A U.S. district court judge awarded a victory to campaign finance reform advocates on Tuesday when she ruled the Federal Election Committee was too loosely enforcing a campaign finance regulation passed in 2007, allowing some big-money donors to remain anonymous.
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act required the identification of contributors giving $1,000 or more to fund “issue ads” near Election Day. But since it was enacted, only a few of those contributors have been revealed, because the FEC ruled those disclosures weren’t required for ads supporting specific candidates. The Los Angeles Times reported the details of the ruling:
“The decision concerns a type of issue ads that became ubiquitous in recent elections. Typically, the ads suggest that voters call a senator or congressman and give an opinion about something. When those ads mention a candidate and are run close to elections, they’re known as ‘electioneering’ communications, and the amount of spending has to be reported.”
That decision essentially deleted the restrictions of the McCain-Feingold Act. The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that over $140 million of the so-called “dark money” was spent in the 2014 election. Bloomberg’s Businessweek reports that tens of thousands of TV ads run this year by GOP fundraising operation Crossroad GPS, founded by former Bush administration adviser Karl Rove, “helped Republicans win control of the Senate.”
“In recent years, the group Crossroads GPS has spent tens of millions on political ads fueled by anonymous donors. Registering as a political group would have forced the nonprofit to begin naming its big-time benefactors. Crossroads has also become a model for hundreds of other committees that during the last election cycle pumped more than $300 million into the campaign — an estimate that is undoubtedly low because of the lack of disclosure required of these organizations.”
The FEC now has the option of either appealing Jackson’s decision or change its regulations. The six members of the committee are evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats and likely will have a difficult time agreeing on a course of action.
image credit npr.org
