National party accounts for certain expenses

National party committees may establish accounts to defray certain expenses incurred with respect to:

Presidential nominating conventions,
National party headquarters buildings, and
Election recounts and contests and other legal proceedings.

These segregated accounts may accept contributions up to three times the amount of the party’s regular contribution limit and are subject to the prohibitions of the Act.

Note the congressional campaign committees of national party committees may not establish a segregated account for Presidential nominating conventions.

Presidential nominating convention accounts

These separate, segregated accounts of a national party committee (other than a national congressional campaign committee of a political party) are used solely to defray expenses incurred for a presidential nominating convention, including deposits and loans from which such expenses were paid. The aggregate amount of expenditures the committee may make from this account may not exceed $20,000,000 per convention.

National party headquarters accounts

These accounts are used solely to defray expenses incurred when constructing, purchasing, renovating, operating or furnishing one or more of the party’s headquarters buildings.

Recount accounts

These accounts are used solely to defray expenses incurred with respect to the preparation for and conduct of election recounts and contests and related legal proceedings.

Until the Commission adopts new regulations, national party committees that establish such accounts should report the activities of those accounts as described.

Although party committees normally disclose their contributions on Form 3X, Line 11(a), the Commission's forms currently do not provide a clear way to distinguish between contributions deposited into the committees' separate accounts. Thus, as described, national party committees should report the contributions deposited into their presidential nominating convention, national party headquarters buildings, or election recounts and contests and other legal proceedings accounts as "other federal receipts," with the appropriate descriptions. Similarly, the committees should report expenditures from these accounts as "other federal operating expenditures" or "other disbursements" (depending upon the account, as explained), with the appropriate descriptions.