State and local political parties, starved of money and ignored by candidates more focused on super PACs, are finally getting some attention.
A former Obama Justice Department official and a Republican commissioner with the Federal Election Commission are backing a rewrite of rules to let the non-Washington parties raise more money and coordinate spending with candidates.
Spencer Overton, the former Obama aide, wants state and local committees to spend the first $200 of every donation in a coordinated campaign with candidates, now unlawful.
And Lee E. Goodman, of the FEC, wants to raise the amount people can donate to state and local parties and junk FEC spending restrictions.
The problem is real, Goodman said. While super PACs are gobbling up the big dollars, state parties are going bankrupt and are being ignored as a result. “They’ve become more and more irrelevant … cash-strapped or bankrupt,” he said at a recent campaign fundraising conference hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
