A friend of mine recently asked how to start a political action committee. This article contains my notes on how to do it.

* Note: I am NOT A LAWYER, and this should NOT BE CONSTRUED as legal advice. This is just how I did it. *

Its pretty easy. A PAC is simply a regulated political bank account.

Step 1: Open a bank account for your association: i.e. FooBar PAC. Or something. Make sure you get a debit card with it, as a credit/debit card numnber makes it easier to send payments to campaigns. I have also found that the bank should also have online bill-pay, as this also make disbursments easier.

Step 2: You will need to fill out an FEC-1 form, a statement of organization.

http://www.fec.gov/info/forms.shtml

Read the instructions, as well as the intro guide for Non-Connected Committees. Read this carefully as it has lots of language that you need to use in order to not run afoul of the law. (See the footer for an example).

You will probably understand them betther than I did.

Step 3: Fax the Form-1 to the FEC. They will give you a FEC ID.

They will fax you back a number within 48 hours, or you can call them and get it right away.

You should make sure to sign up a reliable email address, as the FEC will frequently send out notices and filing deadlines.

Step 4. Download the FECFile software, as it make filing relatively simple.

Step 5. That was the easy part. Now you need to get people to give you money so you can give it to other people. This is a bigger chore and you will need a web site and email list software, etc. I use Joomla for content management and Mailchimp for email.