NAHB Responds to Political Endorsement Emails

Dear NAHB Colleague:

Over the past several days we have heard from many of you regarding a recent partisan E-mail communication that was sent out over the signature of one of the Senior Officers of the Board. We sincerely apologize to you for any concern this may have caused and for the appearance of any impropriety to this great Association of ours. NAHB takes very seriously its policy of not endorsing any presidential candidate or any appearance to that effect.

NAHB has a long standing tradition of engaging and educating our membership about presidential candidates, on a non-partisan basis. We all believe the more information and support the candidates receive from home builders, the better chance we have of electing a pro-housing President. For the past several election cycles, NAHB has facilitated "Builders For..." programs. During this election cycle, we have facilitated "Builders For..." mailings from every presidential campaign that has afforded us the opportunity to hear their views on NAHB issues. For example, e-mailings in support of candidates McCain, Guiliani, Dodd, [both] Thompsons and Romney have all gone out at various times.

Importantly, NAHB has controlled the mailings so as not to compromise the privacy of our mailings list. We would like to assure you that at no time were the names and addresses contained within NAHB's member email list out of NAHB's control or offered or sold to any outside party. The NAHB email list was not compromised. Perhaps more importantly, prior to this effort starting, a letter was sent by then-President Catalde to the entire federation informing them of the effort and giving every individual an advance opportunity to opt out.

With respect to the Obama communication, we regret that we did not follow the process requiring a candidate to address the Board of Directors (in person or electronically) before distribution of a "Builders For..." outreach without first notifying the Board. As part of regaining your support and confidence we will be undertaking a thorough review of the procedures of this program before the next election cycle and we will report back to you with a plan of action for your consideration and approval.

To underscore that there is no appearance of partisanship on NAHB's part, we will be asking the Executive Board at our meeting in December to adopt a recommendation that any Senior Officer of the Board, "will not endorse any candidate running for President of the United States, as long as he or she serves as a Senior Officer of the Board." A draft of this recommendation, Endorsements of Candidates for National Office by Senior Officers of the Board, is located on the NAHB website.

Again, we would like to sincerely apologize for the distraction this issue has created at this critical time.

Sincerely,

The NAHB Senior Officer Team,

Your vote matters. As we are just two weeks away from the coming election, please remember to vote on November 4.

HBASC Statement: It is the policy of the HBASC to not share or sell our members email addresses.