Office of Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales

200 W. Washington St. Indianapolis, IN 46204

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 19, 2025

According to the Indiana Election Division:

As you may know, HEA 1679 requires elected officials to open and maintain a candidate’s committee while in office beginning July 1, 2025. The intent of the language is to clarify the word “candidate” as it is used several different ways in parts of election code and with campaign finance.

This language in SECTION 1 of the legislation was included in the introduced version of the bill at the beginning of session and was thoroughly vetted throughout the legislative process with committee hearings and consideration by both the entire House and Senate.

If any of these officeholders, do not currently have a campaign finance committee open, the officeholder will need to file a CFA-1 statement of organization (a basic one-page form) to open a campaign finance committee by July 1, 2025. Local candidates file campaign finance statements and reports at the county. A state level candidate files with the Indiana Election Division.

The requirement to open a candidate’s committee and file reports for officeholders in an office paying more than $5,000 in a calendar year applies even if the officeholder does not intend to raise or spend any money toward running for office. The candidate’s committee would simply file $0 on the CFA-4 report by the appropriate deadline.

An officeholder for a local office or school board for which the compensation for that office is less than $5,000 per calendar year who receives more than $500 in contributions or makes more than $500 in expenditures as a candidate for the local office, must have a principal committee. If a candidate that falls under this exception opens a candidate’s committee and is then elected to office, then the individual would need to keep their candidate’s committee open until such a time they no longer hold office or are not a candidate. If the candidate’s committee for an office paying less than $5000 (or a school board candidate) is closed before July 1, 2025, then there is no requirement to open the committee unless the individual raises or spends more than $500.

If an elected official is required to open a candidate’s committee using the CFA-1 because of this change in state law, the deadline to do so is noon, July 11, 2025 (or noon, ten days after the effective date of the statute, which is July 1, 2025). Failure to file a CFA-1 by the noon, July 11, 2025, deadline results in a $50 per calendar day fine, up to $1000.

If you or any of your members have questions, please have them reach out to our office and we would be happy to assist.