Campaign Finance Made Semi-Easy By Alfredo
Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen wrote this. I couldn’t improve on it.
Ten years ago the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. FEC fundamentally changed the way American elections are funded when it found that corporations, unions and individuals could spend unlimited amounts to make independent expenditures to support or oppose candidates. The D.C. Circuit then found in SpeechNow.org v. FEC that political committees could be created that could also accept unlimited amounts from corporations, unions and individuals as long as these committees only made independent expenditures and did not make contributions to candidates. The technical term for these political committees is independent expenditure-only committees, but they were immediately dubbed Super PACs.
The cases giving rise to the Super PACs were premised on majority’s belief that campaigns and Super PACs would indeed act independently of one another and that the FEC would aggressively enforce the separation required by Citizens United and SpeechNow.
Ten years later the FEC finally did – but only because it had been presented with irrefutable evidence of coordination between a presidential campaign and a Super PAC.
The FEC just announced that it has fined the Cruz for President campaign $13,000 because a campaign fundraiser illegally solicited contributions to a Super PAC supporting Cruz’s election.
How was the FEC able to prove that a fundraiser for the Cruz for President campaign illegally solicited contributions to his designated Super PAC?
Someone who attended the Dallas fundraiser recorded the event and then posted it on You Tube.
Click here and see footnote 5 and accompanying text.
Listen carefully boys and girls – this is how campaign finance works in the real world.
The Cruz campaign held a joint fundraising event with two tables – one table where you could make a contribution to the Cruz campaign and a separate table where you could make a contribution to the Super PAC.
This was not an anomaly. These joint fundraisers happen all the time. There will be many this holiday weekend.
This is how our campaign finance system works ten years after Citizens United. Super PACs are now created to support candidate at every level – down to local school board elections. Many of these Super PACs are fully funded by relatives of the candidates – parents, brothers, sisters and even in one case the candidate’s spouse. Complaints were filed against all of these family Super PACs and the FEC turned a blind eye in every case, willing, instead, to believe the legal fiction that Super PACs are operated independently of campaigns.
The problem with legal fictions is . . . they’re fiction.
The FEC would probably have deadlocked in MUR 7048 with at least two commissioners willing to accept the Cruz’s campaign’s argument that the fundraiser really didn’t meet the definition of an “agent” of the campaign.
Except for that You Tube video.
That You Tube video exposed the liability of the Cruz campaign . . . and the fallacy of Citizens United.
Agreed, Citizens United was the open hog call for American politicians to be put up for sale. Plus the FEC has had its teeth pulled, and right now 3 of the 6 commisioner’s seats are empty. That $13k fine against Cruz? Chump change. His wife probably has that much rattling around in the bottom of her old purses, the ones she’s retired to a shelf in her walk-in closet.
Now for an aside: THANK YOU Alfredo for all the times you’ve dredged the data and brought the foul-smelling parts to our attention. Now let’s work for a new system that will make those parts a rarity.
1Ya, $13k is like the FEC saying “oh don’t do that anymore” and then giving a wink and a nod. Need more of these recordings to come out so there can be more pressure on the FEC to do their jobs. Maybe a democratic congress and WH can do something meaningful. Fill the remaining FEC commission seats with people that would be more aggressive would be a start.
2$13,000? Seriously?
Now, why would Cruz quit what he’s doing and why wouldn’t anyone else just hop right onto the same gravy train?
Now for the important question: how do we repeal the legal fiction that corporations are people and entitled to nonfiction rights like free speech?
Would actual people in Congress back such an emendment? Logic suggests they would, since House members, at least [I’m not sure about the Senate] have to sit down at the phone, on the day they’re elected, and start dialing for dollars.
Of course, I have yet to see a representative in our federal government who has a nodding acquaintance with logic when it comes to campaign finance.
3Given the current federal judiciary, I expect they’d rule that bribery is protected by the First Amendment.
4This also explains the lack of “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia. Look at the level of evidence one needs to prove “collusion” between a PAC and a campaign…
5I don’t care how much money these political crooks get for running for office. They get my vote only one condition.
6Are they rePUKEian aholes?? Ya! Then go to heaven!! Cuz I’m going to Hades and don’t want the neighborhood ruined.
Are they democrats? Ya? Then I vote for them. They may not be perfect, but many times better than rePUKEians!!
Once in office then lobbyists are legalized crooks!!
Citizens United has a huge fan in Mitt Romney. I do recall his defense of that during his presidential campaign. Would prefer that he never try for the Oval Office ever again. His remarks in favor of Citizens United still leave me agog.
7Complicating matters, the FEC is pretty toothless, as it does not have a quorum — needed for any regulations or enforcement actions. Wikipedia points out
“The commission has not had six members since the resignation of Ann Ravel (Democratic) in March 2017. President Donald Trump nominated James E. Trainor III (Republican) on September 14, 2017, for a term expiring April 30, 2023,[9] to enable replacement for Lee Goodman (Republican), who resigned in February 2018, creating a second vacancy. When Matthew Petersen resigned on August 31, 2019, the commission had only three members, and was unable to conduct most of its regulatory and decision-making functions due to lack of a quorum.[7]
“Trainor was confirmed by the Senate on May 19, 2020, restoring the commission’s quorum of four.[10] One meeting was held online, due to the coronavirus pandemic, on June 18, 2020.[11] On June 25, however, Caroline Hunter (Republican) resigned, effective July 3, with the result that the commission once again lacked a quorum.[12] On June 26, Trump indicated his intention to nominate Allen Dickerson (Republican) a new member of FEC.[13][14] As at August 1, 2020, no nominations have been submitted to the Senate.”
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