A watchdog organization has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing Ron DeSantis’ Florida political committee of transferring $86 million to a federally registered super-PAC backing his presidential election, in violation of federal law.
The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center alleged in a 52-page document that the old Friends of Ron DeSantis committee — renamed the Empower Parents PAC on May 15 — had raised some $225 million as of last Wednesday, May 24, and spent $140 million.
That leaves around $86 million in “soft money” that it planned to provide to Never Back Down Inc., the super-PAC backing DeSantis’ presidential run in violation of the federal $5,000 campaign contribution limit, the complaint says.
The Florida Phoenix on May 17 wrote about the $86 million related to DeSantis’ Florida PAC — and whether that state money could be put into a federal pot of campaign funds. The move had raised concerns by some campaign finance experts, including the Campaign Legal Center, which the Phoenix referenced in the story.
“The transfer of this colossal sum from a state PAC that DeSantis established and used to raise over $225 million, to a federal committee that has spent, and plans to continue spending, millions of dollars supporting DeSantis’s own campaign is a brazen attempt to circumvent the federal campaign finance rules that are crucial to preventing corruption and establishing transparency about how our federal elections are financed,” the document asserts.
“Numerous observers viewed this extraordinary fundraising — clearly unnecessary for DeSantis to secure reelection in the run-up to the 2020 general, and then blatantly unnecessary after he had already won, particularly since he cannot seek a third term as governor under Florida law — as intended for a future presidential candidacy.”
Early-states swing
The complaint arrives as Gov. DeSantis was undertaking a four-day campaign swing through Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, all of which hold early contests in the Republican presidential primary process.
DeSantis’ first event is scheduled for 6 p.m. Central Time at Eternity Church, an evangelical congregation in West Des Moines. Wednesday will feature stops in Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Pella, and Cedar Rapids.
On Thursday, he’s off to New Hampshire, with appearances scheduled in four cities. On Friday comes a swing through South Carolina.
“Soft money undermines federal campaign finance laws because it is, by definition, money raised and spent outside the scope of those laws,” Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at Campaign Legal Center, said in a written statement.
“We’re talking about funds from billionaires and corporate special interests who could exert massive influence over the candidate they are financing. Laws banning these funds from being used to seek federal office are there for a reason – to prevent corruption, promote transparency, and ensure that wealthy special interests can’t rig the system even further in their favor.”
The Campaign Legal Center’s complaint argues that DeSantis became a de facto candidate long before his formal announcement on Wednesday. It cites reports of a February gathering of potential campaign contributors in Palm Beach and his extensive domestic and international travels, including a tour promoting DeSantis’ new book.
His spring travel to Japan, South Korea, Israel, and the United Kingdom, was “ostensibly to promote international trade, but with a clear goal of promoting his viability as a presidential candidate by bolster[ing] his foreign policy credentials,” the document asserts.
‘Soft money’
The complaint adds that the then-Friends of Ron DeSantis state committee raised $3.8 million during March and April of this year. “This continued, extraordinary fundraising, following DeSantis’s sweeping reelection victory in November 2022, is particularly notable in light of DeSantis’s inability, under the Florida Constitution, to seek a third term as governor,” it says.
“Never PAC has been using and/or reportedly intends to use this soft money in connection with a federal election by making over $944,000 in independent expenditures supporting DeSantis,” the complaint adds.
In a separate campaign-related complaint involving DeSantis, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss ruled on May 17 that a PAC called Ready for Ron could not deliver 200,000 copies of petition forms, including signatories’ contact information, that it gathered urging DeSantis to enter the race over to his campaign because doing so would amount to an in-kind contribution in violation of fundraising limits.
“By accepting the list, he would necessarily commit himself to either a candidacy or testing the waters, both of which require contributors (including in-kind contributors) to comply with FECA’s [the Federal Election Campaign Act] contribution limitations. To hold otherwise would invite massive evasion of the campaign finance laws by allowing those seeking office simply to wait to declare their candidacies or to invoke the testing-the-waters exception until after they have assembled war-chests of non-FECA-compliant contributions,” Moss wrote.
This article originally appeared in florida phoenix