Super PACs: How We Got Here, Where We Need To Go

On December 2, 2011, Campaign Legal Center President Trevor Potter addressed the current state of affairs of  our federal campaign finance system in a speech in Austin before the Professional Advocacy Association of Texas.  The remarks recount the series of actions that brought us to where we are today and chart a path toward a remedy for a system veering toward election-by-auction. 

I’m glad that my work as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC makes introductions so easy:  you can just show some of the clips of me giving legal advice on air!  As that video illustrated, though, even the communications genius of Stephen Colbert cannot always make the legal intricacies of Super PACs easy.  So, let me start by summarizing how we got to where we are today.

To read the full speech, click here.