ATP History and FEC Compliance and Registration

On January 1, 2008 David Jon Sponheim and Sarah Lois Hart created "America's Third Party" Partnership.
On March 3, 2008 We applied for and received an EIN from the IRS for America's Third Party.
On March 7, 2008 We opened a bank account for "America's Third Party"into which all donations have been deposited. This ensures that no funds are co-mingled with personal funds. Simultaneously, we signed and filed with the bank official paperwork related to the partnership agreement.
On April 28, 2008 we registered "America's Third Party" as a Trade Name in Washington State.
On September 15, 2008 we received our first online donation.

December 18, 2008, A little after Noon PST , I spoke with Larry Calvert at FEC. He let me know that until David Jon Sponheim receives over $5,000 in contributions or makes over $5,000 in expenditures, he is not required to file with the FEC or to file Form SF278, a Personal Financial Disclosure Report.

"As defined in 11 C.F.R. 100.3, an individual becomes a candidate for federal office when either the individual or a person authorized by the individual to conduct campaign activity on his or her behalf receives over $5,000 in contributions or makes over $5,000 in expenditures." Source: http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/compliance_nonfec.pdf

Financial Disclosure Covering 03/07/2008 to 12/18/2008

Receipts:
$250 from Sarah Hart to start bank account
$515 from Donators that will be Itemized on first FEC filing
$241.41 Small Unitemized Online Donations

In-Kind Contributions:
$86.71 Costs of Processing Video Commercials to Beta-SP by David Jon Sponheim
$75.00 Waiving of Agency Commission for Cable Runtime by David Jon Sponheim
$74.57 Postage of shipping Promotional Items by Sarah Hart
$163.00 from David Jon Sponheim for Promotional Items: Sunglasses, Necklaces, Masks, Radios

Disbursements:
$33.99 Payal Processing Fees
$56.25 Print Advertising
$425.00 Cable Advertising ($500-$75 Agency Commission which was counted as in-kind contribution)

You can check out our Cable Runtime Proof of Performance at http://americasthirdparty.com/node/164 which shows the listing of cable TV spots we purchased for the 2008 election.