New York Times Editorial: The Campaign Jungle; Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer
According to Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer:
Candidate-specific Super PACs are a dangerous fraud on the American people. These vehicles are designed to launder into a candidate’s campaign the very kind of unlimited contributions that the campaign finance laws have long prohibited candidates from receiving because they are corrupting.
Candidate-specific Super PACs provide a false veneer of “independence” from the candidate’s campaign when they are in reality affiliated with the campaign through close ties between the candidate and the leaders of the candidate’s Super PAC.
Candidate-specific Super PACs are illegal in our view and we intend to pursue all possible steps to shut them down, including bringing this matter to the FEC and the Justice Department, before these vehicles for corruption destroy the integrity of our political system.
The New York Times
The Campaign Jungle
Editorial
November 13, 2011
A series of television ads began running a few days ago supporting Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential bid. They were the usual fare — “conservative leadership that works” — and they featured old photos of him in the Air Force and video from the trail. A casual viewer might assume they were run by his campaign, but they were run by a new phenomenon this year: the candidate “super PAC” — by far the most noxious weed yet to emerge in the lawless new jungle of campaign finance.
For the first time, this campaign will be dominated by political action committees that exist solely to promote specific candidates. While a candidate’s campaign is limited to $2,500 per election from each donor, the PACs can collect unlimited amounts, and they plan to. Mr. Perry’s super PAC, “Make Us Great Again,” plans to collect $55 million. Mitt Romney’s, “Restore Our Future,” already has $12.3 million. President Obama’s group of PACs, “Priorities USA,” hopes to raise more than $100 million. (Many of the PACs also have affiliates designed to collect secret contributions.)
Since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision nearly two years ago, the campaign finance system has become polluted with ideological groups collecting unlimited donations from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals. Up to now, most of those groups have run attack ads or supported groups of party candidates, a major factor in the 2010 midterms. A PAC created solely for a single candidate had been seen as violating the federal law requiring that the PAC be independent from the candidate’s campaign.
This year, thanks to inaction by the Federal Election Commission, even that legal nicety has been thrown out. There is a tissue-thin separation between the campaigns and the PACs they have set up, but it is not fooling anyone. The fund-raisers and managers who would have been working in the campaign have simply been seconded to the PACs, which this year will do a huge bulk of the money-raising and spending.
“Make Us Great Again” was founded by Mike Toomey, Mr. Perry’s former chief of staff. “Restore Our Future” was founded by Charles Spies, general counsel for Mr. Romney’s 2008 campaign, along with two other veterans from that campaign. Bill Burton, former deputy press secretary to Mr. Obama, is running the “Priorities” groups.
The candidate PACs grew out of the unlimited contribution binge permitted by Citizens United, but they are actually in direct contravention of the court’s (mistaken) belief that contributions to independent groups cannot be considered improper attempts to influence the candidate. It is now clear that giving to a candidate’s PAC is equivalent to giving to his campaign; the leaders of the PAC, for all practical purposes, are the campaign’s bag men.
The abuse of these PACs brazenly violates both Citizens United and previous federal election law. The lure of sidestepping contribution limits is also spreading to Congressional candidates, who are beginning to set up similar groups. Nonetheless, the complaints that have been filed with the F.E.C. about super PACs are being ignored because the three Republicans on the six-member board are opposed to campaign finance laws. (The big-money groups have become so emboldened that Karl Rove’s Republican super PAC, American Crossroads, dared to ask the F.E.C. last month to declare that “independent” ads for candidates could actually fully coordinate with those candidates.)
The time has come for the Department of Justice to step in and pursue criminal complaints against the candidate PACs. Limits on spending used to prevent donations from becoming outright bribes, but now the limits are gone, and the path to corruption is clear.
