The Campaign Legal Center, a Washington, D.C., campaign watchdog, said the ad may violate laws aimed at limiting contributions to presidential campaigns.
The center in May filed a complaint with the Department of Justice against GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush and a nonprofit group affiliated with him – Right to Rise — for, among other things, taping footage of Bush and then using it for ads after Bush had declared his candidacy.
The group supporting Kasich, New Day for America, is a 527 nonprofit group like Right to Rise.
In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the Campaign Legal Center and another watchdog — Democracy 21 — wrote, “There are powerful grounds to believe” that Bush and the Right to Rise Super PAC were “engaged in a scheme to allow unlimited contributions to be spent directly on behalf of the Bush campaign and thereby violate the candidate contribution limits enacted to prevent corruption and the appearance of corruption.”
The “soft money” ban, as it is commonly called, was part of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance laws. Under its provisions, candidates can only spend money raised in accordance with federal campaign limits, which put a ceiling of $2,700 in contributions during a primary election and $2,700 during a general election.
Paul Ryan of the Campaign Legal Center said his group will file a complaint if it determines the Kasich ad violates McCain-Feingold.
“There seems to be a legal question as to whether or not the governor’s involvement in the group and the group’s spending money on ads promoting him would violate the federal soft money ban,” he said.
Chris Schrimpf, a spokesman for “New Day for America” said the ads “are legal.” Kasich taped the footage earlier this month in Columbus.
The pro-Kasich nonprofit will spend $668,360 worth of TV commercials on Manchester, N.H.; $517,040 in Boston; $30,550 in Burlington, Vt., and Plattsburg, N.Y., and $4,320 for Portland, Me. The commercials will air on cable and regular TV.
Earlier this month, New Day spent $1.5 million on TV in Boston and Manchester.
About the Author