EXCLUSIVE: NAACP To Start PAC

By Robert "Rob" Redding Jr.

Editor & Publisher

    WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2004, 11 a.m. - The NAACP is mulling starting a political action committee in an effort to adhere with Internal Revenue Service rules that dictate that nonprofits are not allowed to endorse candidates, a source tells ReddingNewsReview.com.

    The PAC, the source said, would ensure that the national civil rights organization is in complete compliance in reaction to an audit into the groups nonprofit status launched by the IRS, which claims a July convention speech made by NAACP Chairman Julian Bond was critical of President Bush, a Republican.

    Bush has claimed in the past that the NAACP is a Democratic leaning group and has refused to meet with its leaders.

    John White, communication director for the NAACP, said he had no knowledge of a new organization being formed.

    But, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume told reporters today that if the group lost its tax status the organization would seek to work with another nonprofit to fund programs or could become "some other type of organization."

    And by saying that "I don't mean other than civil rights," Mfume said while traveling in Georgia. But decide "as to whether or not it would want to be a partisan organization."  

    ReddingNewsReview.com first reported in a world exclusive yesterday that the nation's oldest civil rights organization is being investigated by the IRS.

    This is "regrettable" and an "assault" on our organization, Mfume told reporters today when asked about the report. 

    "We are going to fight this clearly partisan attempt," Bond added while talking to reporters from Washington, D.C.

     An IRS spokesman said that it is not the policy of the nonpartisan government organization to comment on ongoing investigations.

    The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded in 1909, according to the group's Web site. The organization claims to have "half-million adult and youth members throughout the United States and the world."

    Developing................................................!!!!

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