![]() ![]() “It would be illegal for the campaign to use its list to promote the candidate’s book, but the FEC says it is legal for the campaign to take money from the publisher so that the publisher may use the list to promote that same book,” he said. The combination of those two sets of rules-bans on personal use and corporate contributions-led the FEC to this outcome, which Fischer called “yet another example of the FEC making up new ways around the rules.”Ī publisher must use its own resources to promote a candidate’s book, Fischer explained, pointing out that federal law prohibits campaigns from using their assets to promote a book where the candidate receives royalties. “Basically, the FEC came to the surprising conclusion that a publisher may lawfully pour money into a candidate’s campaign so that more royalty money goes into the candidate’s pocket,” Fischer said, noting that the decision is a product of “the FEC’s somewhat mechanical application” of precedents around book promotion and campaign list rentals. However, not every good government expert was as convinced.īrendan Fischer, director of federal programs at government watchdog Campaign Legal Center, took a far more critical view. And I think they’ve done an acceptable job of doing so in the context of donor lists.” But, he said, “at the end of the day the FEC needs to draw lines in order to facilitate consistent administration of the law. Ryan noted that the value of a campaign’s donor list, already sky-high, may certainly appear heightened in the Schiff scenario, when the candidate stands to benefit from his own custom data. “The FEC’s opinion in this matter seems consistent with its handling of similar matters over the past decade-plus,” Ryan told The Daily Beast. Ryan, vice president of litigation at campaign reform advocacy group Common Cause, said that the decision is in line with years of FEC rulemaking, and “strikes the right balance.” The arrangement is fair, the commissioners said, as long as “no Committee resources or personnel would be used to promote the book,” and the rental price is fair market value. While earlier FEC advisory opinions have allowed candidates who are hawking books to personally rent lists from their own campaign at fair market value, the regulator had not taken up the question of the publisher renting directly from the campaign.
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