Two days ago, Marcee Stone's campaign for State House of Representatives in the 34th Legislative District sent out a fundraising email blast. Among the recipients were members of a Washington Public Campaigns (WPC) email list.

WPC, where Stone was board president until stepping down to run for office, is a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit. Federal law prohibits 501(c)3 groups from participating in any electoral activity:

Public charities are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate for public office.

Stone's campaign manager Kenyon Foxworthy characterized the mass email as an honest mistake. "I took all of Marcee's private email contacts and merged them with her campaign email. As of the last blast, one of them had not been deleted."

Foxworthy acknowledged that campaigns are not allowed to seek money from charitable nonprofits like WPC. "We're careful to make sure that line is not crossed."