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June 2016
 
Tom Salomone
2016 NAR President
 
Dale A. Stinton
Chief Executive Officer
 
Four Star
California Regional MLS
Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. (MRIS)
   
Three Star
Arizona Regional MLS
Midwest Real Estate Data, Inc.
My Florida Regional MLS
TREND, Inc.
   
Two Star
John L. Scott Real Estate
Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®
Mid America Regional Information System
MLS Property Information Network
MLSListings, Inc.
Northstar MLS
Northwest MLS
RE/MAX, LLC
Regional MLS
Shorewest REALTORS®
Templates 4 Business, Inc.
Wasatch Front Regional MLS
   
One Star
1000Watt Consulting
Carolina MLS
CCIM Institute
Columbus and Central Ohio MLS
Gulf South Real Estate Information Network
IRES
IREM - Institute of Real Estate Management
San Francisco Association of REALTORS® MLS
SIOR – Society of Industrial and Office REALTORS®
State-Wide MLS
 
Investors
Cape May County MLS
Gallatin Association of REALTORS® MLS
Great Plains MLS
Greater Baton Rouge Association of REALTORS® MLS
Heartland MLS
Intermountain MLS
Kings County Board of REALTORS® MLS
Midlands MLS
MLS Hilton Head Island, SC
MLS of Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS®
Northern Kentucky MLS
Northern Nevada Regional MLS
Northwest Louisiana Association of REALTORS® MLS
Northwest Oklahoma MLS
Northwestern Wisconsin MLS
South Central Wisconsin MLS
Southshore MLS
   
Corporate Investor Council Members
Marbury Little, Chair
Jim Imhoff, Vice Chair
Shadrick Bogany
Christopher Carrillo
David Charron
Sherry Chris
Matthew Consalvo
Merri Jo Cowen
J. Nicholas D'Ambrosia
Ann Defries
Daniel Elsea
J.P. Endres Fein
Kathy Fowler
Helen Hanna Casey
Jim Harrison
Rebecca Jensen
Geoffrey Lewis
Vince Malta
Reinaldo Mesa
Judy Moore
Norman Morris
Ronald Peltier
Alexander Perriello
Gary Reggish
J. Lennox Scott
Randal Smith
Lisa Stephenson
Philip Tedesco
Mark Woodroof
   
Regional Corporate Ally Representatives
Larry Rideout
Allan "Dutch" Dechert 
Kit Hale
Sandra O'Connor
Cynthia Shelton
Teri Spiro
Jeff Gregory
Mike Hunstad
Caroleen Ferrell
Beth Cristina
Chris Mygatt
Mike Schoonover
Judy Zeigler
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CORPORATE ALLY PROGRAM UPDATE

Message from the Chair
Welcome to 2016’s second edition of the Corporate Ally Program Newsletter!

This informative newsletter is being sent to you because you are an invaluable investor in the REALTOR® Party’s Corporate Ally Program.  Your investments keep our political advocacy program at the forefront of our effort to protect the real estate industry from onerous legislation and regulation. The NAR, state and local government affairs staff is second to none, and we must provide the necessary funding for their efforts to reach the political leaders at all three levels of government. This three-pronged attack of staff, money and grassroots creates the necessary framework to grow our REALTOR® family and to remain “The Voice For Real Estate.”

I hope you find this newsletter informative, and if you have any suggestions on topics to make it more valuable to you please contact me (marburyl@aol.com, 504-782-361).  Thank you for your participation in the 2016 Corporate Ally Program.

Regards,
Marbury A. Little
2016 Chairman Corporate Ally Program

Hill Report: Putting Corporate Ally Dollars to Work

Scott Reiter, Vice President, RPAC Disbursements and Political Programs

After much great work building up the NAR Congressional Fund thanks to REALTOR® Party and Corporate Ally Program resources, the time has now arrived to put those dollars to work. This week, RPAC began general election federal Independent Expenditures (IEs) in support of six REALTOR® Champions—Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO), Rep. Bob. Dold (R-IL), Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN), Senate Candidate/Rep. Joe Heck (R-NV), Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) who is challenging Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ05). The RPAC Federal Disbursement Trustees will meet this week and likely add at least a couple more targets to this list as polling has indicated tightening races for other key REALTOR® Champions.

So far, the combined cost of these six general election campaigns is roughly $7 million dollars. RPAC already conducted three federal IEs in primaries earlier this summer costing an additional $2 million. They benefitted REALTOR® and former State Senator Lou Correa (D-CA) running for an open House seat and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-CA) running for an open U.S. Senate seat—both won.  Unfortunately, REALTOR® andState Rep. Julia Howard (R-NC) came up short in her bid for an open House seat. However, the Trustees believe losing a close race is a better use of funds than winning a landslide and continue to make aggressive decisions in tight races where they believe RPAC can have the most impact in the political process.

The bulk of IE spending is for television advertising, though direct mail and online efforts also play an important role.  Anyone following politics on an even casual basis knows the cost to compete in elections has dramatically escalated over the last few years. It is more vital now than ever that the Corporate Ally Program have the resources necessary to protect and promote homeownership and private property rights. Stay tuned for the edition when we report the results following the general election. In the meantime, wish our candidates luck and be sure to vote.



NUMBERS AND CENTS

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$807K 60/40 10/24
Total amount received for the Corporate Ally Program in 2016. The percentage of CAP funds used to support issue and candidate campaigns, respectively. Save the Date for the next for the next Corporate Investor Council meeting in Chicago, IL.

Your Investment at Work

NAR Settles Patent Troll Suit
The National Association of REALTORS® is declaring a major victory against patent abuse in a settlement with Data Distribution Technologies (DDT), a subsidiary of the patent enforcement firm General Patent Corporation. DDT sued and threatened several real estate businesses in the past over use of a technology-related patent, but NAR challenged the patent’s validity before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and filed a declaratory judgement lawsuit on behalf of NAR members.  NAR’s advocacy on behalf of its membership culminated in a settlement requiring DDT to refrain from enforcing its patent in the real estate industry. The covenant included in the settlement specifically notes that NAR members, associations, MLSs, affiliates and other related entities are protected from potentially costly litigation.

DDT claimed their patent, titled “Web-Updated Database With Record Distribution By Email,” covered systems that provide agents and consumers with online searchable real estate databases that can update users via email about new information that comes available on those databases. NAR considered DDT’s patent invalid and enforcement of it an overly broad and thinly-veiled effort to exploit real estate businesses for licensing fees with the threat of high-cost litigation.

Although the settlement marks a victory for NAR, we acknowledged that additional work is required to broadly reform the patent system. NAR believes in the protection of legitimate intellectual property rights, but we’re ready and willing to invalidate frivolous patent claims aimed at our members. To fully defend business owners across the country, however, we need significant reforms to the system that offer robust protections against patent trolls. We’re urging legislators to take a hard look at that in the months ahead.

REALTOR® Party State and Local Election Update
Election Day is 43 days away and while there is a lot of media attention on the presidential election, the REALTOR® Party is focused on 289 state and local elections across the country whose outcomes could have a huge impact on our daily lives. Below is a breakdown.

State Number of Campaigns

City

64

County

35

Judicial

3

Judicial School Board

1

Other Board of Education

2

Other Corporation Commission

3

Other School Board

3

State House

114

State Senate

60

Statewide

4

Grand Total 125