WASHINGTON – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that Remember Mississippi, a super PAC funded by national GOP megadonors Robert Mercer and Richard Uihlein, illegally made contributions to Mississippi U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel. Among other things, the Remember Mississippi super PAC, which was formed by McDaniel’s assistant, took the unprecedented step of organizing, funding and advertising three McDaniel campaign events, which included speeches expressly advocating for McDaniel’s election in front of a “McDaniel U.S. Senate 2018” backdrop.

“We’ve never seen a super PAC take the brazen step of organizing and funding straight up campaign events for the candidate they are supporting,” said Brendan Fischer, director, federal and FEC reform at CLC. “Thanks to the FEC’s ineffective enforcement of the law, super PACs and campaigns have increasingly found ways to work closely with one another, but it appears this Mercer-backed super PAC went too far. If it wants candidates to take campaign laws seriously, the FEC must investigate and punish violators for wrongdoing.”

The super PAC paid for McDaniel campaign events, advertised for them, and promoted his candidacy at them. McDaniel’s personal assistant at his law firm, Susan Perkins, organized the group and became its treasurer, while also managing the McDaniels’ campaign Facebook page.

“Super PACs are categorically prohibited from making contributions to candidates,” said Adav Noti, senior director, trial litigation at CLC, and former associate general counsel for policy at the FEC. “The FEC should strip Remember Mississippi of its status as a super PAC, which appears to have been obtained under false pretenses, and impose major fines to deter others from violating this bright-line rule in the future."

Remember Mississippi received $1 million from Mercer and Uihlein. McDaniel acknowledged publicly his relationship to the super PAC’s financiers, saying “the Mercers and other donors have pledged more than $1 million” to support his candidacy, and emphasized that “I’ve known the Mercers since 2013, and we’ve talked a good deal about 2018.”

Today, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the Fair Elections Act, a voluntary system that will allow qualified candidates an initial grant followed by matching funds on small donations in District elections. Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is part of the DC Fair Elections Coalition and testified in support of the bill at a committee hearing.

“Mayor Bowser heard D.C. residents’ overwhelming support for small-dollar public financing and signed the Fair Elections Act. This new program will incentivize District candidates to seek support from a more diverse coalition of citizens,” said Catie Kelley, director, policy and state programs at CLC. “This inclusive reform will draw more voters into the political process and reduce the disproportionate influence of big-dollar donors in D.C. elections. We are pleased D.C. is the latest jurisdiction in the country to opt for fair elections.”

Read the testimony CLC submitted to the D.C. Council in support of the Fair Elections Act, which analyzes the bill’s details, provides recommendations, and uses studies of multiple jurisdictions to show how matching funds programs give candidates a financial incentive to reach out to a greater number of voters.

Shaub: “The White House cannot continue to have one standard for the federal workforce generally and a lower standard for appointees who are close to this President.”

Today, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) found that Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act by using her official position to advocate for the election of Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, and for the defeat of his opponent, Doug Jones, after Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed two Hatch Act complaints with OSC in November and December.

CLC issued the following statement from Walter Shaub, CLC’s senior director, ethics and the former director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE):

“This case was a slam dunk. All the same, it couldn’t have been easy for Special Counsel Henry Kerner to issue a finding that one of the president’s top advisors violated an ethics law. Kerner was only recently appointed to the position of Special Counsel, and he knew he risked upsetting the White House with this finding. He is probably aware of the history that that the White House got upset when, as the head of the Office of Government Ethics, I found that Ms. Conway violated another ethics provision. Nevertheless, Kerner went ahead and did the right thing. It speaks well of him, and it’s good to see OSC continuing to enforce this important ethics law.”   

The question now is whether the White House will uphold the Hatch Act, as it is up to the White House to decide how high-level employees like Conway should be disciplined. The willfulness of Conway’s violation makes clear that anything less than removal from the federal service or a lengthy unpaid suspension will not deter future misconduct on her part. As Walter Shaub pointed out today, “OSC is now the second federal agency to find Conway in violation of ethics-related provisions. Enough is enough. She has made clear that she’s not interested in following government ethics rules. It’s time for the President to act.”

Noting that lower-level federal employees have incurred severe penalties for less serious Hatch Act violations, Shaub added, “The White House cannot continue to have one standard for the federal workforce generally and a lower standard for appointees who are close to this President.”

WASHINGTON – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that Highway 31, a super PAC that backed Democratic candidate Doug Jones in Alabama’s December 2017 U.S. Senate special election, violated campaign finance law by cooking up a secrecy scheme to spend $4.2 million on the race while keeping their donors in the shadows until after election day.

“Democrats talk the talk about supporting transparency in political money, but then national Democratic groups push aggressive new legal theories to undermine the transparency laws that are on the books,” said Brendan Fischer, director, federal and FEC reform at CLC. “Despite laws requiring that super PACs disclose their donors, Alabama voters went to the polls on election day without knowing who was backing Highway 31. This secrecy scheme cooked up by Highway 31 and its backers threatens to create a new disclosure loophole that will be exploited by billionaires and operatives supporting both parties, unless the FEC does its job and enforces our disclosure laws.”

Highway 31 was created in November 2017, quickly spent $1.15 million on the Alabama race, but on its only FEC report filed before election day, claimed that it had not raised a single penny – and that Democratic campaign vendors had produced and placed the group’s ads entirely on credit. More than a month after election day, Highway 31 filed a report disclosing for the first time that its primary backers were national Democratic super PACs Senate Majority PAC and Priorities USA Action.

CLC’s complaint alleges that the vendors do not extend over $1 million in credit to newly-created PACs in the ordinary course of business, and should have been reported as contributors, and/or that Senate Majority PAC and Priorities USA Action may have guaranteed that those vendor bills would be paid, and should have been reported as contributors on Highway 31’s pre-election report.