ProPublica: Marjorie Taylor Greene Appeared in a Super PAC Ad Asking for Money. That Might Break the Rules.

05.21.2021 / By Isaac Arnsdorf
ProPublica: Marjorie Taylor Greene Appeared in a Super PAC Ad Asking for Money. That Might Break the Rules.

Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert with the good-government advocacy group Common Cause, said he believes the Greene ad clearly crosses the line. “This communication constitutes an illegal solicitation by a member of Congress of unlimited funds,” Ryan said. The ban on soliciting unlimited donations, he said, “becomes meaningless if a candidate can do this.” Ryan said he’s never before seen a candidate reading a super PAC’s script in an ad that explicitly asks for money. That goes further, he said, than other instances where super PACs have repurposed footage of a candidate or hosted candidates at fundraisers that people have already paid to attend.

Not long after her election to Congress, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., helped raise money for a super PAC by appearing in a video ad that tests the boundaries of rules limiting fundraising by elected officials.

The ad explicitly asks for money for the Stop Socialism Now PAC, an entity that can accept unlimited donations. But candidates and elected officials are not allowed to solicit contributions greater than $5,000, according to campaign finance experts. …

Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert with the good-government advocacy group Common Cause, said he believes the Greene ad clearly crosses the line.

“This communication constitutes an illegal solicitation by a member of Congress of unlimited funds,” Ryan said. The ban on soliciting unlimited donations, he said, “becomes meaningless if a candidate can do this.”

Ryan said he’s never before seen a candidate reading a super PAC’s script in an ad that explicitly asks for money. That goes further, he said, than other instances where super PACs have repurposed footage of a candidate or hosted candidates at fundraisers that people have already paid to attend. …

Update, May 21, 2021: The good-government advocacy group Common Cause filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission citing ProPublica’s reporting and alleging that the super PAC ad featuring Greene violated the ban on candidates soliciting unlimited donations. “The United States Supreme Court has been very clear in upholding candidate contribution limits and prohibitions on candidates soliciting funds outside those limits because such contributions lead to corruption and undermine the faith of Americans in the political process,” the group’s president, Karen Hobert Flynn, said in a statement.

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