Focus on the Family's tax status challenged

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

WASHINGTON - A liberal watchdog group is challenging Focus on the Family's tax-exempt status, claiming that founder James Dobson crossed clear IRS guidelines with his increased political involvement in recent years.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate and consider revoking the nonprofit corporation status of the Colorado Springs-based Christian media empire.

The complaint focuses on Dobson's work on behalf of several Republican candidates in 2004, including Rep. Patrick Toomey's unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.

Although Dobson has said that he acts only as an individual when making endorsements, the complaint accuses him of using Focus on the Family resources for political activities.

The watchdog group said that puts Focus in violation of tax laws governing nonprofit groups, which are prohibited from "electioneering" for or against candidates for public office.

Jim Bopp, an attorney for Focus on the Family, said Dobson has always acted within IRS guidelines by separating his activities from those of his organization.

Bopp dismissed the watchdog group's complaint as "just a lame effort by this organization to get publicity."

"Anyone can send a letter to the IRS," he said. "Anyone can send out a press release about the letter. And that means nothing to the IRS."

The group's complaint challenges IRS Commissioner Mark Everson to give conservative groups as much scrutiny as it has to liberal-leaning groups. It cites recent investigations looking at the tax status of the NAACP and a California church, allegedly because of their leaders' statements critical of the Bush administration during the 2004 election.

"We're not beating around the bush here. They're going after liberal groups," CREW spokeswoman Naomi Seligman said.

"The IRS is acting in a more politicized manner than at any time since the Nixon administration," charged Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW.

IRS spokeswoman Nancy Mathis rejected the charge, saying that political leanings play no role in deciding who gets investigated.

She said that in 2004, the agency launched investigations into complaints about 60 groups, including "nonprofits and churches of all political stripes," that allegedly violated their tax status by electioneering for candidates.

Mathis said that by law, she isn't able to discuss investigations into any specific taxpayers or groups.

Since Dobson founded Focus on the Family in California in 1977, he has played a mostly behind- the-scenes role in advancing what he calls a Christian, pro-family social agenda.

For years, he rejected requests from Republican candidates seeking outright endorsements, once telling an interviewer: "You marry a politician, you can end up a widow the next four years. I would never do that."

That changed before the 2004 election, when he was motivated by fights over public displays of the Ten Commandments, abortion and same-sex marriage, and took a more direct role, endorsing several candidates and participating in high-profile rallies.

Trying to stay within the law, Focus on the Family formed a separate political arm, Focus on the Family Action, that could collect non-deductible donations to use in political causes. Bopp said he was hired to make sure they stay within the rules.

But Sloan said that Dobson's activities, before and after the political spin-off group was formed, violate the spirit and the letter of the IRS laws.

The complaint says that while Dobson often says he is acting as a private individual "he was, in truth, capitalizing on his identification with Focus on the Family."

"Indeed, at times he used Focus on the Family resources for his political activities, giving the understandable perception that he was acting as chairman and founder of Focus on the Family," it says.

Bopp pointed out Sloan's past work for Democratic members of Congress, saying that she, like Dobson, would be permitted to take part in politics without affecting the tax status of her organization.