Stop Hillary PAC wants Clinton campaign to stop using ‘Hillary’ in name

“This Committee would encourage the FEC to vigorously investigate who it is that is so stupid that they would think a political committee named ‘Stop Hillary PAC’ is in any way an authorized committee of Hillary Clinton,” said the Stop Hillary rejection letter.

The political action committee had until June 1 to change its name. The FEC cited rules that bar groups from adopting names similar to official candidate committees because they might appear to be affiliated with the candidates.

But Stop Hillary’s lawyer Dan Backer mocked the FEC in refusing to back down from changing the PAC’s name.

“The Committee wonders who it is on the Commission that believes Stop Hillary is an authorized committee of any candidate, let alone Hillary Clinton,” he wrote in the letter.

He added that maybe the FEC should bar Clinton from using “Hillary” in her committee name because the campaign started after the Stop Hillary PAC was formed.

“As this Committee filed its Form 1 well before any known current federal candidate named Hillary registered with the Commission, we invite any such candidate to make any necessary name changes to alleviate whatever apparent confusion has befuddled the Commission,” wrote Backer, adding:

“Further, the Committee expects that the Commission will be equally diligent and thorough in preventing any such candidate from continuing to attempt to pass itself off as this committee, for example by rigorously avoiding any media inquiry so as to clarify through public comments that such candidate is a candidate and not, in fact, Stop Hillary PAC. Because that is apparently very confusing.”

Stop Hillary PAC has suggested that the Democratic-chaired FEC is in Clinton’s pocket and claimed it was being harassed.

Their full letter is below:

This Committee responds to the FEC’s April 27, 2015 Request For Additional Information (RFAI) that seeks to restrain this Committee’s constitutional right to free speech and association as follows: No.

With respect to 11 C.F.R. 102.14(a), this regulation was promulgated to ensure a candidate’s name was not used to raise funds or disseminate information the candidate objects to under the guise of being authorized by the candidate (Special Fundraising Projects and Other Use of Candidate Names by Unauthorized Committee, 50 Fed. Reg. No. 136, (July 15, 1992). It was not enacted to suppress citizens’ first amendment rights to engage in robust political speech. Rather, the Commission must “allow the maximum of first amendment freedom of expression in political campaigns commensurate with Congress’ regulatory authority” (Common Cause v. FEC, 842 F.2d at 448). Such wildly overbroad application of 11 C.F.R. 102.14(a) would prohibit citizens from banding together and using almost any common name, even where this activity would be explicitly permissible if done as a project of the committee under 11 C.F.R 102.14(b)(3). With 100 Senators, 435 Representatives, several ex-officio elected Members of Congress, nearly a dozen well-known Presidential candidates registered to date and quite literally hundreds of clowns who file to seek that office every 4 years, and ultimately several thousand candidates for federal office in any given cycle, the use of many words that are also first, last, and possibly even middle names would be prohibited under so facially broad an overreach.

The Committee wonders who it is on the Commission that believes Stop Hillary is an authorized committee of any candidate, let alone Hillary Clinton. This Committee, whose FEC registration pre-dates the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, filed a highly visible complaint with the FEC against both Hillary Clinton and Ready for Hillary specifically alleging that Hillary Clinton was already a candidate some 14 months before her purported “announcement.” The Commission – despite the widely reported comments of its Chairwoman as to the mockery being made made of Campaign Finance law precisely by such obvious chicanery – refused to timely rule on the matter. This Committee ultimately initiated widely reported litigation against the FEC for failure to pursue that complaint in a timely manner, and is surprised that the FEC would suffer any confusion as to the nature of our Committee. This Committee is unsure, considering the choice to include the verb “STOP” in the Committee’s name, followed by the clear object sought to be stopped, “Hillary”, what further clarification could possibly make clearer the Committee’s lack of candidate authorization and, in fact, its open, aggressive, and blatantly obvious opposition to, Hillary Clinton. This Committee would encourage the FEC to vigorously investigate who it is that is so stupid that they would think a political committee named “Stop Hillary PAC” is in any way an authorized committee of Hillary Clinton.

As this Committee filed its Form 1 well before any known current federal candidate named Hillary registered with the Commission, we invite any such candidate to make any necessary name changes to alleviate whatever apparent confusion has befuddled the Commission. Further, the Committee expects that the Commission will be equally diligent and thorough in preventing any such candidate from continuing to attempt to pass itself off as this Committee, for example by rigorously avoiding any media inquiry so as to clarify through public comments that such candidate is a candidate and not, in fact, Stop Hillary PAC. Because that is apparently very confusing.

Finally, in anticipation of any further harassment of this Committee by partisan agents of any federal candidate intent on hypocritically gagging the opposition, the Committee preemptively advises that it is unaware of any effort by Sir Edmund Hillary to seek federal office, despite the precedent set by the Commission in FEC AO 2011-15 to allow a non-US citizen to run for President (though not participate in matching funds). In any event, the Committee invites the Commission to clarify which particular images on its website the Commission thinks bear a resemblance to the rugged Sir Edmund (or his now-rotting, desiccated corpse).

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].