IRS ruling will probably help Rick...

Rarely would Rick have much good to say about the IRS, but this week he got a win from them in the form of a ruling on tax exempt status for religious groups engaging in political issue advocacy (link). Excerpt follows...

In a move cheered by conservatives, the Internal Revenue Service has ruled that ministers and pastors do not risk losing their tax-exempt status for engaging in political acts on behalf of issues such as traditional-values advocacy.

The IRS said in a letter to the Niemoller Foundation that the Houston-based nonprofit organization did not violate its tax-exempt status when it brought together pastors and politicians to champion moral issues during Republican Gov. Rick Perry's 2006 re-election campaign.

Short of endorsing a particular candidate or spending substantial portions of their nonprofit budgets on legislative lobbying, ministers and their churches are free to engage in political acts on behalf of moral values, the IRS said. Clergy are also free to encourage their congregations' members to get out the vote based on those issues and values.

The long-awaited IRS decision benefits Republicans, since religious conservatives constitute a large and influential bloc in the party's electoral coalition.

Rick doesn't exactly have a lock on religious conservatives... they don't like the HPV vaccine executive order for example and a small few have bought into the stupid "Rick is gay" rumor... but he does connect a lot better with social conservatives than Kay does, especially on pro life issues.

I bet the wheels are already in motion in the Rick campaign to up the ante with religious conservatives from what happened in 2006. Wayne Slater has some more details about this issue and why a complaint was filed in the first place by the liberal Texas Freedom Network (link). Sounds like a serious win for Rick.