NAR looks to raise $80M for political campaigns with $40-a-year dues hike

The National Association of Realtors is mulling a $40-a-year dues increase in 2012 and 2013 in order to raise close to $80 million for political campaigns, Inman News reported. The proposed dues hike — NAR currently charges members $80 per year — comes in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that did away with so-called “soft money” restrictions, or independent campaign spending by corporations. NAR now believes it must up the ante in order to compete in the political advocacy world, and as such, has dubbed the fundraising move the “Realtor Party Political Survival Initiative.” If the initiative passes a scheduled May 14 vote by the board of directors, NAR would be set to spend almost half of its annual budget on political advocacy. During the 2010 elections, NAR made more than $6 million in “soft money” expenditures on behalf of federal candidates, of whom more than half were Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. [Inman]

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