Immediately following President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, Obama’s new non-profit, Organizing for Action, hosted a ‘campaign rally’ conference call for supporters that pushed the limits of IRS rules governing certain tax-exempt organizations.
Organizing for Action (OFA), not to be confused with its predecessor Obama for America, was recently reorganized as a social welfare organization under the IRS code section 501(c)(4). To maintain a tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(4), however, such groups may not primarily engage in campaign-like political activities.
While a spokesman for OFA claimed that the group “will [not] be involved in any way in elections or partisan political activity,” the Weekly Standard recently caught OFA red-handed organizing when it hosted a political event in support of Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who is running for governor in Virginia.
The OFA-sponsored conference call after the State of the Union had the unmistakable feel of an Obama campaign rally, which actually makes sense considering all the players on the call previously worked for the Obama campaign. Obama’s former campaign manager, Jim Messina, discussed the need to engage the “army of volunteers” created during the campaign to support the President’s agenda, while Jon Carson, a former campaign field director, called OFA “an extension of the movement you all started and had been a part of for years.”
Carson went on to encourage supporters to demand action from GOP House members back home who are holding up parts of Obama’s agenda, singling out the Violence Against Women Act, which was renewed in the Senate yesterday.
Participants also heard a recording from President Obama, who encouraged supporters to keep working “to make the change that we talked about.” He pleaded with the listeners to being tweeting support of his “new” plan to create jobs for the middle class using the hashtag #JobsNow (#JobsFourYearsAgo must not have been as catchy).
Sara El-Amine, the campaign’s former national director of training, informed supporters of the three things they can do to support President Obama’s agenda moving forward, which involved “amplifying [the president’s] call for action” on social media, participating in a national day of action on gun control, and visiting the (former campaign contribution) website www.donate.barackobama.com.
El-Amine ended the call with a spirited “Yes We Can!” All that was missing was a performance by Jay-Z or Bruce Springsteen.
E-mail invitation to OFA’s post-SOTU call:
