FEC Ruling Offers New Way for Wealthy to Become Involved in Elections

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) decided [1] with a 4-1 vote that a consulting firm, Black Rock Group, can act as a vendor for individuals who want to run political advertisements without violating campaign finance law. The FEC approved the advisory opinion allowing the political consulting firm to provide guidance to clients, each acting as their own liability companies (LLCs), without being regulated as a "political committee." BNA [2] Money and Politics ($$) notes that the approved advisory opinion, "indicated that Black Rock could act as a 'commercial vendor' serving multiple clients. However, a majority of FEC commissioners could not agree on whether Black Rock might become a political committee if it had multiple clients spending on federal campaigns in the same election cycle."

The group originally asked for an opinion in June [3] but approval had been delayed over an interpretation of laws regarding political committee status. In their request, Black Rock Group outlined a system where they would collect funds from others to sponsor advertising, including messages that support or oppose federal candidates, and yet avoid political committee status. The impasse was due to a disagreement over whether the firm and its clients would be considered a group of people trying to influence elections and therefore, a regulated committee. The FEC was unable to decide if the LLCs could share information when putting together their independent expenditures.

Roll Call [4] ($$) reports this, "decision may provide cover for wealthy Democrats and Republicans to team up with like-minded donors to target candidates in the 2010 election."