By Erik Nilsson, President
On political fundraising …
Remember last years ruling in the Citizens United vs. FEC case? This
is where the Supreme Court decided to allow corporations and labor
unions to make independent expenditures and send out electioneering
communications. It is not often I get to use “electioneering” in a
sentence (thanks FEC). The FEC is finally working up a plan to figure
out how to implement the ruling.
Last Thursday, the FEC sat down to begin hammering down the rules we
all have to play by and, guess what? The 6 person board has all kinds of
ideas (50 pages of them) but couldn’t come to any agreements. Ideas
include:
- increased disclosures,
- disclosures targeting foreign influence, and
- rules that would force corporations to change the makeup of their boards of directors.
Sounds like they are using the Citizens United vs. FEC ruling to
bring in all sorts of provisions that the courts have neither upheld or
expressly reviewed. This almost sounds like they are trying their own
hand at pork barrel politics. It is early days but it will be
interesting to see which rules we are stuck with for this next cycle.
For all you corporations and unions, it would probably be wise to
increase your political compliance budgets. For all you compliance
attorneys, let the good times roll!
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