributions in excess of five hundred dollars in the aggregate, makes expenditures in excess of five hundred dollars in the aggregate, or incurs indebtedness in excess of five hundred dollars in the aggregate in any one calendar year to expressly advocate the nomination, election, or defeat of a candidate for public office, or to expressly advocate the passage or defeat of a ballot issue.
19. "Political purpose" or "political purposes" means the express advocacy of a candidate or ballot issue.
20. "Public office" means any state, county, city, or school office filled by election.
21. "State income tax liability" means the state individual income tax imposed under section 422.5 reduced by the sum of the deductions from the computed tax as provided under section 422.12.
22. "State statutory political committee" means a committee as defined in section 43.111.
[C75, 77, 79, 81, § 56.2; 81 Acts, ch 35, § 1, 2]
83 Acts, ch 139, § 2, 14; 86 Acts, ch 1023, § 1; 87 Acts, ch 112, § 1, 2; 91 Acts, ch 226, § 1; 92 Acts, ch 1228, § 22-24; 93 Acts, ch 142, § 1-3; 93 Acts, ch 163, § 28-30, 38; 94 Acts, ch 1023, §80; 94 Acts, ch 1180, §31, 32; 95 Acts, ch 198, §1, 2; 99 Acts, ch 136, §1, 2, 17
Referred to in § 43.18, 43.67, 44.3, 45.3, 56.5, 99B.7, 99F.6
"State commissioner" defined, § 39.3
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