Every Vote Counts: Combating Election Sabotage and Safeguarding Our Democracy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that Florida Governor and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, his presidential campaign, and the super PAC “Never Back Down” violated federal campaign finance laws by engaging in an illegal coordination scheme.  

The complaint details how DeSantis’s campaign conveyed specific requests or suggestions from DeSantis to Never Back Down regarding its messaging strategy, a textbook example of a type of coordinating “conduct” described in FEC regulations. In particular, recent reporting indicates that DeSantis was frustrated that Never Back Down stopped airing ads attacking Nikki Haley, one of DeSantis’s opponents in the GOP primaries, and that intermediaries conveyed those messaging concerns to Never Back Down’s board members, who relayed the message to staff making strategic decisions for the super PAC.  

“When a super PAC like Never Back Down illegally coordinates its election spending with a candidate’s campaign, the super PAC effectively becomes an arm of the campaign,” said Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at Campaign Legal Center. “That circumvents federal contribution limits and reporting requirements, and gives the super PAC’s special interest backers, including corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals, a concerning level of influence over elected officials and policymaking — undermining voters’ right to a meaningful and equitable role in the democratic process.” 

This recent effort at guiding Never Back Down’s messaging was not an isolated event: Over the summer, DeSantis’s campaign also “leaked” a strategic memo that provided guidance about the campaign’s plans and messaging strategies. Moreover, Never Back Down has, virtually since its inception, underwritten and subsidized DeSantis’s campaign, while continuing to accept contributions well in excess of federal contribution limits, as well as corporate money.  

Under the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United, super PACs and other “independent” spending groups can only raise and spend unlimited money on elections if they do not coordinate with candidates or political parties. Yet illegal coordination has been almost wholly unchecked — even as “independent” election spending has skyrocketed — in the 13 years since Citizens United. The coordination between Never Back Down and the DeSantis campaign represents this growing and deeply problematic trend — documented in detail in a recent CLC report.  

Illegal coordination between independent expenditure groups and campaigns undermines our democracy. As the agency responsible for enforcing federal campaign finance laws, the FEC should immediately investigate what appears to be a monthslong, deeply concerning coordination scheme between Never Back Down and the DeSantis presidential campaign.

See the complaint here. 

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that Galveston County’s 2024 elections be conducted under a discriminatory map that violates Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act and fails to give Galveston County’s Black and Latino voters an equal opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice. 

“Today, the Supreme Court decided to force Galveston County’s Black and Latino voters to vote in 2024 under a discriminatory map already deemed illegal, ‘mean-spirited,’ and  ‘egregious’ by a federal judge,” said Mark Gaber, senior director of redistricting at Campaign Legal Center. “This is a historic miscarriage of justice for communities that have faced decades of discrimination. We are disappointed in today’s order, and will continue fighting alongside our partners to ensure that Galveston County’s Black and Latino residents have an opportunity to make their voices heard and elect a representative who will best serve their communities.”

On October 13, a federal judge ruled that Galveston County’s 2021 redistricting plan, which he called “mean-spirited” and “egregious,” violated Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act. In that ruling, the judge ordered the county to draw new, fair maps in time for the start of the November 11, 2023 candidate filing period for the 2024 Commissioners Court elections. 

However, Galveston County appealed the ruling to the Fifth Circuit of Appeals and was able to temporarily block new maps from being drawn. The full Fifth Circuit eventually took up the appeal, but CLC and our clients argued that fair districts should be in place while the appeals process was ongoing. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed.

Now, Galveston County’s 2024 elections will be conducted under a map, known as Map 2, that a federal judge ruled illegal and discriminatory in October. Map 2 guarantees that Black and Latino voters would not be able to elect a representative of choice for the Commissioners Court in any of the county’s four districts.

The case pertaining to today’s order, 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.

More information about the case can be found here.

Washington, D.C. – Campaign Legal Center has released a new report, “Top Ten Training Upgrades for Ethics Commissions,” focused on ways state and local ethics commissions around the country have improved their training programs. Featuring proven solutions from North Carolina to California, the report analyzes innovations that can ultimately help other commissions improve their own programs.  
 
State and local governments maintain a higher level of public trust than the federal government. The ethics commissions that serve these governments play a fundamental role in maintaining that trust by conducting trainings across vast government workforces to ensure that employees are adhering to laws and rules that increase transparency and maintain accountability.  

“Ethics commissions are the guardians of good government, the often unseen but essential guardrails that ensure our state and local governments are accountable to the public they serve,” said Delaney Marsco, Senior Legal Counsel for Ethics at Campaign Legal Center and one of the report’s primary authors. “We hope this analysis helps government employees see the benefits of implementing these practices and are able to find a way to share those benefits with their own offices.” 
 
This report is the third in CLC’s annual report series designed to promote the successes of state and local government ethics offices, following 2021’s “Top Ten Transparency Upgrades for Ethics Commissions,” and 2022’s “Top Ten Enforcement Upgrades for Ethics Commissions.”

 

Read CLC’s 2023 Ethics Commissions Report