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On Oct. 21, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed public comments with the Wyoming Secretary of State's office regarding the proposed rulemaking to define "direct coordination" between candidates and PACs or political parties. Our comments make several recommendations that would strengthen Wyoming's final rule to ensure it effectively prevents the circumvention of the state's restrictions on corporate contributions to candidates.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) asking for an investigation into Rep. Seth Moulton for possibly converting leadership PAC funds to personal use, in violation of the House Rules. Only 8% of Rep. Moulton's leadership PAC spending from 2019 to 2020 went toward other candidates and political parties and groups.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) asking for an investigation into Rep. Mike Kelly for possibly converting leadership PAC funds to personal use, in violation of the House Rules. Only 22% of Rep. Kelly's leadership PAC spending from 2019 to 2020 went toward other candidates and political parties and groups.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) asking for an investigation into Rep. Moore for possibly converting leadership PAC funds to personal use, in violation of the House Rules. Only 12% of Rep. Moore's leadership PAC spending from 2019 to 2020 went toward other candidates and political parties and groups.
On Oct. 4, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC), the Center on Science & Technology Policy and the Center on Technology Policy filed a formal rulemaking comment urging the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to close a transparency loophole that has allowed campaigns and super political action committees (PAC) to conceal the recipients of hundreds of millions of dollars of campaign spending by routing that money through shell corporations and other intermediaries.
This backgrounder can be used by members of the media and the public to guide their understanding of the electoral process of electing a President.
New research from Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and Issue One shows scores of lawmakers are using leadership PAC funds for lavish dining, lodging and travel expenses. In a follow up report to findings published in 2018 and 2019, CLC and Issue One found that 120 lawmakers spent less than half of their leadership PAC funds on political spending during the 2019-20 election cycle.
Read CLC's rulemaking petition to the FEC to revise and amend regulations of the personal use of campaign funds by leadership PACs here and additional comments submitted to the FEC here.
On Sept. 30, 2021, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to take action on a complaint filed by Giffords and Campaign Legal Center (CLC) against the National Rifle Association (NRA) for illegally coordinating millions of dollars in election spending with at least seven federal candidates.
On Sept. 17, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted written comments to the Virginia General Assembly's Joint Subcommittee to Study Comprehensive Campaign Finance Reform. Our comments highlight the Supreme Court's jurisprudence upholding election disclosure laws and urge the joint subcommittee to consider transparency reforms for Virginia election campaigns.
On Sept. 15, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted comments to the Virginia State Board of Elections, urging the board to adopt rules regarding political ad disclaimers that include specific requirements for digital political ads.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted comments to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission on Aug. 20, 2021. The comments included several recommendations that would fortify the transparency of digital advertising in state elections.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a brief as amicus curiae in defense of Colorado’s disclosure law.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) sent a letter to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s office urging him to veto S.B. 636, which makes information about donors to nonprofit entities, including politically active nonprofits, confidential.
Campaign Legal Center Action (CLCA) filed suit on behalf of End Citizens United against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) after it deadlocked on and, thus, dismissed a complaint against Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), his campaign and New Republican PAC. CLCA is suing the FEC to hold Sen. Scott accountable for coordination with New Republican PAC, a super PAC which spent over $29 million supporting his election during the 2018 cycle.
Campaign Legal Center has filed an amicus brief in Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate to defend a law that prevents potential corruption from arising when politicians make personal loans to their own campaigns only to repay them with donations received after Election Day.
On August 3, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit dismissed Rio Grande Foundation’s appeal for lack of standing.
On April 23, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) posted messaging guidance for this case, advising that a case about the constitutionality of California’s confidential tax reporting law should not be permitted to dilute the Court’s well-established precedents upholding transparency laws. Permitting the wealthy and powerful to exempt themselves from disclosure to avoid a critical public response would harm political transparency laws and undercut the free flow of information and robust debate the First Amendment is meant to protect.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling declaring California’s confidential tax reporting law unconstitutional should not be permitted to dilute the Court’s well-established precedents upholding electoral transparency laws.
On July 15, 2021, Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that eighteen Democratic and Republican super PACs – which collectively spent more that $200 million in competitive U.S. Senate elections – violated federal law by concealing from voters that they were created and funded by five national super PACs aligned with congressional leadership.