End Citizens United (ECU) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) this week against Sam Brown, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Nevada. The complaint centers on Brown accepting an illegal in-kind contribution from Duty First Nevada (DFN) PAC—a super PAC established to solely support his campaign.
See below for coverage:
KTVN: Watchdog group files third FEC complaint against Sam Brown
Josh Meny
09/11/24
Key sections:
- A national campaign finance watchdog organization has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Sam Brown.
- “Look, we think Sam Brown is a walking campaign finance violation. This is actually our third FEC complaint against him this cycle alone because he continues to violate the rules,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller.
- End Citizens United says the Sam Brown campaign accepted work illegally for the production of a campaign video that appeared on social media.
- “Now we’re seeing ads that are valued at tens of thousands of dollars from another super PAC. He is just clearly unwilling to follow the law. We’re going to continue to hold him accountable,” said Muller.
- The payments in question are between Sam Brown’s campaign, Duty First Nevada Pac, and Pathfinder Strategies, which produced the b-roll.
- End Citizens United emphasizes that super PACs cannot directly contribute to or provide anything of value to political campaigns, as stipulated by the Federal Election Campaign Act.
- The fine for this specific violation could amount to the cost of the service, which in this case would be approximately $34,000.
- The crux of the End Citizens United case against Brown is that he was discovered coordinating and offsetting costs with a Super PAC.
Las Vegas Sun: Brown’s campaign hit with FEC complaint over super PAC coordination
Kyle Chouinard
09/13/24
Key sections:
- Finance laws dictate that such PACs can’t coordinate with or contribute to a federal campaign, such as Brown’s efforts to beat incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev. Rather, they can produce advertisements in support of a candidate.
- Duty First Nevada PAC, the group in question, allegedly paid a consulting group to produce a video featuring Nevada veterans — something that’s within the rights of campaign finance regulations.
- However, Duty First Nevada PAC told the FEC in a July 5 filing that it had ceased operations. The videos it paid to produce were put online July 25.
- Brown’s campaign then published parts of the video to its social media accounts, which the complaint alleges amounts to accepting an in-kind gift.
- End Citizens United, a left-leaning advocacy group focusing on money in politics, filed the complaint this week.
- Tiffany Muller, the group’s president, called the act “an egregious violation of federal law that opens the door for corruption in our elections.”
- The complaint is the third that End Citizens United — which has endorsed Rosen — has filed against Brown in the past 12 months.
- The most recent complaint centers on a mutual vendor of the campaign and the super PAC: Pathfinder Strategic. Pathfinder produced the video interviewing Nevada veterans and was paid $34,000 by the PAC for film b-roll and video production services; Brown’s campaign paid the vendor $1,500 for video production.
- Pointing to the username of the account that published the video online — “Chariot LLC” — End Citizens United asserted that Pathfinder was connected to the alleged illegal contribution.
- “It is readily apparent that this video comes from the same interview,” End Citizens United wrote in its complaint. “The timing thus clearly suggests that it was posted solely to transmit the footage to the Brown campaign.”
- Political campaigns can, and regularly do, publish content to their campaign websites that then gets used in PAC advertising. End Citizens United’s complaint is flipped, with the PAC making video used by the campaign.
- Ending the complaint, End Citizens United wrote that if the FEC didn’t investigate Brown, it would enable super PACs to directly contribute to candidates.
- “This kind of secretive, backroom coordination … undermines the fundamental principle of fair play in our elections,” Muller said.
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