The Bush/Clinton Super PAC Shuffle

Follow the Money: Episode 4

The name-brand candidates of the 2016 election might be breaking the law. Why? Just follow the money:
Jeb Bush: “Look, I hope I run, to be honest with you. I’d like to run, but I haven’t made the decision.”

Maybe he thinks we’ll all just ignore his team of high-paid public policy advisors and jam-packed tours of key early primary states like New Hampshire, Iowa, and Nevada.

As long as he pretends he might not run, he’s free to coordinate with his Super PAC to bypass campaign contributions limits and raise unlimited money from just about anyone. When he officially announces his candidacy, campaign finance laws force his campaign to remain separate from his Super PAC, and the party is over.

Jeb Bush So Sad Once you declare your candidacy, you can’t run your Super PAC anymore. Too bad. So sad.

So Bush is collecting as much money, as fast as he can, until the clock runs out. And it’s working great! His Right to Rise PAC is on track to raise $100 million. That’s more money, faster, than any other Republican enterprise in modern history.

The only hiccup in this unregulated fundraising fest: Bush had to actually ask his uber-donors not to give too much all at once—no more than a million at a time please (yes, that’s the actual figure)—because his campaign team thought it could make a bad impression.

Unlike those Republican “scoundrels,”  Clinton claims to be all about campaign finance reform.

Hillary Clinton: “We need to fix our dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all.”

Couldn’t possibly be the same Hillary Clinton who is now widely considered to be the first Democratic candidate to formally embrace her Super PAC, could it?

Turns out, Clinton is straight up coordinating with her Super PAC, even though she’s already an official candidate.

Hillary Clinton Dancing Super PAC Shuffle, indeed

Clinton is meeting with representatives of her Super PAC on a regular basis and even raising money for them.

Wait, what? Isn’t it illegal for candidates and Super PACs to coordinate?!

We thought so. But Clinton’s lawyers claim they found a loophole that makes this direct coordination legal. Clinton is pioneering a new kind of rule-bending that every future candidate will probably exploit, while publicly decrying the role of money in politics. It’s one thing to fundraise enough to stay competitive. It’s another to completely blow the covers off the rulebook.

So, who’s going to fix this mess? Politicians elected on a platform of corruption? Nope. We will.

Help spread the word about corruption by passing this along to your friends and family.

Sources:

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