WASHINGTON, DC. (THECOUNT) — Microsoft News is reporting that Presidential candidate Andrew Yang may have violated federal election laws when he announced a contest to gift $100,000 in cold hard cash to 10 families on Thursday – Prior to the highly anticipated Democratic debate.
Yang, the entrepreneur who has promised to provide every American adult with $1,000 a month if he is elected president, announced at the Democratic debate on Thursday that he would distribute such payments to 10 people for the next year.
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“It’s time to trust ourselves more than our politicians,” Mr. Yang said during his opening statement as he made the announcement. “This is how we will get our country working for us again, the American people.”
But unlike earlier in his campaign, when Yang paid what he calls “freedom dividends” out of his own pocket to three families, his advisers said the money for the latest round of payments would be funded by campaign donations, raising questions about whether such a giveaway violates federal election law.
Campaign finance experts said that while federal rules prohibit campaigns from giving people anything of value as an incentive to vote, Mr. Yang would not be breaking the law in that area if he did not ask for people’s votes in return.
But Federal Election Commission rules do prohibit the use of campaign funds on personal expenses. To differentiate legitimate campaign expenses from personal expenses, regulators must determine whether the expense would exist even if the candidate were not running for office.
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