Los Angeles Times: Presidential Candidates-to-be Make the Most of Fundraising Rule-bending

"This is entirely new ground," said Paul Ryan, senior counsel with the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center. "No candidate or prospective candidate has ever done this before.… The boundaries are getting pushed further and further." ...

On Thursday, the Campaign Legal Center filed complaints at the commission against Bush and three other pre-candidates arguing, in essence, that nobody could possibly believe they are anything but candidates, or at least testing the waters of candidacy — and they are breaking the law by ignoring limits on donations. ...

 "Even if they investigate and find the law was violated, any such conclusion wouldn't come for a year or two or three from now," Ryan said. ...

"If Jeb Bush gets away with bankrolling a $100-million shadow campaign, that becomes the new normal," he said. "Every major House and Senate candidate will start postponing their campaign launch, setting up a super PAC, ignoring fundraising limits as long as they can, and then at the last minute they will file their paperwork to run."

To read the full story at the Los Angeles Times, click here.