CLC Statement on Congressman George Santos’s Court Appearance and Plea
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman George Santos of New York pleaded not guilty to a 23-count, superseding federal indictment charging him with conspiracy, wire fraud, and submitting false statements and records to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), among a litany of alleged crimes stemming from his 2022 congressional campaign. Saurav Ghosh, Director of Federal Campaign Finance Reform at Campaign Legal Center, issued the following statement:
“Voters have a right to know how candidates are raising and spending campaign money in pursuit of public office, and enforcement of federal campaign finance laws is essential to ensuring a transparent, fair, and representative democracy. CLC filed a complaint with the FEC in January against Congressman Santos, and referred that complaint to the Department of Justice, because it appeared that his campaign had blatantly and deliberately violated these laws.
The latest criminal charges against Congressman Santos indicate that while seeking to represent the public in a position of trust, the Congressman engaged in widespread fraud and theft, and sought to cover up these crimes by lying on official documents filed with the FEC. It is very encouraging that federal law enforcement agencies have pursued this case expeditiously, demonstrating a real commitment to upholding the values of transparency and accountability that are crucial to our elections. Candidates have a duty to obey the laws so that voters, their potential constituents, and the broader public can meaningfully participate in our nation’s political process.”
On January 9, 2023, Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that recently elected Rep. George Santos, his 2022 campaign committee, Devolder-Santos for Congress, and treasurer Nancy Marks violated federal campaign finance laws. The following day, CLC referred the complaint to the Department of Justice.
CLC’s complaint alleged, among other things, that Santos’s campaign falsely reported $705,000 in “personal loans” from Santos, and the information underlying Marks’s guilty plea appears to support that allegation: Prosecutors in Marks’s case have reportedly indicated that Marks and Santos conspired to fabricate $500,000 in loans made to the campaign in order to meet fundraising benchmarks. The superseding indictment against Rep. Santos includes new charges related to these false loans.
Campaign Legal Center and OpenSecrets sue the FEC for delayed response to transparency rulemaking petition
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On October 20th, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and OpenSecrets filed a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for failing to respond to a 2019 petition filed jointly by both organizations requesting that the agency create new disclosure rules for “special-purpose” accounts maintained by national political party committees.
Special-purpose accounts can be used to manage party headquarters, organize presidential nominating conventions and fund legal proceedings. Congress amended the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) in 2014 so as to enable these accounts and allow them to accept funds up to three times higher than the general contribution limit for national party committees (currently at $41,300 per year). These provisions, also known as the “Cromnibus” amendments, were created by an omnibus government funding package without any details on the permissible uses or reporting requirements for these accounts.
“Voters have a right to know where parties and campaigns are getting their donations from so that they can make clear-eyed assessments of ads and other communications from those entities on their way to the voting booth,” says Trevor Potter, Campaign Legal Center President and Republican former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission. “Unfortunately, national political party committees currently have free rein to hide information about funds added to and taken from supercharged, special-purpose accounts because of the FEC’s failure to require transparency. The FEC must do its job and stop delaying voters’ access to the detailed and accurate campaign finance information they need to make informed decisions.”
“The 2024 elections are around the corner, but the FEC continues to drag its feet on creating long-overdue disclosure rules,” said Sheila Krumholz, Executive Director of OpenSecrets. “OpenSecrets is proud to join Campaign Legal Center in calling on the FEC to finally ensure that voters have the information they need to understand who’s paying for our elections and to consider why. We are committed to shining a light on money in politics, and this lawsuit underscores the necessity of a transparent campaign finance system to do so. Without the FEC’s action, the American people are left in the dark about the true sources of funding behind political party committees.”
Each national party currently operates up to seven special-purpose accounts. An individual can contribute up to $247,800 per account, or over $1.7 million total, to a single party for the current two-year 2023-2024 election cycle. But inconsistent reporting practices by national party committees prompted CLC and OpenSecrets to file the 2019 rulemaking petition (linked here) with the FEC, and two subsequent comments thereafter, to require detailed reporting of all monetary transactions involving these accounts with the goal of increasing transparency.
The FEC’s non-response to CLC and OpenSecrets for over four years prompted both organizations to jointly file a lawsuit challenging the agency’s unreasonable delay in addressing this matter.
As the sole agency tasked with enforcing federal campaign finance laws, the FEC needs to provide rules that ensure national political party committees can follow the transparency requirements previously amended by FECA. The current system makes it easy for these entities to pick and choose how they report, to the detriment of a transparent and more functional electoral system.
Repeated failures by the FEC to maintain oversight over our campaign finance laws have resulted in an explosion in secret spending, rigging our politics in favor of special interests. Seeking to ensure that all Americans get the transparency they deserve, CLC and OpenSecrets are stepping up to prod the FEC into action to promote more accountability.
VICTORY: Federal Court Strikes Down Racially Discriminatory Galveston County, Texas Voting Maps that Denied Black and Latino Voters a Voice
In a victory for the voters of Galveston County, Texas, a federal judge ruled today that Galveston County’s 2021 redistricting plan violates Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA) and denies Black and Latino voters the equal opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice.
The decision characterizes Galveston County’s voting plan – enacted after the first redistricting cycle in which Galveston County was not subject to federal preclearance under the federal VRA – as “mean-spirited” and “egregious.”
In 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC), the UCLA Voting Rights Project and Neil Baron joined the ongoing redistricting fight, which began in 2013, to represent Galveston County voters against racial discrimination by Galveston County in its voting maps.
“Today’s historic decision underscores a simple fact: Galveston County’s Black and Latino residents deserve a voice in government.” said Mark Gaber, senior director of redistricting at Campaign Legal Center (CLC). “After decades of discrimination, this most recent voting map was just the latest blatant attempt to silence Galveston County’s Black and Latino voters. The court’s decision is a momentous step in addressing that injustice and ensuring that Galveston County’s Black and Latino residents can elect a representative who will best serve their communities.”
The case, Petteway v. Galveston County, Texas, was one of the first racial vote dilution cases to go to trial after the U.S. Supreme Court validated Section 2 of the VRA in June’s Allen v. Milligan decision.
Following 2013’s Shelby County v. Holder decision, Galveston County became one of the first jurisdictions to enact discriminatory voting maps. Then, in the 2021 redistricting cycle–the first that took place since Shelby County gutted preclearance–Galveston County once again enacted voting maps that ignored Black and Latino voters entirely, despite those voters comprising nearly half of all people in the county.
The new map specifically targeted the county commission district known as Precinct 3. Under the old map, the precinct encompassed the heart of Galveston County, including an area where the majority of voters were Black or Hispanic. The new map added the largely white northwest corner of the county to Precinct 3, a blatant attempt to drown out the voices of Black and Latino voters.
Today’s decision agreed, noting: “It is stunning how completely the county extinguished the Black and Latino communities’ voice on its commissioners court during 2021’s redistricting.”
Now, the county has until October 20, 2023 to propose a remedial plan; otherwise the Court will impose one before the November 11, 2023 qualifying period for the 2024 Commissioners Court elections.
More information about the case can be found here.