A surviving renmant of the McCain-Feingold Law sharply restricts the ability of individuals to donate funds to political parties. However, recently Michael Bloomberg gave millions of dollars to the Democratic Party, money taken from his presidential campaign account.
On May 29, Shaun McCutcheon asked the Federal Election Commission if he could make a similar donation to the Libertarian Party, for $50,000. McCutcheon had filed on May 1 to run for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination. He has over $50,000 left over in his campaign account. Now he wants to transfer that amount to the party, just as Bloomberg had done for the Democratic Party. Here is his request.
McCutcheon already won a campaign finance lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court several years ago. In McCutcheon v FEC, the Court ruled 5-4 that the limit on how much individuals can donate to all federal candidates cumulatively in any particular election year violates the First Amendment. Thanks to the Institute for Free Speech for this news.
So in theory could a person form a campaign committee, donate millions of dollars of their own money to their own campaign, end the campaign, and then transfer all of those millions to any campaign/party they wish?
NOOOO $$$ amount in the 1 Amdt.
Too many MORON lawyers and worse judges to count.
Brandon, isn’t that what Bloomberg did? If there was a difference, what was it?
@Inquiry Thats exactly what I was getting at, could this be a way around the FEC for everyone?
I don’t see anything in there about campaigns, only parties. Perhaps it would extend to campaigns; perhaps not.
Is there any limit on how much a “party” can spend or transfer to a individual campaign?
Parties can spend an unlimited amount on a candidate’s campaign if it is an independent expenditure. That is, the party must not coordinate with the candidate.
But there are limits on how much a party can directly contribute to a candidate’s campaign.
It shows the lack of good sense in our federal campaign laws.
This could be a game changer if he wins.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCutcheon_v._FEC
2014