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July 25, 2006 -- Reform Groups Urge Members to Support Ban on the Use of Leadership PACs July 25, 2006
Dear Representative,
Our groups strongly urge you to support a ban on leadership PACs.
The groups include the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG.
We urge you to publicly announce your support for ending the use of leadership PACs by members of Congress and to support legislative efforts to ban leadership PACs, such as those contained in H.R. 5839, legislation introduced last week by Representative Joel Hefley (R-CO).
Leadership PACs serve as vehicles for contributors to gain influence with Members and for Members to curry favor with their colleagues in seeking leadership positions. They also have been used to convert campaign funds to personal use and for all kinds of non-campaign expenditures to benefit Members.
Leadership PACs, in essence, are a means for circumventing the contributions limits established by Congress to prevent corruption and the appearance of corruption.
Under existing campaign finance laws, for example, an individual can contribute a total of $4,200 for a House Member's primary and general election and a couple can contribute a total of $8,400. The same individual can contribute an additional $10,000 to a Member's leadership PAC during the two-year election cycle and a couple can contribute an additional $20,000.
Thus, a Member with a leadership PAC can receive a total of $14,200 in contributions from an individual and $28,400 from a couple during a two-year election cycle, or more than three times as much as the law allows an individual or couple to contribute to support a Member's campaign.
The same holds true for PACs, which can contribute $10,000 to a Member's primary and general election and an additional $10,000 to a Member's leadership PAC during a two-year election cycle for a total of $20,000, or twice as much as the law allows a PAC to contribute to support a Member's campaign.
Leadership PACs are used by Members to gain support for party leadership positions and Committee Chairmanships by making campaign contributions to their colleagues and providing large sums of money to their party committees.
Leadership PACs also have served as the modern day equivalent of slush funds.
Leadership PACs have been used to make payments to family members that inure to the benefit of Members, and to make payments for all kinds of non-campaign ''political'' expenditures from trips to meals to gifts and the like.
And while congressional ethics rules prohibit Members from converting campaign funds to personal use that come from leadership PACs they control, federal campaign finance laws do not contain a similar prohibition for leadership PACs.
This means that while Members are prohibited by congressional ethics rules from converting leadership PAC funds to personal use while they are in Congress, Members who have left Congress can put their leadership PAC funds directly into their pockets.
Recent published reports have only served to confirm the dangerous and damaging role leadership PACs are playing in our political process. The widespread abuses associated with leadership PACs must be ended.
We strongly urge you to publicly support a ban on leadership PACs.
Campaign Legal Center
Common Cause
Democracy 21
League of Women Voters
Public Citizen
U.S. PIRG
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