Marketplace: Some Consultants See a Payday in Super PACs

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To listen, click here. (4:07)
 
“Yeah, I would say it is the new growth industry,” says Trevor Potter, former chair of the Federal Election Commission and general counsel to John McCain’s two presidential campaigns. “If you are a consultant who is part of the control group that forms a super PAC or one of these nonprofits, then you get to figure out how you are going to compensate yourself, and it is not always a matter of public record.” ...

There are a few ways this can work. A super PAC can pay a fee to a consulting firm that is run by the same consultant who started the super PAC. That firm could charge fees on ads the super PAC buys. According to Potter, this happens in what he calls “a black box.”

“It’s actually pretty hard to figure out how much administrative costs many of these groups have, and then, how much of that is ending up back in the consultant’s pocket,” he notes. ...

Super PACs have only been around since 2010, and according to Potter, one reason they have proliferated is they are so easy to set up. “It has an incredibly simple one-page form you file with the FEC,” he says.  “You need a treasurer and a bank account, and that’s it. You’re off and running.” And creating a political nonprofit that doesn’t have to disclose donors is not much harder. ...

Potter says that, because there are so many super PACs and nonprofits, political consultants are busier than ever. “The good ones used to just have a campaign or a party they could work for,” he points out. “Now they have all these super PACs; so, people end up bidding for their services.”

To read the full article in Marketplace, click here.