FEC to make a ruling over politicking on the Web
Feds to make a ruling over politicking on the Web
By RUDY TAKALA (@RUDYTAKALA) • 9/14/16 12:01 AM
A political action committee is looking to figure out
whether it can safely use the Internet to support national political
candidates, or whether the Federal Election Commission might seize the
opportunity to impose the kind of regulations Democrats have been striving to
attain.
The request for an advisory opinion, filed on behalf of
Citizen Super PAC, asks the FEC whether it would be permissible to email
supporters of a candidate's campaign, or whether that would cross a line
prohibiting coordination with candidates.
"If a PAC mails out 1,000 letters soliciting funds
for a candidate to its mailing list, then the cost of those mailers constitute
either an independent expenditure or an in-kind contribution to the candidate
if the letter was sent in coordination between the PAC and the candidate,"
explained Chris Gober, a co-founder of the PAC.
"In contrast, if the same PAC sends 100,000 emails
to their own email list soliciting funds for the same candidate, then neither
the cost of that email nor the utilization of the email list is treated as an
independent expenditure or an in-kind contribution to the candidate."
Super PACs, named for their ability to accept unlimited
funds and make unlimited expenditures to influence federal races, have a
limited ability to work with candidates in the real world, Gober pointed out.
Candidates can speak at fundraisers for the organizations, and they can solicit
contributions for the PACs up to $5,000.
Citizen Super PAC is charting new territory in the
digital frontier. The organization allows users to set up pages on its website
to raise funds for candidates that users support, in what it calls an effort to
"democratize" political spending and "increase participation in
the political marketplace."
Gober is seeking to take that initiative to the next
level by asking candidates for their email lists, beginning with Nevada
Republican Rep. Joe Heck, for whom a user recently established a page. If a
fundraising target for Heck of $10,000 is met as a result of that
collaboration, Gober will try to figure out whether the organization can safely
spend that money on Facebook ads in support of his re-election campaign.
"The ad supporting Rep. Heck happens to be the first
one around the time the advisory opinion request was ready to be
submitted," Gober said, adding the PAC "hopes to launch additional
projects in the near future that will be implicated" by the FEC's
response.
FEC commissioners have battled with each other for the
past several years over whether campaign finance regulations should extend to
content on the Internet. Democrats have advocated for expanding the agency's
power, arguing that social networking websites such as Twitter and new media
outlets like the Drudge Report are wielding undue influence.
Democrats could be conflicted in their response to
Gober's filing due to its implications for Correct the Record, a super PAC
founded by left-wing operative David Brock in support of Hillary Clinton's
presidential campaign. In a quest to elude campaign finance regulations, the
organization has successfully argued that it should be exempt from
anti-coordination laws as long as communications it receives from Clinton's
campaign are being transmitted openly on the Internet.
Gober said the activity wasn't an exact match with what
Citizen Super PAC is attempting to accomplish, but that the Clinton supporters
should be watching. "The rules governing 'coordination' do not place a
blanket prohibition on all forms of communication between a candidate and a
super PAC, and we are certainly seeking more clarification as to where to draw
the lines of distinction.
"And while this advisory opinion could have a
tangential impact on super PACs that are already using the 'publicly available
information' exception to their strategic benefit … Citizen Super PAC's
kickstarter-style fundraising and proposed communications with federal candidates
extend beyond what any other PACs are engaging in at this moment in time,"
he added.
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