One possible weapon to ward off super PACs
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s Super PAC is reportedly primed to launch a harsh attack against Senator Marco Rubio, his onetime protégé. The senator’s agility during the Oct. 28 debate forced Bush to change his plan of taking on front-runner Donald Trump. Yet Rubio and any other 2016 presidential candidates who face barrages of rough ads must look for help beyond the remarkably dysfunctional Federal Election Commission, which has proved unable to enforce current laws regulating political contributions.
Candidates could instead strike preemptively with a court injunction that would halt potentially damaging Super PAC ads. Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, any ad using content coordinated between a campaign and a Super PAC is illegal and should be disallowed.
The key issue is that Super PACs that support a candidate must act independently of that candidate’s campaign machinery. In many cases, however, the PACs have been less than pristine in following the rules. Some in the 2016 election cycle may already have stepped over the line.
The Federal Election Commission’s delay in acting means targeted candidates have few options other than going to court. There, by arguing imminent harm, they can seek an injunction against the ads on the grounds that the ad campaign is based on material coordination between a campaign committee and its aligned Super PAC.
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http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/11/12/one-possible-weapon-to-ward-off-super-pacs/