C&E Newsletter: A New Challenge to FEC Reporting Requirements for Conduit PACs
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1. Taking on Conduit PAC Reporting Requirements
A new lawsuit is challenging the requirement that conduit PACs disclose the personal details of small-dollar donors in their filings with the Federal Election Commission.
The complaint, filed in the Northern District of Texas’ Fort Worth Division, argues that the provision in the Federal Election Campaign Act requiring conduit PACs, like ActBlue and WinRed, to publicly identify donors to give less than $200 to a campaign or committee violates a right to anonymity guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution.
“Many Americans like to keep their giving private,” the complaint argues. “Some donors have complex motives and interests that they do not want to explain to others. Others seek anonymity out of modesty, or due to religious beliefs. And many donors fear repercussions if the causes they support become known.”
A spokesperson for the FEC declined to comment on the lawsuit.
2. Will Conservatives Embrace Relational Organizing?
Republicans shouldn’t sleep on relational organizing.
At least, that’s the takeaway from a new study conducted by the Center for Campaign Innovation. The right-leaning think tank ran a field test in Florida – a state where registered Republican voters now far outnumber Democrats – and found that voters who received text messages from people they knew personally were 8.6 percentage points more likely to vote.
It could be a useful lesson for conservative campaigns, who have long lagged their progressive and Democratic counterparts in embracing relational organizing – the practice of mobilizing volunteers’ personal networks to reach voters. The left has used it to great effect in states like Georgia; Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., largely credited his 2020 victory to relational organizing tools.
As the Center for Campaign Innovation points out in its study, it’s become “increasingly difficult for political campaigns to reach voters through traditional outreach methods.” Simply put, voters are less likely to pick up the phone when they get a call from a number they don’t know, and door knocking and texting have become less effective over the years.
“Campaigns and organizations looking to adopt relational organizing strategies on the right will likely achieve better results with a recognizable brand, an existing volunteer base, and a compelling narrative that resonates with conservative audiences,” the center’s report reads. “Future implementations might benefit from integrating relational organizing into a broader campaign strategy rather than as a standalone initiative.”
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What We’re Reading
Lawsuit Challenges Reporting Requirements for Conduit PACs (C&E)
“The lawsuit, which mirrors a similar complaint filed last year in Ohio, gets at an issue that campaign finance experts and compliance professionals on both sides of the aisle have long complained about. Campaigns aren’t required to disclose the personal information of their donors who give less than $200. But conduit PACs, like ActBlue and WinRed – the main clearinghouses for small-dollar contributions to Democratic and Republican campaigns, respectively – are required to disclose the personal information, including names and street addresses, of donors who give even $1.”
Tim Walz Has Some Sharp Critiques of the Dem 2024 Campaign (Politico)
“Tim Walz thinks he and Kamala Harris played it too safe last year. He thinks they should have held more town halls. He thinks they didn’t have time to get their feet under them. And he thinks Democrats should have taken more risks and gone to more places.”
Drawing Huge Crowds, Bernie Sanders Steps Into Leadership of the Anti-Trump Resistance (AP)
“At 83 years old, Sanders is not running for president again. But the stooped and silver-haired democratic socialist has emerged as a leader of the resistance to Donald Trump’s second presidency. In tearing into Trump’s seizure of power and warning about the consequences of firing tens of thousands of government workers, Sanders is bucking the wishes of those who want Democrats to focus on the price of eggs or ‘roll over and play dead.’”
Advertisers Are Calling for Full URL-Level Campaign Reporting, and DSPs Are Responding in Different Ways (Digiday)
“A little over a month ago, a bombshell report documenting ad tech’s shortcomings in stopping the monetization of child sexual abuse material raised the ire of senior politicians and prompted leading names to tighten up their operations. Since then, the industry debate has been intense, with a growing chorus calling for more vendor transparency. And with that has come some confusion as to how the industry’s leading demand-side platforms will respond.”
Democrats Voice Regret on Scattered Responses to Trump’s Speech (The New York Times)
“On Sunday news shows, five Democratic lawmakers, including two progressives, made roundabout criticisms of Mr. Green. They pointed to the backlash his protest generated from both Republican and nonpartisan voters, as well as the media attention it created, which they saw as a distraction to Democrats’ messaging against Mr. Trump’s policies.”