[EL] Sen. Harkin retirement and campaign finance

[Jeff Patch]

Election lawyers, academics and fellow campaign finance hangers on,

I'm writing on the campaign finance implications of Sen. Tom Harkin's
retirement. He has $2.8 million in his campaign committee, which will
slightly increase next month after a high-dollar fundraiser at a Lady Gaga
concert in Washington, D.C.

I'm looking for comment on the range of options for Sen. Harkin to use his
committee funds. As Russ Choma noted in his CRP blog
post<http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/01/capital-eye-opener-jan-28.html>this
morning, Sen. Harkin can use his campaign committee to donate funds to
federal candidates. Iowa also has unlimited contributions for state races,
so I'm assuming he could give unlimited sums to candidates for state
legislative and executive offices.

I'm also wondering if experts could detail the various options Sen. Harkin
has: convert his campaign committee into a super PAC focused on the Iowa
U.S. Senate race, donate the money to Majority PAC, the Democratic U.S.
Senate-focused super PAC [Elias?], convert his campaign committee into a
policy-centric 501(c)(4) organization [a la Organizing for Action], etc.
Did I miss anything?

P.S. Here's my coverage of the Harkin retirement Saturday if people are
interested in what I'm up to in Iowa:
http://theiowarepublican.com/2013/harkin-retires/

Replies would be appreciated—off list [either off the record, on background
or on the record, at your discretion]. Thanks for your time,
-----------------------------------
Jeff Patch
703-679-7301 [D.C.]
515-999-0193 [Des Moines]
563-581-2693 [Dubuque]

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