Elena Kagan Questions PAC Contributions vs. Campaign Expenditures

The Value of Coordinated Spending

• 🎯 Super PACs are generally on the same page as a candidate but may not align perfectly with the candidate's specific desires.
• 💡 Party expenditures can be coordinated with a candidate, making them more valuable because they can be tailored to the candidate's exact needs.
• 💰 This coordinated spending effectively functions as a direct contribution to the candidate, fulfilling precisely what the candidate would want.

Contribution Limits and Evasion Theories

• ⚠️ A direct contribution to a party is limited to $44,000, while contributions to a Super PAC are unlimited.
• 📈 Through joint fundraising committees, a base limit of $3,000 can be amplified to approximately half a million dollars in coordinated contributions.
• ⚖️ The theory of joint fundraising, as presented by petitioners, is seen as a highly implausible attempt to evade base limits and earmarking rules, similar to arguments rejected in McCutchen.

Independent Spending vs. Coordinated Spending

• 🚀 A candidate would likely prefer $10 million in independent spending from a Super PAC over $44,000 or even $500,000 in coordinated spending.
• 🔍 The court in McCutchen conceived of a world where campaign coordinated limits would be in place, and these limits serve to mitigate problems from aggregation.
• 🚫 The argument that multiple committees transfer money to one committee, which then spends it for one candidate, is a circuitous scheme that lacks evidence of occurrence in American history.