The New York Times: 'Campaigns’ Aren’t Necessarily Campaigns in the Age of ‘Super PACs’

In March, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21, two groups that favor stricter enforcement of campaign regulations, filed complaints with the election commission alleging that Mr. Bush; Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin; Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania; and Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor, all met the legal definition of being a candidate and were raising tens of millions of dollars in violation of federal rules.

Mr. Bush’s comment in Nevada was “a slip of the mask, not a slip of the tongue,” said Paul S. Ryan, a senior counsel at the Campaign Legal Center. “The rules apply to you as soon as you start spending money to determine whether you will run. Simply denying that you’re a candidate doesn’t get you around these campaign finance laws.”

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