LEGAL NEWSLINE

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Two opposing factions have found common ground and are uniting for a single cause - raising money.

On Friday, the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee filed an advisory opinion request with the Federal Election Commission.

According to the request, the committees are asking whether they may each raise federal funds into a segregated account under a separate contribution limit, or alternately into a convention committee, solely to finance convention expenses for their 2016 nominating conventions that would previously have been paid for with federal funds.

Following the filling of their request, the committees released the following statement:

“Conventions are essential to the nominating process for both parties and to the next presidential election. With the loss of public funding for some aspects of these events, a staple of convention financing for decades, the two parties need greater flexibility to raise the resources to build necessary infrastructure and carry out essential operations.

“As one step towards achieving that goal, we are jointly requesting that the Federal Election Commission allow both parties to raise these infrastructure and operation funds under separate limits into a dedicated account with full disclosure requirements so both parties can continue to operate safe and seamless conventions that present their candidates and platforms to the electorate.”

The request states the committees are already preparing for the 2016 conventions without the “essential support of millions of dollars in public funding provided to them since 1976.”

Reach David Yates at elections@legalnewsline.com