Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

PACs have been around since 1944, when the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) formed the first one to raise money for the re-election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A Political Action Committee (PAC) is a popular term for a political committee organized by like-minded people for the purpose of raising and spending money to elect and defeat candidates. The PAC’s money must come from voluntary investments from members rather than the member’s dues treasury. PACs represent business, labor or ideological interests. PACs can give $5,000 to a candidate committee per election (primary, general, run-off or special). They can also give up to $15,000 annually to any national party committee, and $5,000 annually to any other PAC. PACs may receive up to $5,000 from any one individual. With the goal to establish the real estate community as a concerned, involved, and powerful political constituency, RPAC is the REALTORS® Political Action Committee. Raised through voluntary investments of GTR + PRO/CPRO members, RPAC funds are used for member education and political campaigns at the federal, state and local levels.

RPAC is the muscle behind NAR. RPAC represents over 400,000 politically active REALTORS® that members of Congress want as their friends. Recent legislative and regulatory successes include: The continued preservation of the mortgage interest deduction. Tax relief benefiting the real estate industry. Improving federal mortgage programs, allowing more families to join the ranks of homeownership. Eliminating burdensome regulations inhibiting environmental quality and healthy real estate markets. How will my investment be used? 100% of your investment is used to elect pro-REALTOR® candidates: 70% remains in the state to be used in state and local elections. 30% of your investment will be forwarded to National RPAC to fund key U.S. House and Senate races. Until your state PAC reaches its RPAC goal 30% is sent to National RPAC to support federal candidates and is charged against your limits under 2 U.S.C. 441a; after the state PAC reaches its RPAC goal it may elect to retain your entire investment for use in supporting state and local candidates. RPAC is neither a Republican nor a Democratic organization. Your investment to RPAC is a vote for a pro-REALTOR® Congress, regardless of political party.

Visit the 2019 Advocacy Success page at realtorparty.realtor to browse an organized list of RPAC victory highlights.

The dollar goal of the National RPAC, set by the National Trustees, is $15 per year per NAR member. At least $4.50 of that goes to the National RPAC. This goal is called a “fair share.” To ensure that all states contribute their fair share to the RPAC effort, a states’ annual goal is determined by the number of members in that state based on the November 30 membership report. The National RPAC accounting year runs from January 1 to December 31.

According to federal election law, RPAC can solicit only individual members — i.e., non-corporate members of NAR and their families. The term “members” means all individuals who currently satisfy the requirements for membership in any one of the local, state, and/or the National Association and regularly pay dues. Executive, administrative and management personnel of the local, state and/or national associations are also considered under the NAR constitution to be members of the association and are solicitable even though they may not pay association dues.

No. Investments used for political purposes are not tax deductible on your federal income taxes.

Under the cooperative agreements in effect between the National RPAC and the state association’s Political Action Committees, the responsibility for making contributions to federal candidates is assigned to the national RPAC, while state association’s Political Action Committees decide which state and local candidates to support.

No. Under federal election law, the earmarking of contributions is illegal.

The National Trustees’ policy is to act only on requests sent from state associations and signed off on by the state trustees. Once the national trustees receive these requests, they have four options: Amend, Approve, Deny or Defer.

1. Recommendations from State RPAC Trustees
2. NAR congressional voting records and analyses of incumbent members of Congress
3. Campaign intelligence reports provided by the NAR political and legislative staff.

No. The National RPAC Trustees’ policy is to only contribute to one candidate in any given election. However, the use of In-State Reception funds and D.C. Reception Funds does not necessarily count as a dual contribution if a challenger is supported by the National RPAC. Again, these are relationship-building monies.

The National RPAC maintains voluntary cooperative agreements with the state association’s Political Action Committees. States retain 70% of the money they collect for the support of state and local candidates and send 30% to the national RPAC for use in supporting federal candidates. Until your state PAC reaches its RPAC goal 30% is sent to National RPAC to support federal candidates and is charged against your limits under 2 U.S.C. 441a; after the state PAC reaches its RPAC goal it may elect to retain your entire investment for use in supporting state and local candidates.

Hard money has many restrictions on how it is raised and spent and must be fully reported to the Federal Election Commission. Hard money is raised from individuals, who can contribute up to $1,000 directly to a federal candidate per election and $5,000 to a Political Action Committee, like RPAC, per year. RPAC can contribute $5,000 to a federal candidate per election. RPAC can only accept money from individuals. Soft money is raised from corporations, unions and individuals. Federal candidates cannot accept soft money. Soft money is raised by party organizations, unions, corporations and associations. There are no limitations on the amount of soft money a corporation or individual can contribute, nor any limitation on the amount of soft money an organization can spend. Unlike RPAC, NAR can accept corporate contributions, which can then be used to communicate with our membership about a candidate through opportunity races or used for issue advocacy.

For more information about RPAC, visit nar.realtor/rpac by the National Association of REALTORS®.

You can also access additional information from Florida REALTORS® at floridarealtors.org/advocacy.

You can also contact us by email: jfarrell@pinellasrealtor.org

Most information for the RPAC FAQs above were provided by the National Association of REALTORS®