CLC v. DOJ (Census FOIA)

Today, the CLEAN Politics Act was introduced in both the House and the Senate. Trevor Potter, CLC President, and a former Republican Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, released the following statement in support:

“The CLEAN Politics Act is exactly the sort of proposal we need to check the excessive influence of lobbyists and big money in our politics. Lobbyists have a constitutional right to express the views of their clients to legislators – but that activity should be separated from fundraising for the very members they are lobbying.

Lobbyists have long used loopholes in the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) to bundle campaign contributions together to gain access and undue influence with elected officials. This important bill seeks to close loopholes in the LDA and also bans members of Congress and congressional candidates from soliciting campaign contributions from lobbyists while Congress is in session. This popular reform would keep lobbyists at an arm’s length from the Congressional decision-making process, a change that serves the public interest in creating policy that is responsive to constituents, rather than special interests.”

Potter also co-chaired the American Bar Association Task Force that recommended that Congress limit fundraising by lobbyists for members of Congress they lobby.

WASHINGTON – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Issue One and five former lawmakers from both parties submitted comments urging the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to proceed with a rulemaking clarifying that the ban on personal use of campaign funds should apply to leadership PACs, in order to stop politicians from using the PACs as their personal slush funds. The organizations and former lawmakers filed the rulemaking petition in July.

Leadership PACs are supposed to be used so that officeholders can support other candidates’ campaigns to gain support for leadership positions. However, in the absence of clear rules from the FEC, only a minority of leadership PAC spending has gone toward contributions to other candidates and political committees, and instead, leadership PACs are commonly used as slush funds to subsidize politicians’ lifestyles.

“The FEC has the authority to issue rules cracking down on the misuse of leadership PAC funds, and the examples we’ve uncovered provide compelling arguments for it to do so,” said Brendan Fischer, director federal reform, CLC. “Officeholders using their leadership PAC accounts as personal slush funds gives big money even more influence over our democracy.”

According to CLC’s analysis of reports filed with the FEC since the rulemaking petition was filed, between April 1 and September 30, 2018 alone, leadership PACs spent at least $124,162 at the luxury Greenbrier resort in West Virginia, $160,809 at St. Regis resorts, $53,165 at Ritz Carlton hotels, $46,121 at Charlie Palmer Steak restaurant in D.C., and $19,760 at Disney properties.

Georgia Rep. Johnny Isakson used his leadership PAC to spend $59,145 at the Bandon Dunes golf club in Bandon, Oregon. Texas Rep. Pete Sessions used leadership PAC funds to spend $36,337 at a St. Regis resort in Deer Valley, Utah, and to spend $27,000 on an event at Dallas Cowboys stadium. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul used leadership PAC funds to spend more than $4,000 on meals, transportation, and sightseeing in London. And after Rep. Joe Crowley lost his primary in June 2018, he used his leadership PAC to spend $17,768 at the New York Racing Association horse racing track.

In July, CLC and Issue One released the report, “All Expenses Paid: How Leadership PACs Became Politicians’ Ticket to Luxury Living,” highlighting countless other stories of bipartisan abuses of leadership PACs. After the release of the report, the two organizations and a bipartisan group of former lawmakers filed a petition for rulemaking with the FEC asking the agency to clarify that the prohibition on the personal use of campaign funds also applies to a politician’s leadership PAC.

"While the FEC is burdened by partisan gridlock, prohibiting personal use of leadership PAC funds is a solution on which both parties agree. There's no reason for them to delay in initiating rulemaking to close this loophole," said Meredith McGehee, executive director, Issue One.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On July 18, 2018, voting rights advocates sent a notice letter to Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, advising him that the enactment and implementation of the voter registration provisions of Georgia Act 250 (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-220.1), which codified a ‘no match, no vote’ voter registration protocol, violate Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act, and requesting that Secretary Kemp immediately cease enforcement of the Georgia law or risk facing a new legal challenge to the law in federal court.

Under the Georgia law, a voter registration application is flagged and placed in “pending” status if the information on their registration form does not exactly match information contained in the Department of Driver Services or Social Security Administration databases. The matching process also flags some U.S. citizens as non-citizens, even in cases where the applicants submit a copy of their U.S. naturalization form or other evidence of their U.S. citizenship with their voter registration applications.

If applicants do not cure the “no-match” result, they are removed from the registration rolls after 26 months.  The matching protocol has an extraordinarily high error rate, resulting in the unreasonable delay in the processing of voter registration applications and the risk that the application will be canceled after 26 months, resulting in the disenfranchisement of legitimate, voting-eligible Georgians.

Georgia Act 250’s voter registration protocol is similar to one that had been previously adopted administratively by Secretary of State Kemp and which was challenged in federal court by voting rights advocates in 2016. Despite the fact that the “no match, no vote” protocol had been shown to have a high error rate and a substantial, negative impact upon voting-eligible African American, Latino and Asian American Georgians, this discriminatory process was nevertheless codified into Georgia law with the passage of HB 268 in 2017.

“For years, Georgia’s onerous system has disproportionately burdened minority citizens by making it more difficult to complete the voter registration process,” said Danielle Lang, senior legal counsel, voting rights and redistricting at CLC. “It’s time to put an end to a system that is not used by most other states because of its discriminatory implementation and extraordinarily high error rate. No Georgians should be barred from participating in the democratic process due to Georgia’s exact match system any longer."

“Our democracy depends on the ability of all voters to participate in the political process,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Georgia’s ‘no match, no vote’ policy has already disenfranchised tens of thousands of eligible voters and has had a particularly onerous effect on minorities and the poor.  The State should stop using this error-ridden and discriminatory practice immediately.  If not, we will leverage all of the tools available to us to combat voting discrimination and to achieve fairer and more democratic outcomes across our country.”

The NVRA compliance demand was issued by Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Campaign Legal Center, with assistance by their pro bono counsel, the New York City office of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, along with Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta and the Law Office of Bryan Sells. It was sent on behalf of the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta, ProGeorgia State Table, Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, and New Georgia Project.

Advancing Justice-Atlanta works tirelessly to encourage and empower members of our AAPI and immigrant communities to fully engage in the civic process,” said Phi Nguyen, litigation director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta, Inc. “We urge our leaders to also do their part to ensure that all citizens can exercise their fundamental right to vote.”

If prospective applicants have any questions about the deadlines for registering to vote in Georgia, they may call the national, nonpartisan Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE for additional information.

Politicians use leadership PACs to stay at five-star resorts, pay for golf memberships and spend big at Disney properties

A new report released today by Issue One and Campaign Legal Center (CLC) called, "All Expenses Paid: How Leadership PACs Became Politicians’ Preferred Ticket to Luxury Living” reveals how many federal lawmakers continue to exploit loopholes and lax enforcement to tap their leadership PAC funds to pay for resorts, golf memberships and fine dining — spending that would likely be unlawful if the members used funds from their authorized campaign accounts.

Little-known beyond the beltway, leadership PACs are officeholder-controlled political committees that have frequently been described as slush funds. Nearly every member of Congress has one.

Leadership PACs were ushered into existence so that officeholders could make contributions to their colleagues. Yet only a minority of all 2013-2018 leadership PAC spending – just 45 percent – went toward contributions to other federal candidates or other political committees.

Instead, over the past five years, a subset of members of Congress have used their leadership PACs to collectively spend at least $871,000 on golf-related dues and expenses, $614,000 in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and $469,000 at Disney properties. Leadership PAC funds have been used to spend $765,000 at West Virginia’s Greenbrier Sporting Club and $361,000 at Ritz-Carlton hotels. 

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has long prohibited politicians from spending official campaign funds on personal expenditures – and for good reason. Campaign donations present a much greater risk of corruption if they are funding the politician’s next round of golf, country club membership, clothing purchase, or trip to Disney World. But that is exactly what is happening with leadership PACs.

"Leadership PACs have veered so far from their original purpose that some officeholders think it’s acceptable to spend enormous sums of money on golf club memberships and trips to Vegas,” said Brendan Fischer, director, federal reform at CLC. “The FEC needs to apply the prohibition on the ‘personal use’ of campaign funds to leadership PAC funds. That would deter future abuses and equip the FEC to go after the worst offenders.”

"The Federal Election Commission continues to punt on rulemaking while waiting for Congress to address the problem through legislation,” said Issue One Executive Director Meredith McGehee. “Congress, meanwhile, is unwilling to rein in their own worst-actors, so nothing changes.”

The report is an analysis of nearly 200,000 FEC expenditure records covering January 2013 through the first quarter of 2018, with a sample of examples aimed at clarifying the problem that include:

• A South Dakota Senator spent $403,000 at West Virginia’s Greenbrier Sporting Club;
• An Ohio Congressman spent $64,000 on Broadway tickets in New York City;
• A Georgia Congressman spent $34,000 for one event at the five-star Sea Island Resort;
• A Texas Congressman spent $21,000 on membership dues to a Maryland country club;
• A Kentucky Senator spent $4,000 for limousine service in Rome.

Following the report, CLC and Issue One will file a petition next week asking the FEC to revise and amend regulations relating to the personal use of leadership PAC funds as they apply to candidates and officeholders. The organizations are also working with members of Congress to push for a legislative solution that would cover all political committees.

Read the “All Expenses Paid: How Leadership PACs Became Politicians’ Preferred Ticket to Luxury Living” report and appendix here.