Women Attorneys Learn About Obstacles, Considerations in Running for Political Office
August 04, 2021
Priya Royal (top left) moderates a discussion with Rosemary Becchi (top right) and Sapana Shah.
On July 30 the D.C. Bar Communities hosted part two of its inaugural Legislative Women’s Collective, where attendees heard inspiring yet candid stories from the keynote speakers and received practical guidance on the ethical considerations of running for office.
Priya Royal, founder of the Royal Law Firm PLLC, moderated a conversation with Rosemary Becchi, a New Jersey-based tax attorney who ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020 as a Republican, and Sapana Shah, a litigator who ran for Edison, New Jersey, mayor as a Democrat earlier this year.
Becchi had a simple message: “We need women on both sides of the aisle.” During the conversation, Becchi and Shah shared their personal stories of what they had to consider as women lawyers running for political office.
“Women with different perspectives and different experiences are so important to the process,” Becchi added. “The obstacles Sapana faced, I faced on my side, too.”
Sometimes it feels like the U.S. political system is behind the times when it comes to gender, Shah said. “It’s a strange thing. It’s like the political world is in some [different] time zone,” she said. “It’s like in the 1850s.”
In addition to gender inequality, Shah said the backlash against South Asian communities after 9/11 was one of the reasons she decided to get involved in politics. “The communities were misidentified,” Shah recalled. “A lot of places of worship were destroyed. We had eggs thrown at us. There were people who were questioned. And, unfortunately, a few people were killed because they were thought to be something else.”
Shah started volunteering on other people’s campaigns before following her own political aspirations. As a young, single Asian American woman without children when she ran for the Edison, New Jersey, school board, Shah said she had to contend with people’s bias.
Becchi cited her work as tax counsel for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee as the beginning of her love for public service. Of note, she helped draft Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, which provided federal tax relief for college savings plans. “I knew the difference that could make in the lives of families,” Becchi said. “I was one of those kids that graduated from college and law school with over $100,000 in debt. That really restricted my ability to stay in government long because I had to get out and start making payments on those loans . . . That’s really what drove me to run for office and continue being an advocate out there.”
Another inspiration was her oldest daughter, who “has had a lifetime of learning and health issues,” Becchi said. “So, I wanted to be an advocate for her.”
Planning and Cooperation
Both Shah and Becchi emphasized the importance of cooperation rather than acting as outsiders. Becchi said she relied on her Finance Committee experience. “Working with the great chairman, Sen. William Roth of Delaware, taught me to work with all [political] sides and really be a thought leader,” she said. When devising an economic plan during the campaign, “I went out to business leaders that I met; I went to former Senate Finance Committee staff on both sides of the aisle that I used to work with. I talked to a lot of people.”
“Moving away from [political] parties is the big lesson that I took away,” Becchi continued. “Really be about what you believe in and be yourself.”
Shah warned against becoming the candidate who wants to “overthrow the government system.” Instead, she advised, work within the system. “You don’t want to be in a situation in which you’re working against the system, then all of a sudden you’re branded as this person who is a part of a ragtag group or is a troublemaker,” Shah said. “So, why not just follow the path? And through that figure out a way to make adjustments.”
In terms of launching political campaigns, Becchi and Shah said planning is key, which includes juggling family and career obligations. The biggest challenge, however, is raising money, they said.
“If you don’t come from wealth, in order to be successful and for people to take you seriously, you really have to raise the money to support the campaign,” Becchi said. “And that’s a lot of work.”
When Shah ran for office, she said that her private law firm suffered business-wise because she could not take certain clients due to ethical concerns.
Clockwise from top left: Fred Wagner, Janice Ryan (both with Venable LLP), and D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George.
Campaign Finance Considerations
The ethics of running for office and raising funds was a key topic in the session presented by Janice Ryan and Fred Wagner, partners at Venable LLP, and Janeese Lewis George, D.C. Councilmember for Ward 4.
Ryan said campaign finance is highly regulated, and the rules vary depending on the office sought. She encouraged potential candidates to visit the websites of the applicable campaign finance regulators — whether it’s the Federal Election Commission, state board of elections, or specific towns and counties — as well as to reach out to their political party for advice on campaign finance law.
Opening a separate bank account for your campaign is crucial, Ryan told attendees. “In many cases, the campaign finance laws require it,” Ryan said. “And it’s very helpful to have all the campaign funds and expenditures segregated so that you can properly report all the money coming in and going out under the campaign finance laws. But there’s also a tax aspect to this. You don’t want these campaign contributions to be personal income, which would be taxable. Campaign accounts are tax-exempt.”
Depending on the race, Ryan also recommended incorporating one’s campaign committee or establishing a nonprofit corporation for limited liability purposes. In the campaign finance reports, most of the donors’ names will be identified unless they fall below certain thresholds. The report will contain information about the individuals working on the campaign, the services rendered, and the amount of money they are paid, Ryan said.
Contributions aren’t strictly financial; they can be in-kind services or products as well, Ryan pointed out. There are limits to how much and when someone can contribute, and under federal law, corporations and foreign nationals cannot contribute to any U.S. elections, she added.
“Using your employer’s resources in connection with your campaign could get your employer in trouble,” Ryan said. “There are all these source limitations about who can spend money to support someone to run for office. And if the employer’s resources are being used, the employer might be in a situation of making contributions to your campaign.”
Potential candidates may also have to weigh whether to keep their job or follow their political dreams to avoid conflicts of interest. George had a long career as an attorney working in local government, notably in the D.C. Attorney General’s Office, before running for political office. The Hatch Act of 1939 prohibits civil service employees in the executive branch of the federal government — except for the president and vice present — from engaging in some forms of political activities.
The D.C. Fair Elections Program also prohibited George from accepting money from corporations, LLCs, or PACs. “The maximum anyone could give me was $50 because I was running for council. The city matches that five to one,” she said.
“Part of the planning involved is how to survive on one salary,” George said, who decided to leave her legal career to pursue politics. At one time she did consider getting a part-time job. “[But] running for office is literally a full-time job,” she said.
When it comes to personal ethics while running a campaign, George recommended that candidates avoid retaliating when faced with false or negative accusations. Focus instead on what type of candidate you want to be, she advised attendees. “If you go for the tit-for-tat, people forget who you are,” she said. “When people go into the voting booth, they don’t remember, ‘Oh, yeah, she went back and forth on fighting this and that.’ They're going to remember who you are as a human being.”
