Opinion: Yang’s Possibly Illegal Giveaway Shows Why We Need a Working FEC

Yang has contended that his giveaway is perfectly legal. “That’s actually essentially a marketing function on behalf of the campaign,” he said in a recent roundtable with POLITICO. “And we’re simply paying you the $1,000 just [so] you can tell your story, so you can think of them as a variant of like a marketing consultant or a paid employee.” Erin Chlopak, director of campaign finance strategy at the Campaign Legal Center, disagrees. She told Vox that it “seems like an illegal prohibited personal use” of campaign funds and went on to say the program couldn’t count as advertising because the recipients are under no obligation to advertise for Yang’s candidacy.

Read the full opinion here.