Alaska Dispatch News: Outside billionaires fuel joint effort between Clinton, Alaska Democrats

“It just becomes a way to give more to the DNC to support the Clinton campaign,” said Paul S. Ryan, deputy executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, which advocates for campaign finance reform. “It’s effectively Hillary Clinton’s team soliciting Hillary Clinton’s supporters for much bigger checks than they can give to the campaign -- knowing that every penny could be spent on the Clinton campaign.”

Joint fundraising committees like Clinton’s, Ryan said, are created “for the convenience of donors -- so a donor can write a huge check to a single entity rather than having to write a bunch of smaller checks.”

Now, donors can give as much as $350,000 to Clinton’s fund, to be divided between her campaign, the DNC and the 32 participating state-level Democratic committees. Those committees can spend the money themselves, or, like the Alaska Democrats, send the cash back to the DNC, since state-level parties can make unlimited transfers to their national affiliates -- a move that Ryan said effectively allows the DNC to raise far more than the $33,400 legal limit on direct donations from individuals.

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