Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center (CLC), and a Republican Former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), released the following statement: 

“Our campaign finance system needs reform. The laws governing money in politics have not been meaningfully updated in the 13 years since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which unleashed a torrent of corporate and special interest spending in our elections, much of which is never disclosed to the public. As a result, the voices of everyday Americans are being drowned out by special interests, and voters are being denied their right to know who is spending money to influence their vote.  

Addressing these concerns should be a bipartisan priority in Congress, and more Republican support to address the problems created by Citizens United is welcome. However, the “Ending Corporate Influence on Elections Act,” a bill that Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced this week, is not a serious effort to fix these serious problems. This bill would do nothing at all to address the problem of secret election spending by obscure nonprofit organizations that do not disclose their donors. Often referred to as “dark money” groups, these entities spent more than $1 billion influencing the 2020 election, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan nonprofit OpenSecrets. Indeed, Sen. Hawley’s bill would only prohibit election spending by a “publicly traded corporation,” which means it targets only a small part of the larger corporate influence problem stemming from Citizens United. 

Despite its many deficiencies, Sen. Hawley’s bill clearly struck a nerve with those who routinely oppose campaign finance reform. According to recent reports, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell responded to the bill’s introduction by privately reminding Sen. Hawley — and other Senators who might consider supporting the bill — that they owed their seats to the millions of dollars of support they received from the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), a McConnell-aligned super PAC that routinely accepts corporate money. Sen. McConnell reportedly informed his colleagues that if they supported this ban on corporate election spending, they could expect “incoming” attacks from the right.  

Contrary to Sen. McConnell’s comments, however, polls consistently show that support for campaign finance reform is strong across ideological lines. According to the Pew Research Center, more than seven-in-ten American adults say that there should be limits on the amount of money individuals and organizations can spend on political campaigns. Although Sen. Hawley’s bill misses the mark, more Republican Members of Congress ought to heed the will of their constituents and engage in the fight to strengthen our democracy.” 

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.   

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.