For Big Money’s April Fools Joke, the Public Is the Punchline

When Stephen Colbert in 2011 filed the paperwork at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to form his Americans For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow super PAC, he lampooned the absurdity of election law after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC. And while it may be hard for informed members of the public not to laugh cynically at the mess that has been made of our campaign finance laws, it is a narrow, well-funded few who get the last laugh in our broken system.

Today, several joke groups appear in the FEC’s official list of more than 1,000 registered super PACs. There’s American Lemonade Stand Super PAC, Americans Against Americans Who Do Not Recycle And Misspell Bengazi, Baby Got PAC, The Empire Strikes PAC, Brain Slug PAC — the list goes on and on.

The FEC, meanwhile, is not amused. After a pair of Colbert-inspired high schoolers created “The Filthy Moose” PAC, then failed to report required campaign data, they received a stern letter from the agency. “The failure to timely file a complete report may result in civil money penalties, an audit or legal enforcement action,” read the FEC’s letter. The students promptly responded:

We are not to be taken seriously and are indeed filing a report to dissolve our Super PAC, The Filthy Moose. We have made no money, spent no money, raised no funds, and have not made any financial transactions or interactions that pertains [sic] to said Super PAC. […] Sorry we are stupid kids. Good Day!

While it’s true that processing paperwork for joke super PACs and then sending letters requesting required reports for such entities is a waste of the FEC’s time and scant resources, it’s hard to argue that the FEC would be doing much better without distractions like The Filthy Moose. The Los Angeles Times published an editorial just yesterday calling the agency “worse than useless” and supporting legislation to end the perpetual gridlock between the agency’s three Democratic commissioners and three Republican commissioners.

Because of the gridlock at the agency, next to nothing has been updated since Citizens United and enforcement for violations of campaign finance law has been next to nonexistent. An example of the lawlessness spawned by FEC gridlock is the lack of enforcement after a 3–3 vote on whether Karl Rove’s secret money group, Crossroads GPS, was violating the law because it was set up as a nonprofit group instead of a political group. Public Citizen is now suing the FEC to force the issue on this question.

But back to super PACs, which, as The Filthy Moose has shown, are required to disclose their fundraising and spending. Nevertheless, most Americans who see super PAC ads never see these disclosures. Unlike the joke PACs, the most powerful super PACs seem to go out of their way to choose names that make their agendas seem simultaneously inscrutable, yet patriotic. And while these groups by law are required to be independent from candidates, the reality is that they are often controlled by friends and allies of the candidates they support. In this way, super PACs aim to make fools of American voters. They bombard us with electioneering messages while concealing their connections and their intentions. In 2014, 45 percent of super PACs devoted their resources toward electing a single candidate. Their names, however, are so ambiguous that Internet games have been designed around the difficulty of guessing their ideological leanings.

The biggest super PAC spenders so far in the 2016 election cycle include Right to Rise, America Leads, New Day For America, Keep the Promise and Priorities USA Action. They’ve spent millions of dollars to influence millions of voters, and they are accountable to no one. By November, experts estimate this election will cost $10 billion. Most of that money has strings attached. The Big Businesses and billionaires doing the spending intend to get the last laugh.

But there’s good news. The democracy movement is growing. Increasingly, savvy Americans are sick of these attempts by big money political spenders to fool voters. And instead of responding with cynicism and tuning out — a response that always helps the wealthy few by shrinking the electorate — we’re rising up.

The Democracy Awakening in Washington, D.C., on April 16–18 is no joke. Together, we will show our elected leaders that We the People want real reforms to end big money’s dominance of our political system, restore the voting rights act, and to vote on the Supreme Court nomination.