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Sorry for the delay in response. I am not certain if the chapter **CAN** endorse candidate(s) from a legal (i.e. 501) perspective.

I need help in answering that question; for that reason, I ping Diotima to this response.

HOT never incorporated or whatever you call it, so we don't have to worry about it. I thought for sure I'd get a quicker response from you with the Kerry comment. I just remember you wearing that yankee football jersey. (C:

The non-profit restriction lies with the FRN. (I am referring to the FRN as a corporation, not associates of FRN.) A 501c4 must "demonstrate that it is organized exclusively to promote social welfare. However, because of the non-tax deductible status, such organizations can engage in lobbying for legislative change, but may not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office."

Those guidelines apply to the legal entity "FRN." (We can't spend our money on candidate endorsement and so on) However, there is no such thing as _______ Chapter of FRN, legally speaking. All the chapters are all part of freerepublic.com, FRN just provides tools and resources to the chapters that the chapters use. It was always set up this way, lest the chapters be restricted into impotence. We also help coordinate national projects and represent all the FR activism stuff in DC Jim passes along to us. (For instance, Nick Danger will be speaking at a Internet and Democracy conference coming up, we attend Grover Norquist's Wednesday meetings by invite to promote national projects and find out what all the other conservative organizations are doing, Nick was on the CPAC panel and so on...) So, the FRN has not come out ever in favor of any candidate or against any candidate (although personally, we all have opinions ;^) )

As long as the chapters do not spend more than $4999 (this is per the Network's corporate attorney) in candidate advocacy, you should be fine, and realistically the chapters aren't throwing around enough money to get on the FEC's radar.

Are y'all in or should we change it?