The effects of
Citizens United are getting ready to escalate considerably as Jeb Bush considers turning over a portion of his campaign's responsibilities to his super PAC, Right to Rise, which can raise limitless cash donations from people, corporations and advocacy groups.
Thomas Beaumont reports:
At its center is the idea of placing Right to Rise in charge of the brunt of the biggest expense of electing Bush: television advertising and direct mail.
Right to Rise could also break into new areas for a candidate-specific super PAC, such as data gathering, highly individualized online advertising and running phone banks. Also on the table is tasking the super PAC with crucial campaign endgame strategies: the operation to get out the vote and efforts to maximize absentee and early voting on Bush's behalf.
The campaign itself would still handle those things that require Bush's direct involvement, such as candidate travel. It also would still pay for advertising, conduct polling and collect voter data.
This is the reality of the new world of campaign finance—letting unlimited cash flood the advertising market through an entity that supposedly isn't coordinating with the campaign. So in that sense, the campaign may compromise some of its control over messaging, though Mike Murphy, a veteran Republican consultant and confidant of Bush's, will reportedly run the super PAC. But the campaign, which can only raise $2,700 per person in the primary and general election, would spend its time focusing elsewhere.
In the best-case scenario for Bush, it would allow him to forego some of the headache of constant fundraising in order to spend more time meeting voters on the campaign trail.
But in the worst case scenario for voters, it will allow their advertising markets to be dominated by a crush of ads that are partially funded by anonymous donors, since some non-profit groups that give to Super PACs—like FreedomWorks—don't have to disclose their donors.