{"id":1047561,"date":"2024-08-20T19:34:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T23:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1047561"},"modified":"2024-09-04T15:34:54","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T19:34:54","slug":"icymi-rfk-jr-s-campaign-accused-of-illegally-coordinating-with-super-pac-to-gain-ballot-access-for-spoiler-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-rfk-jr-s-campaign-accused-of-illegally-coordinating-with-super-pac-to-gain-ballot-access-for-spoiler-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI: RFK Jr.\u2019s Campaign Accused of Illegally Coordinating With Super PAC to Gain Ballot Access for Spoiler Campaign\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"341\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1038290\" srcset=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png 1500w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?resize=300,100 300w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?resize=768,256 768w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?resize=1024,341 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Today, new reporting from the <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/08\/20\/us\/politics\/robert-f-kennedy-arizona-ballot.html\"><em>New York Times<\/em><\/a><em> revealed RFK Jr.\u2019s campaign may have illegally coordinated with an allied Super PAC to submit signatures for ballot access in Arizona after volunteer efforts fell short and campaign funds ran dry. This follows an <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2024.02.09-Letter-from-DNC-to-FEC-re-Illegal-In-Kind-Contributions.pdf\"><em>FEC complaint<\/em><\/a><em> from the DNC and <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/thirdway.imgix.net\/downloads\/american-values-2024-plans-to-violate-campaign-finance-law\/Arizona-Secretary-of-State-RFK-Letter_2024-02-16-200325_qhkr.pdf\"><em>additional complaints<\/em><\/a><em> from an allied organization for violating disclosure laws.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>In response, DNC Legal Counsel and Former FEC Chairman Robert Lenhard said:&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis latest report on RFK Jr.\u2019s signature gathering in Arizona raises serious legal questions. It appears that after the Kennedy campaign was unable to collect the required number of signatures for ballot access themselves, they simply submitted signatures collected earlier by a pro-Kennedy Super PAC \u2013 an action that amounts to a large and illegal in-kind contribution. The <em>Times<\/em> story describes facts that would amount to a knowing and willful violation of campaign finance law, and open his campaign up not only to enhanced FEC penalties, but also criminal prosecution. If true, this would be truly reckless behavior.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ICYMI: New York Times: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/08\/20\/us\/politics\/robert-f-kennedy-arizona-ballot.html\"><strong>A Desperate Kennedy Campaign, and the Mystery of 110,000 Signatures<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By: Rebecca Davis O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>On Friday, a longtime friend of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent candidate for president, <strong>delivered boxes carrying 110,000 signatures to election officials in Arizona, to secure ballot access in a critical battleground state.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A vast majority of those signatures, according to <strong>two people closely involved with the campaign\u2019s operations, were not gathered by local volunteers, or even by paid canvassers working for the campaign. Instead, the people said, they came from a super PAC backing Mr. Kennedy<\/strong> that gathered signatures in Arizona months ago but set them aside after their efforts prompted legal challenges.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The issue of who collected the signatures is critical because<strong> coordination between super PACs and campaign committees is banned under federal law, though that rule \u2014 meant to limit the influence of megadonors on campaigns \u2014 has steadily eroded in recent years, as regulators have allowed exceptions and political groups have found workarounds. Among other prohibitions, super PACs are not allowed to give \u201cin-kind\u201d contributions to a campaign \u2014 basically, providing services free of charge.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Top officials on the <strong>Kennedy campaign had discussed as recently as early August how they could use the signatures gathered by the super PAC, American Values 2024<\/strong>, to apply for ballot access in Arizona, according to the two people, who were granted anonymity to describe what they regarded as a potentially illegal arrangement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>campaign\u2019s situation was dire:<\/strong> Volunteers in Arizona had been able to collect <strong>no more than 9,000 signatures, far short of the more than 42,000 valid signatures needed,<\/strong> according to the two people and a third person who has been briefed on the volunteers\u2019 efforts. At the same time<strong>, the campaign was running short on cash that would be required to hire a canvassing company to gather more signatures<\/strong> \u2014 at the end of July, according to a campaign finance report filed on Monday, <strong>the campaign had $3.9 million on hand, and owed $3.5 million.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Representatives for American Values 2024 did not respond to detailed requests for comment.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>But <strong>Arizona has been a looming problem for months<\/strong>, according to several people involved in or briefed on internal campaign discussions [&#8230;]\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Volunteers were summoned, and the campaign also discussed paying a ballot-access firm to gather new signatures. But some in the campaign\u2019s leadership were hesitant to spend money duplicating the PAC\u2019s work, according to the two people involved in the campaign\u2019s internal deliberations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As the <strong>volunteer effort appeared to be coming up short<\/strong>, in recent weeks campaign <strong>leadership discussed trying to buy a portion of the signatures from the super PAC, at a cost of about $700,000,<\/strong> the people said.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Another plan <strong>discussed by senior campaign leaders was to have the super PAC\u2019s signatures delivered, without payment or explanation,<\/strong> to Mr. Rink, they said.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>On Friday, local news media in Arizona published a photograph of Mr. Rink wheeling the signatures into the secretary of state\u2019s office in Phoenix. The next day, the campaign announced that \u201cKennedy supporters\u201d \u2014 not \u201cthe campaign,\u201d as most of their press notifications are worded \u2014 had submitted the signatures, and quoted Mr. Rink as an Arizona elector for Mr. Kennedy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, new reporting from the New York Times revealed RFK Jr.\u2019s campaign may have illegally coordinated with an allied Super PAC to submit signatures for ballot access in Arizona after volunteer efforts fell short and campaign funds ran dry. This follows an FEC complaint from the DNC and additional complaints from an allied organization for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1047561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ICYMI: RFK Jr.\u2019s Campaign Accused of Illegally Coordinating With Super PAC to Gain Ballot Access for Spoiler Campaign\u00a0 - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-rfk-jr-s-campaign-accused-of-illegally-coordinating-with-super-pac-to-gain-ballot-access-for-spoiler-campaign\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-08-20T23:34:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-04T19:34:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?w=1024\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Claire DePree\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Claire DePree\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-rfk-jr-s-campaign-accused-of-illegally-coordinating-with-super-pac-to-gain-ballot-access-for-spoiler-campaign\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-rfk-jr-s-campaign-accused-of-illegally-coordinating-with-super-pac-to-gain-ballot-access-for-spoiler-campaign\/\",\"name\":\"ICYMI: RFK Jr.\u2019s Campaign Accused of Illegally Coordinating With Super PAC to Gain Ballot Access for Spoiler Campaign\u00a0 - 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