As used in this section through Section 187.2 of this title:

1. "Campaign" means and includes all activities for or against the election of a candidate for elective state office or for or against a state question;

2. "Candidate" means an individual who has filed or should have filed a statement of organization for a candidate committee for state office with the Ethics Commission as required by its Rules. A candidate committee shall include committees for candidates for partisan elective offices, for nonpartisan judicial offices and for judicial retention offices;

3. "Candidate committee" means the only committee authorized by a candidate to accept contributions or make expenditures on behalf of the candidate's campaign, including the campaign of a judicial retention candidate;

4. "Contribution" means any gift, subscription, loan, guarantee or forgiveness of a loan, conveyance, advance, payment, distribution or deposit of money made to, or anything of value given to, or an expenditure other than an independent expenditure made on behalf of a political party, political action committee or candidate committee, but shall not include the value of services provided without compensation by an individual who volunteers those services;

5. "Expenditure" means a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, compensation, reimbursement, fee deposit or a gift made by a political party, political action committee, candidate committee or other individual or entity that is used to expressly advocate the election, retention or defeat of one or more clearly identified candidates or for or against one or more state questions;

6. "Limited committee" means a political action committee organized to make contributions to candidates; a limited committee may make independent expenditures or electioneering communications, but may not accept contributions in excess of the limits prescribed for limited committees;

7. "Local office" means all elective offices for which a declaration of candidacy is filed with the secretary of any county election board;

8. "Political action committee" means a limited or unlimited committee that has filed or should have filed a statement of organization with the Ethics Commission as required by its Rules;

9. "Political party" means a political party recognized under the laws of this state;

10. "Political party committee" means a committee authorized by the political party to accept contributions or make expenditures on behalf of the political party; a political party committee may include a state committee, a Congressional District committee, a county committee, a precinct committee or any other committee or entity of the party officially recognized in the party's bylaws or similar governing document;

11. "State office" means all elective offices for which declarations of candidacy are filed with the Secretary of the State Election Board;

12. "State question" means an initiative or referendum petition for which the Governor has issued a proclamation setting the date on which an election shall be held or a legislative referendum referred by the Legislature for a vote of the people; and

13. "Unlimited committee" means an independent judicial retention committee, a political action committee organized exclusively for the purpose of making independent expenditures or electioneering communications or a political action committee organized exclusively for the purpose of advocating the approval or defeat of a state question.

Added by Laws 1995, c. 343, § 1, eff. July 1, 1995. Amended by Laws 2014, c. 312, § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 2015.