Candidates may try to circumvent the anti-corruption laws that prohibit them from raising unlimited sums of money from donors by creating a super PAC or dark money group to support their campaign before they officially enter the race.
Unlike candidates’ own campaigns, super PACs and dark money groups can accept unlimited contributions from individuals, labor unions, and corporations.
While Republican Jeb Bush was supposedly undecided about whether he would run for president in 2016, he helped launch and raise more than $100 million for a super PAC called Right to Rise.
At the time, Bush was neither a sitting federal officeholder nor a declared federal candidate subject to fundraising restrictions. So he crisscrossed the country collecting large donations for Right to Rise. After Bush officially declared his candidacy, the super PAC spent these funds supporting his campaign and attacking his opponents.
Government watchdogs filed complaints against Bush and Right to Rise with the FEC alleging illegal coordination, but the commissioners deadlocked on all of them.
The bipartisan Political Accountability and Transparency Act would explicitly define this practice as illegal coordination. Read more here.
Here are 5 other ways to spot coordination:
