As we are all preparing for either new leadership and or continuing to keep the current. Issues are ramping up both federally and on the local level.

The Pomonan recently accessed the campaign filings for District 6 City Council candidate Lorraine Canales and discovered what looks like a campaign finance violation.

On page 17, Canales discloses a $100 campaign contribution received on 6/23/2024 from PCS Family Services, Inc., a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) business (recognized as such in 2018), which Propublica reports generated $938,000 in revenue.

According to the IRS, (Internal Revenue Service) Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.

We reached out to both candidate Lorraine Canales and PCS Family Services Inc. To date, neither has responded to our request for comment.

It all raises the issue that there needs to be more public awareness about campaign finance laws.

Julian Lucas, is a photographer, a purveyor of books, and writer, but mostly a photographer. Don’t ever ask him to take photos of events because he will charge you a lot of money. Julian is also the owner and founder of Mirrored Society Book Shop, publisher of The Pomonan, and founder of Book-Store.