As the coronavirus spreads across the United States, the 2020 election has become an afterthought. One of Joe Biden’s recent social media livestreams struggled to reach even 10,000 viewers — a testament to the current situation, if also to Biden’s lack of charisma.
Meanwhile, President Trump is reaching millions of people on a daily basis, leading us through the public health crisis and even garnering praise from political opponents.
But Democrats aren’t going away. They still want to end the Trump presidency come Election Day — their goal since 2016. Leading the charge is Michael Bloomberg, who just finished blowing through nearly $1 billion in his failed attempt to buy the Democratic nomination. Having proved no amount of money will make people vote for someone they don’t want to vote for, “Mayor Mike” is now trying to buy the party itself.
Instead of running his own super PAC, Bloomberg recently decided to transfer $18 million in remaining funds from his defunct presidential campaign to the Democratic National Committee. Just one problem: This $18 million gift is illegal.
It is a bedrock principle of law that you cannot do through another what you cannot do yourself. And Bloomberg is violating that principle by seeking to take advantage of a supposed loophole in the law, which doesn’t actually exist, to blow away contribution limits.
Bloomberg contributed nearly $1 billion of his personal funds to his presidential campaign committee, without raising a single dollar from private contributors. He is entitled to waste as much of his own money on his own candidacy as he likes, as long as it’s all reported to the Federal Election Commission. However, after failing to buy the votes he needed, Bloomberg now plans to take advantage of an FEC rule that allows campaigns to contribute unlimited money to national and state parties. But every dime of it comes from Bloomberg’s personal bank account, and it is illegal for one person to contribute such large sums to a political party.
The loophole that Bloomberg is seeking to exploit doesn’t actually exist. Campaign finance law distinguishes between contributions and expenditures. Bloomberg can expend as much as he wants on his own race. Contributing his personal funds to his campaign is the proper and efficient way to expend those funds. But then using those same funds to make a contribution to the DNC is outside the scope of the law.
It’s highly technical, but it’s the difference between Bloomberg getting away with this farce and his being held accountable for it, along with the DNC.
Bloomberg and the Democrats are making a mockery of campaign finance law. If they can do this, then any billionaire can buy a party or an election by simply forming a personal, self-funded campaign committee and then laundering money through it after going through the motions of a campaign.
Democrats should be ashamed of this assault on campaign finance law and basic decency. That they should sell their party to Bloomberg is a testament to their deep abiding hatred of Trump.
Will it work? Of course not. Voters still support Trump over what’s left of the Democratic Party, regardless of Bloomberg’s dirty tactics. If anything, Bloomberg’s brazenness will inspire people to side with Trump even more enthusiastically.
But the people deserve better from one of America’s two major parties. Obsessed with Trump, power-hungry, lawbreaking Democrats continue to let us down.
Dan Backer is a veteran campaign counsel, having served more than 100 candidates, PACs, and political organizations. He is founding attorney of political.law, a campaign finance and political law firm in Alexandria, Virginia.
