Senate Republicans plan to insert a provision into a must-pass government funding bill that would vastly expand the amount of cash that political parties could spend on candidates.
The provision, which sources say is one of a few campaign-finance related riders being discussed in closed-door negotiations over a $1.15 trillion omnibus spending package, would eliminate caps on the amount of cash that parties may spend in coordination with their candidates.
Pushed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a longtime foe of campaign finance restrictions, the coordination rider represents the latest threat to the increasingly rickety set of rules created to restrict political fundraising and spending on elections.
Campaign finance watchdogs argue that it would allow wealthy donors to exercise even more influence with members of Congress. And they cried foul over the possibility that the provision could be slipped into the omnibus spending bill that Congress is working to pass before a Dec. 11 deadline to avoid a government shutdown.
Other campaign-finance provisions being discussed during the omnibus negotiations include GOP-backed efforts to block the Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission from enacting additional regulations and disclosure requirements on politically active nonprofit groups, sources say.
Proponents of the coordination rider cast it as a step toward a more accountable and transparent system of political financing. They argue it would help party committees, which are subject to strict campaign rules and reporting requirements, claw back some of the power and control that has migrated to less rigorously regulated big-money outside groups empowered by recent federal court decisions, including the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling.
The McConnell provision would allow the parties to engage in unlimited spending in coordination with nominees, though contributions to the party committee themselves would still be subject to annual limits of $33,000 per person.
But Fred Wertheimer, President of the campaign-finance watchdog group Democracy 21, said the McConnell rider would allow politicians to steer bigger checks from their richest backers through the parties to their campaigns.
“What this provision would basically do is turn the party committees into full-time laundering operations,” he said, pointing out that earlier this year a GOP effort failed to pass a similar measure through the committee process.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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