The Audacity of Rory Reid: 75 Mini-PACs Funneled $750,000 from Leadership PAC to Campaign
Here in the home of the politically audacious, Rory Reid has tested the bounds of boldness and possibly crossed into the land of the unethical. (Whether or not the campaign contribution law Rory thwarted should be on the books - many think it should not – is a topic for another day.)
Based on the law as it exists, Sun columnist Jon Ralston has what looks to be one of the biggest stories of recent times. It may, as he says, ultimately come down to a question of the spirit vs. the letter of the law:
In one of the most brazen schemes in Nevada history, gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid’s campaign formed 91 shell political action committees that were used to funnel three quarters of a million dollars into his campaign, circumventing contribution limits and violating at least the spirit – and maybe the letter – of the laws governing elections.
Reid, who was fully aware of what was done, essentially received more than $750,000 from one PAC – 75 times the legal limit — after his team created dozens of smaller PACS that had no other purpose other than to serve as conduits from a larger entity that the candidate funded by asking large donors for money. Indeed, the shell PACs were formed in the fall and dissolved on Dec. 31, after they had served their short-term function, which was to help the candidate evade campaign contribution laws.
Reid solicited donations for the Economic Leadership PAC, which raised more than $800,000 over a five-month period – donations that were then disbursed in $10,000 increments to dozens of other PACS, which quickly funneled the money back to the candidate’s campaign account.
(Read the whole thing, and check out the link to the Economic Leadership PAC report. Ralston has since posted a partial list of contributors, a legal memo from attorney Paul Larsen to Reid campaign manager David Cohen (saying the scheme was just fine and dandy) and a complete list of the very innocuous sounding mini-PAC names.)
Ralston’s digging reveals that all these mini-PACs had the same Las Vegas residential address — that of Joanna Paul, a Rory Reid staffer. And all the baby PACs were quietly dissolved right after the election. All in all, three-quarters of a million dollars was funneled into Reid’s campaign coffers after short stop-offs at the smaller PACs, effectively sidestepping the legal limits that restrict PAC contributions to just $10,000 per election cycle.
Rory told Ralston today that he not only cleared what he did with his legal counsel but also with the Nevada secretary of state’s office. But Secretary of State Ross Miller told Ralston that neither he nor his staff remember any such conversations.
Is creating oodles of temporary PACs with deliberately obscured purposes in order to funnel large Leadership PAC contributions into a campaign lawful? And if so, should it be?
We can add these questions to those already created by the controversy over last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case and the subsequent free-flowing money into Nevada’s campaigns.
(Comments welcome below.)
- 000
- attorney
- baby
- campaign
- Campaign Manager
- candidate
- Citizens United
- Controversy
- day
- donations
- Donations.
- elections
- Fall
- help
- home
- Leadership
- Legal
- May
- money
- Nevada
- Nevada history
- News
- Order
- PACs
- Political
- political action
- Rory Reid
- Ross Miller
- Secretary of State
- staff
- state
- U
- election
- history
- Las Vegas