Tennessee Election Watchdogs Drop Fines Against Stand For Children Campaign

Charter school advocates and former Metro school board candidates will not be fined after being accused of illegal coordination. The Registry of Election Finance decided to dismiss the case involving Stand For Children.

Stand For Children’s national office flooded money into this year’s school board races. The heavy independent spending meant the group was not allowed to communicate with candidates it was supporting, but news reports showed some interaction by email and even once in person, though people involved offered explanations for both.

Tom Lawless is chairman of the Registry of Election Finance, which voted unanimously. He said “there were appearances originally” of problems but, ultimately, but not a clear violation of law.

“There just was not enough without making some pretty serious assumptions,” Lawless said. “The proof just wasn’t there.”

Even though the candidates all lost their races, they and the group faced combined fines totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Lawless says he’s not afraid to punish people who violate campaign law. But he says his bigger job is to uphold the integrity of elections, and he says the Stand For Children dismissal does that.

Stand for Children’s Nashville director released a statement condoning the decision.

“We have said from the beginning that we acted completely within the boundaries of the state’s campaign laws,” Dan O’Donnell wrote. “Today we are thankful that the Registry agreed.”