Politico: Democrats Dodge Campaign Finance Law

Politico: Democrats Dodge Campaign Finance Law

A new report from Politico details the blatant attempts by red state Senate Democrats to shirk campaign finance laws against coordination with outside groups: “Coordination between campaigns and outside groups is illegal, though both parties’ election lawyers regularly give candidates a green light to evade that ban by sharing information in the public domain — […]

June 20, 2018
Politico: Democrats Dodge Campaign Finance Law

A new report from Politico details the blatant attempts by red state Senate Democrats to shirk campaign finance laws against coordination with outside groups:

“Coordination between campaigns and outside groups is illegal, though both parties’ election lawyers regularly give candidates a green light to evade that ban by sharing information in the public domain — for example, posting long YouTube clips clearly meant for use by friendly super PACs. Now, McCaskill and other Democratic senators are pushing the limits by essentially posting instruction manuals on how they prefer allied groups to attack their opponents, which super PACs have then turned into ads in within a matter of days or weeks.”

Senators Claire McCaskill, Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Donnelly, and Jon Tester all tout the need to reform the campaign finance system when in reality they are each skirting around the rules to help themselves:

“Paul S. Ryan, vice president for policy and litigation at Common Cause, another watchdog group, said though it may not be illegal, it undermines the Democrats’ own arguments for campaign finance reform. “It has long been the case that Democrats, while on the campaign stump, advocate for campaign finance reform while their own campaign lawyers behind the scenes are weakening or even gutting campaign finance laws,” Ryan said.”

Their obvious dodging of campaign finance laws is just another desperate example that they’re willing to do anything to get elected this year.