Super PACs exploit disclosure loophole
Super PACs must, by law, publicly reveal their donors.
Except, that is, for those that materialize during the final days of the 2014 midterm election.
Thanks to a contentious quirk in federal law, at least six new super PACs may hide their funders from public scrutiny until early December, no matter how much money they raise or spend from now until Election Day on Nov. 4.
Why? Federal campaign finance reporting regulations state that various political committees must file this week "pre-election" financial diclosures that cover activity through Oct. 15. Any political committee that forms after Oct. 15 gets a free non-disclosure pass for up to seven weeks.
Charles Philipp, a New York City media professional who created the Trucks for Cowboys Super PAC on Thursday, says he's well aware that his committee need not disclose its funders until after Thanksgiving.
That's part of the point of forming what Philipp described as a "farcical" super PAC that's "a way for me to make fun of the system."
Philipp explained his super PAC will support candidates who, as its name suggests, support cowboys driving trucks over, say, electric vehicles.
"I'm creating this in the vein of a single-issue super PAC that a special interest may create," Philipp said.
He added, however, that his fundraising efforts are sincere, and that he'll potentially spend money during the 2014 election if he can raise it.
A pair of other pop-up super PACs — Bergen Cares and Port Prosperity — may have a less satirical purpose.
There’s more to this story. Click here to read the rest at the Center for Public Integrity.
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.
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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.
