January 23, 2014

Ron Jacobs quoted in Politico on FEC complaint against super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton

1 min

Venable partner Ron Jacobs was quoted in a January 22, 2014 Politico article about a recent complaint filed before the Federal Election Commission (FEC) by an anti-Hillary Clinton group called the Stop Hillary PAC. The group claims Clinton and her political team authorized a campaign by renting official resources – her email list – to the Ready for Hillary super PAC, which is pushing Clinton to run for president. By law, the pro-Clinton super PAC cannot coordinate with Clinton or her staff. Campaigns, PACs, super PACs and political parties can sell resources to each other, but they cannot do so at a discounted price and cannot discuss messaging because it would be considered coordination.

Jacobs said, “This is certainly a new and unchartered territory to have interactions like this between super PACs and potential candidates. It is a disservice to those involved in the political process when the FEC has not issued any regulations in this area, and routinely deadlocks on advisory opinions that would provide guidance.”