68A.203 Committee treasurer and chairperson — duties.

1. a. Every candidate’s committee shall appoint a treasurer who shall be an Iowa resident who has reached the age of majority. Every political committee, state statutory political committee, and county statutory political committee shall appoint both a treasurer and a chairperson, each of whom shall have reached the age of majority.

b. Every candidate’s committee shall maintain all of the committee’s funds in bank accounts in a financial institution located in Iowa. Every political committee, state statutory political committee, and county statutory political committee shall either have an Iowa resident as treasurer or maintain all of the committee’s funds in bank accounts in a financial institution located in Iowa.

c. An expenditure shall not be made by the treasurer or treasurer’s designee for or on behalf of a committee without the approval of the chairperson of the committee, or the candidate. Expenditures shall be remitted to the designated recipient within fifteen days of the date of the issuance of the payment.

2. a. An individual who receives contributions for a committee without the prior authorization of the chairperson of the committee or the candidate shall be responsible for either rendering the contributions to the treasurer within fifteen days of the date of receipt of the contributions, or depositing the contributions in the account maintained by the committee within seven days of the date of receipt of the contributions.

b. A person, other than a candidate or committee officer, who receives contributions for a committee shall, not later than fifteen days from the date of receipt of the contributions or on demand of the treasurer, render to the treasurer the contributions and an account of the total of all contributions, including the name and address of each person making a contribution in excess of twenty-five dollars, the amount of the contributions, and the date on which the contributions were received.

c. The treasurer shall deposit all contributions within seven days of receipt by the treasurer in an account maintained by the committee.

d. All funds of a committee shall be segregated from any other funds held by officers, members, or associates of the committee or the committee’s candidate. However, if a candidate’s committee receives contributions only from the candidate, or if a permanent organization temporarily engages in activity that qualifies it as a political committee and all expenditures of the organization are made from existing general operating funds and funds are not solicited or received for this purpose from sources other than operating funds, then that committee is not required to maintain a separate account in a financial institution.

e. Committee funds or committee property shall not be used for the personal benefit of a candidate, officer, member, or associate of the committee. The funds of a committee are not attachable for the personal debt of the committee’s candidate or an officer, member, or associate of the committee.

3. The treasurer of a committee shall keep a detailed and exact account of:

a. All contributions made to or for the committee.

b. The name and mailing address of every person making contributions in excess of twenty-five dollars, and the date and amount of the contribution.

c. All disbursements made from contributions by or on behalf of the committee.

d. The name and mailing address of every person to whom any expenditure is made, the purpose of the expenditure, the date and amount of the expenditure and the name and address of, and office sought by each candidate, if any, on whose behalf the expenditure was made. Notwithstanding this paragraph, the treasurer may keep a miscellaneous account for disbursements of less than five dollars which need only show the amount of the disbursement so long as the aggregate miscellaneous disbursements to any one person during a calendar year do not exceed one hundred dollars.

e. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 3, paragraph “d”, of this section, when an expenditure is made by a committee in support of the entire state or local political party ticket, only the name of the party shall be given.

4. The treasurer and candidate in the case of a candidate’s committee, and the treasurer and chairperson in the case of a political committee, shall preserve all records required to be kept by this section for a period of five years. However, a committee is not required to preserve any records for more than three years from the certified date of dissolution of the committee. For purposes of this section, the five-year period shall commence with the due date of the disclosure report covering the activity documented in the records.

[C75, 77, 79, 81, §56.3; 81 Acts, ch 35, §3]

83 Acts, ch 139, §3, 14; 86 Acts, ch 1023, §2; 87 Acts, ch 112, §3; 88 Acts, ch 1158, §8; 91 Acts, ch 226, §2; 93 Acts, ch 142, §4; 95 Acts, ch 198, §3; 2003 Acts, ch 40, §1, 9

CS2003, §68A.203

2005 Acts, ch 72, §5; 2007 Acts, ch 14, §4; 2015 Acts, ch 54, §5, 6