Complaint Filed Against Super PACs

In an earlier post, I wrote about the Protect Our Democracy Political Action Committee, a Super PAC that announced its intention to spend up to a $500,000 in support of Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk.  Tkaczyk, a campaign finance reform supporter, is running for the newly created 46^th Senate District seat.

But a complaint filed with the State Board of Elections (SBOE) last week argues that the amounts received by this PAC from its founders (a total of $350,000 from five donors) violates the state Election Law, and constitutes a felony offense [see Election Law § 14-126(5)].

The complaint is based on a 1994 SBOE advisory opinion (AO 94-03), which reached the conclusion that state law limits contributions to independent committees:

“a reading of paragraph (3) of subdivision 9 of § 14-100 can only be read to mean that while direct expenditures and contributions to his or her own candidate committee by a candidate and his or her spouse is unlimited, and direct expenditures by persons acting independently of the candidate and his or her committee are unlimited, contributions to independent committees are limited by the limits imposed under §14-114 of the Election Law.”

See Protect Our Democracy PAC’s filings with the State Board of Elections here.

It is highly unlikely that the SBOE will address the merits of this complaint before November 6^th.

Read additional background from Jimmy Vielkind at the Times Union.