[EL] Super-PAC coordination with Political Party Committees

[Tyler Culberson]

Thank you David and Steve.

Still interested to see whether coordination between Super-PACs and Party
Committees in support of a federal candidate will take place. I would
imagine a local party committee may be the canary in the coal mine.

I have serious doubts on FEC enforcement, though Party committees are among
the most highly scrutinized committees (from an FEC standpoint) and have
the most challenging and complicated filing requirements. But, seems as
though the Justice Dept may be taking the lead on coordination enforcement.
On Jul 21, 2015 10:56 PM, "David Keating" <dkeating at campaignfreedom.org>
wrote:

> Not legal.  While the RNC and LP each had similar lawsuits seeking to
> establish super pacs, both parties withdrew from the litigation.
>
>
>
> The SpeechNow.org case’s facts confirmed the group would not coordinate
> with either candidates or parties.
>
>
>
> http://www.fec.gov/law/litigation/speechnow_memo_findings.pdf   See page
> 6, #6.
>
>
>
> Also from the FEC brochure on coordination:
>
> http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/indexp.shtml
>
>
>
> When an individual or political committee pays for a communication that is
> coordinated with a candidate or party committee, the communication is
> considered an in-kind contribution to that candidate or party committee and
> is subject to the limits, prohibitions and reporting requirements of the
> federal campaign finance law.
>
>
>
> In general, a payment for a communication is "coordinated" if it is made
> in cooperation, consultation or concert with, or at the request or
> suggestion of, a candidate, a candidate’s authorized committee or their
> agents, or a political party committee or its agents. 11 CFR 109.21. To be
> an "agent" of a candidate, candidate’s committee or political party
> committee for the purposes of determining whether a communication is
> coordinated, a person must have actual authorization, either express or
> implied, from a specific principal to engage in specific activities, and
> then engage in those activities on behalf of that specific principal. Such
> activities would also result in a coordinated communication if carried out
> directly by the candidate, authorized committee staff or a political party
> official. 11 CFR 109.3(a) and (b).
>
>
>
> David
>
> _________________________________________________
>
> David Keating | President | Center for Competitive Politics
>
> 124 S. West Street, Suite 201 | Alexandria, VA 22314
>
> 703-894-6799 (direct) | 703-894-6800 | 703-894-6811 Fax
>
> www.campaignfreedom.org
>
>
>
> *From:* law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:
> law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] *On Behalf Of *Tyler
> Culberson
> *Sent:* Tuesday, July 21, 2015 4:43 PM
> *To:* law-election at UCI.edu
> *Subject:* [EL] Super-PAC coordination with Political Party Committees
>
>
>
> Question(s) to the listserv:
>
>
>
> Do any of you have an opinion or a sense of the legality of
> Super-PAC/Political Party Committee coordination? This is something that
> remains quite unclear to me since Citizens United and Speech Now.
>
>
>
> While working at the FEC we were given a briefing on the foreseen impact
> of Citizens United and Speech Now to the regulatory and enforcement
> responsibilities of the agency. I had asked for clarification on Super
> PAC/Party coordination, but was provided none - presumptively because it is
> not clear in the regulations or the rulings and I am unaware of any
> official position the Commission has taken on the issue.
>
>
>
> It does not appear that this has become an issue in federal elections,
> yet. But, one could imagine that party committees struggling to raise money
> may be interested in co-opting and coordinating with a lucrative Super-PAC
> at some point. My guess would be we'll either see this occur in this
> general election or the next.
>
>
>
> -Tyler
>
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