St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Anti-Greitens super PAC as mysterious as it is aggressive
“They’re gaming the disclosure laws” to hide the sources of their money, said Brendan Fischer, association counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington-based nonpartisan reform group.
Missouri regulators have left the issue in the hands of the Federal Election Commission, which in turn “has been asleep at the switch,” said Fischer. “They have consistently declined to enforce the law.”
Fischer, of the Campaign Legal Center, said one unusual aspect of the Missouri situation is that the super PAC in question chose to file as a federal committee, even though its operational focus is on a state gubernatorial candidate.
He suggested that is a testament to the FEC’s reputation for lax enforcement — that the super PAC’s organizers may have felt that even Missouri, known nationally for its refusal to impose ethics standards on campaigns, would subject them to more scrutiny than the FEC would.
“The Missouri Ethics Commission has deferred their responsibility to the FEC,” said Fischer, “ ... and the FEC is not going to enforce the law.”