End Citizens United (ECU) today filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (CO-03) for illegally spending $60,000 from her leadership PAC on GOTV calls and texts leading up to the November 2022 elections.
Click here to read coverage of the complaint in Newsweek.
“Congresswoman Boebert used her leadership PAC as a personal bank, but unfortunately for her, this practice is illegal under federal law,” said ECU President Tiffany Muller. “The timing of the purchases, and the fact that they were made to the same vendor her campaign used, clearly illustrates that she was attempting to bypass federal law in order to either influence her own race or another campaign. The FEC should launch an investigation into this corrupt scheme and hold Congresswoman Boebert accountable.”
The violation:
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If a leadership PAC pays for a communication that it has coordinated with a candidate, the cost of the communication becomes an in-kind contribution to the candidate and counts against the leadership PAC’s $5,000 per-election contribution limit to that candidate.
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On October 28, 2022, Lauren Boebert for Congress reported paying $4,623.22 to Telephone Town Hall Meeting, Inc. for “text message advertising.”
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On the same date, her leadership PAC reported disbursing $6,221.73 to Telephone Town Hall Meeting, Inc. for “Voter Contact – GOTV Calls/Texts.”
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On November 18, 2022, her leadership PAC reported a second disbursement to Telephone Town Hall Meeting, Inc. for $53,760 for conducting “Voter Contact – GOTV Calls/Texts.”
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Given the proximity of the communications to the election, the cost of the disbursement, and the purpose of the disbursement for “Voter Contact – GOTV Calls/Texts,” it seems likely that the text messages and voter contact phone calls mentioned candidates or political parties and may have run in Boebert’s congressional district.
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The fact that Boebert’s principal campaign committee paid the same vendor, on the same date – October 28, 2022 – for text message advertising, further suggests that the leadership PAC’s disbursement was either a contribution to Boebert’s campaign or an independent expenditure in support of Boebert and other candidates.
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Despite this, Boebert’s leadership PAC did not report any independent expenditures during the 2022 cycle, nor did it report in-kind contributions resulting from the voter contact calls and texts, worth close to $60,000.
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Both the leadership PAC and the principal campaign committee failed to report the disbursement appropriately with the FEC.
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Federal law requires all contributions received, and expenditures disbursed by a political committee to be reported and reported accurately.
Click here to read the complaint.
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