coordination

Every four years, prosecutors at the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) train their sights on money spent to influence the outcome of the presidential election—and those who spend it.  While the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has exclusive jurisdiction to penalize and enforce civil violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), …
Continue Reading Increased Enforcement Risk for Criminal Campaign Finance Violations

With less than one month to go before the 2018 elections, the ground is shifting for major political donors. Developments over the last several years, and especially in the last few months, show that the rules of the road are changing with respect to many of the common election law…
Continue Reading Election Law Compliance for High Net Worth Individuals and Family Offices

Covington recently released a high-level primer that provides political consultants with a practical resource for creating and running a federal Super PAC in a legally compliant manner.  The primer, which is available here, explains the history and basic rules that apply to federal Super PACs.  The primer then discusses…
Continue Reading Forming and Operating Super PACs: A Practical Guide for Political Consultants in 2016

California has existing regulations that define when expenditures by outside groups, including super PACs, are coordinated with candidates and become illegal contributions to those campaigns.  These rules create a presumption of coordination under certain circumstances.  Yesterday, the Fair Political Practices Commission (“FPPC”) approved revisions to its rules on independent expenditures…
Continue Reading California Approves Strict Rules on Super PAC Coordination

As Super PACs and campaigns continue to edge closer to the legal line between “independence” and “coordination,” it has become common to hear calls for the FEC to take a stricter role in enforcing the law. Yet as recently reported by BNA, the FEC has not found a single…
Continue Reading California Penalizes Campaign, Committee for Coordination Violation

The press and comedians have recently focused on campaigns loading “B-roll” footage onto Internet sites where Super PACs and other outside spending groups can download the footage to use in political ads.  Senator McConnell’s campaign’s use of this tactic has drawn the most attention, but it is far from the…
Continue Reading Super PACs Using Candidates’ B-roll Footage and the FEC’s “Own Message” Cases

At the federal level, it is generally illegal for an outside group like a Super PAC or a 501(c)(4) organization to coordinate its independent expenditures with the candidate it supports.  The same is true in many states.  As we recently reported in our 2013 FEC Year in Review, however,…
Continue Reading State Action, Federal Inaction on Coordination Enforcement Cases

Earlier this year we predicted that battles over the definition of “coordination” and Super PAC “independence” would play a significant role in the development of campaign finance law in the coming years.   In keeping with that forecast, last week, the California Fair Political Practices Commission for the first time fined…
Continue Reading Fine Levied Against California Super PAC a Possible Signal of Things to Come

Several recent news reports are a reminder of the importance of the coordination rules.  The relaxed rules on raising and spending money on “independent expenditures,” either through a Super PAC or some other entity, are premised on that spending being “independent” of the candidate or political party the independent spender…
Continue Reading Allegations of Illegal Coordination: Not Only Do Elections Have Consequences, Tactics May Also