National Journal: When It Pays to Pretend You're Not Running for President

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"What we're seeing is effectively a farce being played out here, where each of these candidates—in every sense of the word—is avoiding the longstanding requirements of federal election law," said Trevor Potter, who served as general counsel for Republican Sen. John McCain's two presidential bids and now is president of the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group. "It's very much a wink and a nod, we all know this, this is a game." ...

Historically, Potter said the actions of most of the 2016 field would already have triggered candidacy declarations. "I think they have all collectively made a bet that the FEC is not going to enforce the law because, in any previous cycle, everything they're doing would have been considered by the commission to be 'testing the waters,'" Potter said. ...

"They're living the fiction that they're not candidates or even testing the waters. And it's frankly a joke, but it's very bad joke and a dangerous joke," said Larry Noble, who served as FEC general counsel from 1987 to 2000 and now is Potter's colleague at the Campaign Legal Center. "And the reason it goes on is because the FEC won't do anything about it." ...

To read the full story at the National Journal, click here.