Posted December 13, 2006 by Paul S. Ryan

Too Little, Too Late from FEC on 527s

As our press statement of earlier today noted, the FEC's three conciliation agreements with 527 organizations (Swift Boat, League of Conservation Voters, and MoveOn.org) announced today are quite simply too little, too late.  Not only did the complaints against these 527 groups take more than two years to resolve, but the fines were so small that regrettably many political operatives will see them as no more than the cost of doing business.

Swift Boat Veterans, for example, raised over $25 million dollars and was fined $299,500—and it received the highest fine of the lot.  The complaints were originally filed during the 2004 election cycle and the Commission left them unresolved through the entire 2006 election cycle, which has invariably led to further abuses of the system and additional complaints against other 527 organizations.

Contrary to claims made by outgoing Chairman Michael Toner about putting 527 organizations “on clear notice” about their legal obligations, that test employed by the Commission in these conciliation agreements is a murky one and will not prevent future abuses.  In fact, none of the conciliation agreements even mention the relevance of an organization’s 527 status to its “political committee” status.  The law regarding the “political committee” status of 527 organizations is no more clear today than it was throughout the 2004 and 2006 election cycles, when these and other 527 organizations broke federal election laws in their efforts to influence voters and candidates.

What we will continue to see, unless the FEC adopts a rule or Congress enacts legislation, is that 527 groups and their loophole-seeking attorneys will continue to engage in illegal election activity.  And with paltry fines facing them for any wrongdoing, 527 groups will continue to use vast sums of unregulated and unrestricted money to influence federal elections.