Jeb Bush explores White House bid — unconventionally

Now that Jeb Bush has decided to “actively explore” running for president, all eyes will turn to his fundraising.

But instead of creating a presidential exploratory committee — the traditional organizing and fundraising vehicle used by potential White House hopefuls — Bush says he's forming a leadership political action committee.

The difference between these two kinds of committees isn't insignificant. The potential advantages for Bush aren't, either.

For instance, donors may give up to $5,000 per calendar year to a leadership PAC, and “none of the contributions will count against his campaign limits,” said Kenneth Gross, a former associate general counsel of the Federal Election Commission who leads the political law practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

That means donors to Bush’s leadership PAC will still be able to give $2,600 per election to Bush’s presidential campaign committee if he eventually goes on to form one. Contributions to an exploratory committee would count against the limit if Bush goes on to run.

There’s also no limit on the total amount such leadership PACs can raise before Bush is officially a candidate, while Federal Election Commission regulations prohibit exploratory committees from raising “funds in excess of what could reasonably be expected to be used for exploratory activities.”

Brett Kappel, a counsel at Arent Fox’s government relations and political law practices, said there’s no defined upper limit for the amount an exploratory committee can raise, “but a complaint could be filed if the amount raised seemed disproportionately large.”

In announcing Tuesday he was considering a presidential bid, Bush wrote on Facebook that he formed a leadership PAC to “discuss the most critical challenges facing our exceptional nation” and “support leaders, ideas and policies that will expand opportunity and prosperity for all Americans.”

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This story is part of Primary Source. Primary Source keeps you up-to-date on developments in the post-Citizens United world of money in politics. Click here to read more stories in this blog.

Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.