Coordination Watch

How candidates and outside groups work together to evade anti-corruption laws

Since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 opened the floodgates for unlimited spending by dark money groups and super PACs, such organizations, which are legally required to be independent from candidates, have regularly flouted the rules and systematically coordinated with their preferred candidates — allowing wealthy special interests to evade our nation’s anti-corruption laws.

The rules prohibiting coordination between candidates and outside groups like super PACs and dark money groups have been rendered meaningless by a broken Federal Election Commission (FEC) that has not punished anyone for coordinating since the Citizens United decision.

What does coordination look like? If the answer is “yes” to any of the following six questions, the activity may constitute coordination that would be illegal if the FEC was doing its job.

1. Is a candidate raising money for an outside group?

2. Is an outside group running an essential part of a candidate’s campaign?

3. Has a candidate appeared in ads sponsored by an outside group?

4. Did a candidate help start an outside group before launching their campaign?

5. Is a candidate sharing strategic campaign information with an outside group, or vice versa?

6. Are a candidate and an outside group using the same vendor for expenditures?

What can be done to stop coordination?

Congress should strengthen existing anti-coordination laws by passing the bipartisan Political Accountability and Transparency Act (H.R. 679), and the FEC should enforce the rules to ensure that outside groups truly operate independently from candidates. Read more here.

This report was authored by Research Director Michael Beckel and Research Assistant Amisa Ratliff. Design by Communications Manager Evan Ottenfeld.